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In my quest for the perfect pick I tried Dunlop, National and Golden Gate to name a few, but not one of them had all of the elements I wanted in a pick. I like the bright sound of the Dunlop picks including Dookies, shell or the white thumb picks. The National mediums fit my thumb just right, which outweighs the brighter tone of the Dunlops. The National is also a little shorter which helps me not hit the head of the banjo.

The reason for not modifying the pick is simple: I wanted to be able to have a perfect pick available at any time and not have to worry about shaping it just right. I thought I could adapt to a pick, but in reality it is probably smarter to just cut it down a bit and accept the fact that I am going to have to custom shape every pick I use.

When I started playing the banjo I tried to customize a thumb pick, but
I really didn’t know what I needed. The new shape just didn’t make a big difference for me, so I went back to the standard picks. Now that I have learned to pick much more cleanly and consistently, the change to a better shape has made a big difference. I can hit the inside strings with more of the pick surface which gives me a better tone, and the pick just feels more comfortable.

Earl Scruggs cuts down his pick and shapes them, so I guess modifying a pick from its factory designed perfection is not a crime. How can one pick design be perfect for every person? It can’t. I am lucky, the Nationals that I like are almost perfect, I just needed to round off the tip a bit.

So, go ahead take a chance - try a new pick or, … wait …., go crazy and re-shape your picks.

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Listening to an all Bluegrass channel on the radio exposes you to a lot of different styles of bluegrass, a band that I always enjoy hearing is The Lost and Found. What a great sound, and what a tight band; these guys play with passion and definitely have a unique style.

Founding member and mandolin player, Dempsey Young plays with such conviction and clarity that you just HAVE to stop and listen. His mandolin tone just jumps out at you, it is so rich sounding. Unfortunately Dempsey passed away a few years ago at the age of 52; what a loss to the bluegrass world. Although the mandolin takes front and centre, I can’t get the banjo out of my thoughts - it is so solid.

One of the songs that I really like is “Sawmill Road”, it’s a mixture of an old time sound with a definite modern edge. One of the highlights is the mandolin solo, WOW; the banjo licks are really catchy too, and in C tuning, to top it off. Have a listen to this song, I know you will appreciate something about it; maybe the vocals, the lyrics, the bass, who knows, but I’m sure you will be impressed.

The banjo player on this cut is Lynwood Lunsford, who handled banjo duties in The Lost and Found for five years. Lunsford also has his own group; Lynwood Lunsford and the Misty Valley Boys. Jimmy Martin employed Lunsford as his banjo player in 1990 and 1991, a job that Lynwood Lunsford coveted for a long time.

Here’s a couple of links to find out more about The Lost and Found:

MySpace Site

The Official Site
If you would like to purchase some of the band’s music or some Jimmy Martin just click on the links below:

January Rain CD

Classic Bluegrass

Jimmy Martin CDs

Give the Lost and Found a listen and it wouldn’t hurt to listen to Jimmy Martin and The Sunny Mountain Boys either. For that matter, listen to as much banjo music as you can - it’ll inspire you to play better.

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Everyone

My goals as a banjo player are simple - to become more proficient, so I can express myself more easily with the banjo. I want to explore all the possibilities that I can with this instrument, not just Dueling Banjos, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Man of Constant Sorrow and The Ballad of Jed Clampett (although these songs have been played to death, I am still inspired by them to this day). There is a lot to learn, so you have to make the most of your time.

The only way to get better on an instrument is to practice, and to really get the most out of the banjo, you need to learn a lot, which means finding time to practice. Time is one of the key ingredients to get better - you have to reprogram your brain to play the banjo - you won’t just know how to play automatically. Repetition over a long period of time is how you do this - this is also known as practice.

Time is necessary to get better, but the amount of time to learn to play can be reduced by using this time wisely. How can you use your time more wisely? - here’s how:

1. Practice regularly.
2. Use Method Books, DVDs, or an Instructor if you have access to one.
3. Focus - concentrate on what you are doing - give it 100%.

You often hear people say; “I’m self taught” or ” I taught myself to play”, this may be true, but the majority of banjo players have used some kind of learning method to help them along. A good Banjo method, whether it is an instructor (the best option), a DVD, CD, book, hand written notes from articles or the internet is necessary to keep you moving ahead and learning. This leads us to the next topic: Focus. Here is a link to some books to help you along - Ten Great Books to Learn to Play the Banjo

This one sounds pretty simple: concentrate on what you are doing, but focus is often overlooked. I hear people brag, “I practice six hours a day”. If this practice time is not organized and productive you might be getting less out of six hours than someone practicing for thirty minutes.

Practice time is maximized by concentrating; paying close attention to everything you play will allow you to quit wasting time glossing over problems and give you more time to improve your playing.I have learned a song well enough to play with a group and performed it many times before I stopped and polished it up and fixed the trouble spots. This is where focus and attention to detail come in, the trouble spots are really just the parts of the song you didn’t quite finish learning. If you can zoom in on tricky passages, roll up your sleeves and work hard to get it right, then you can apply this same intensity to all of your practice time. Let’s examine what I do to solve a trouble spot, this will teach you to focus.

I’m sure everyone has a part of a song that just doesn’t quite work, it’s not terrible but it’s not great either. When I look close, I usually find that I’m not really confident in what I am playing. If I am not 100% confident and know exactly what I want to play then I guess it stands to reason that this part of song will be weaker and it will be noticeable. This is the time when focus becomes important, you have to find the problem and answer the question - Why can’t I play this part of the song? A little bit of investigation is in order - find the spot that you don’t like and determine the problem. Isolate the notes and the fingers you are picking with and see what is making you stumble. Sometimes it is using the same finger twice, or an unusual series of notes that you don’t use often, it can be almost anything that is giving you a problem, you just have to find it.

The first thing you have to do is play the passage that is giving you trouble, but don’t rush - articulate each note. This will lead you right to your problem. Now work through it one note at a time. That’s right, play the first note, then play the first and second together, and so on until you are back into some territory that you know. It’s actually very simple; find a problem and solve it, then work it back into the rest of the song, but it takes effort and concentration.

If you can concentrate and really focus on a single measure, you can use this same level of concentration to your advantage when you practice as well. The next time you practice, keep your mind on what you are doing and don’t let yourself gloss over the trouble spots and watch your banjo playing improve by leaps and bounds.

RELATED POSTS:

A Great Way to Improve Your Banjo Playing

Using TAB to Learn a Song on the Banjo

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Before we get started I’d like to thank everyone who has posted a comment, these little pats on the back keep me writing, especially when time and motivation become scarce. The push for this article comes from loothi -Thanks for the suggestion.
I am always flattered by your kind comments, so keep them coming.

Why would you want to put yourself through the trouble of learning a new banjo tuning? My reason is to play the song “Reuben”, the Earl Scruggs version from the album Foggy Mountain Banjo. That song has always caught my attention and it’s time I learned it. Buy it here for only .99 cents -
Reuben (Album Version) or pick up the Earl Scruggs and the 5-string Banjo book with the TAB and learn it ( Click on the Picture in the middle of the post). I already have the book and the music and have started the learning process. Here are three more reasons to learn D Tuning:

1. Earl Scruggs first discovered the three finger style playing a song in the D Tuning.
2. D Tuning gives the banjo a totally different sound.
3. Fiddle songs are commonly in the key of D and this tuning offers some interesting possibilities.

Let’s begin - If we start with the banjo in standard G tuning we need to adjust three strings, the 1st and 4th strings remain tuned to D. The 3rd string needs to be tuned down from G to an F#, the 2nd string needs to be tuned down from B to an A and finally the 5th string down to F# from G. This is best done with an electronic tuner - be sure to go through the strings twice in a row to get the tuning just right.

To tune the banjo for D Tuning without a tuner:

1. Leave the 4th string alone (D).
2. Fret the 4th string at the 4th fret (F#) - lower the 3rd string to F#.
3. Fret the 3rd string at the 3rd fret (A) - lower the 2nd string to A.
4. Fret the 2nd string at the 5th fret (D) - leave this string at D.
5. Fret the 1st string at the 4th fret (F#) - lower the 5th string to F#.

The 5th string can also be tuned to and A - 1st string at the 7th fret. In this post I will be assuming the 5th string is F#.

RELATED POSTS:

The Key of D for Banjo

The Key of A for Banjo

Tuning Your Banjo

Ten Great Books to Learn to Play the Banjo

There it is, an introduction to D Tuning. In an upcoming post I will demonstrate some licks in D tuning with audio samples.

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Time crunch or not, I still had some time to play the banjo and I have been working on a few things. I am always trying to improve my playing and this includes my banjo tone as well. The biggest improvements that I have made to my sound have come from changes to my right hand technique. There is no way to overlook the importance of your right hand; how you pick the strings makes a huge difference in the sound of your banjo.

Finger picks and thumb picks can also change your sound too, I have started to bend my finger picks right to the shape of my fingertips. The clarity and strength of each individual note is much better with the picks rounded back against my finger. If you look at the cover of Tony Trischka’s new book, illustrated below, you can see how he bends his picks, that’s what I’m talking about.

The next thing to discuss is how you pick the strings, the thumb is the most important and the picture on Tony’s book shows a typical position for your thumb. As everybody has a different set of circumstances, you should adjust your position to allow you to pick square to the string. Your thumb pick won’t be straight on to the strings, but angled back to give you some room to get between them. Watch out that you don’t let your thumb fly away, this just means to keep your thumb close to the string you are about to pick. If you let your thumb move too much it is hard to pick cleanly. The last thing to mention about the thumb is dynamics, you need to be able to play the fifth string softly at times, but also be able to snap that string and play hammer ons and pull offs. Keep your picking solid and under control, strive to play your best and you’ll be surprised how good you can be.

There are many different types and gauges of picks. I have tried a lot of different ones, but I keep coming back to a few of my favourites. Dunlop Zookies (with a 20 degree angled tip), Nationals and a few other Dunlops are the thumb picks that work for me. As for the fingers I always return to Dunlop stainless steel (.20 - .25) but Propiks are good too.

Of course, the way you pick the strings is important, but equally important is the size and type of string you use. We’ll talk about strings next time.

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Earl Scruggs, J.D. Crowe, Alan Munde, Sonny Osborne, Don Stover, and Bill Emerson and a few more great players all take a turn at Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Wow!!! Usually, I can come up with something to say, but Wow!! does the trick here. This video is a study of different techniques and is really worth watching closely.

Here’s the link: Great Banjo Players!!!

I thought I’d round out this post with a few more YouTube links.

Alan Munde

Del McCoury delivers for Amazon.com?

Ralph Stanley - Clinch Mountain Backstep

Take some time and watch these videos, you’ll definitely learn a lot.

The great new Tony Trischka book is available. Click on the image below to BUY it.

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Let’s take a major chord and turn it into a minor chord - We’ll start with a G chord. The G chord is made up of three notes - G, B and D; these notes are also the first, third and fifth notes of a G scale. A minor chord is formed by flatting the third, or lowering the third by a half step. So a Gm or G minor chord consists of G, Bb and D.

When you play in the key of G, the most commonly used major chords are G, C and D - but what is the most common minor chord in the key of G? That chord is E minor (Em) - of course there is a reason why Em is the most common. The sixth note of the G major scale is E - it’s minor chord is called the relative minor. Em is the relative minor because the Em scale has the same notes as the G scale.

As with the major chords - there are different ways to form minor chords. Let’s take a look at Em first; it is composed of three notes: E, G and B. In this case you only need to fret two strings, the 1st and 4th at the second fret. these two notes are both E and the open strings are G and B.

(more…)

The world has changed forever - music is distributed by downloading, and the days of going to your local record store and picking up a few albums are long gone. There are literally millions of songs available on the internet and Amazon.com is an excellent source for music in both the old fashioned form - CDs, or the more modern MP3 format. Clicking on the picture above will take you to Amazon.com, where you can buy Ricky Skaggs tribute to the fathers of Bluegrass - way to easy.

When I was younger, I loved buying a new record and bringing it home to listen to. This was a ritual for me, no there isn’t any sacrifices or anything involved; I would tear the plastic open, pull the inner sleeve out and put the album on the turntable. Now the fun starts - sit back and listen to side A in it’s entirety, that’s right the whole side - no skipping songs. The nature of a record dictates that skipping tracks was difficult, so it was easier to listen to every song. While I enjoyed listening to my new find, I occupied my visual senses by reading the liner notes, learning about the instruments they used, the producers name, where it was recorded - information that gave me a feel for the recording. I would stick with one side for a while and when I was ready, and no sooner, I gave side B a listen.

Like I said earlier - those days are long gone, and now you can download one song for less than a buck and avoid the ritual that I love so much. Progress - I think not. Anyway, if you wan’t to check out an endless list of music in both Cd and MP3 format - follow the links below, but beware there’s a lot of good music out there.

Bluegrass MP3 Downloads

Bluegrass CDs

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This first exercise has us picking the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th strings using a backward roll. The thing that makes this exercise trickier than the previous examples, is the fact that the thumb plays the 3rd and 5th strings. Practice this exercise until you can play it without looking at the TAB or the frets. Once you can play it smoothly take some time and listen to what you are playing. Are all the notes equal in volume? Is the first string as loud as the 2nd and 3rd strings? Are the notes evenly spaced? Before moving to the next exercise, take the time to practice the first exercise and get it down really good.

Have a listen here: [See post to listen to audio]

The next exercise gets your left hand moving around a bit and has the melody on the first string - so pick clearly and cleanly. To save moving around the fretboard too much, use your left hand index finger for the 2nd fret, your ring finger on the 4th fret and your pinky for the 5th fret. This will help to develop more speed and create more finger independence at the same time.

Press play to hear this one: [See post to listen to audio]

Practicing the backward roll is a good way to improve your hand strength, plus backward rolls can be used to great effect in some situations. You can play some neat runs using backward rolls so experiment and always play you best - good enough IS NOT good enough.

RELATED POSTS:

Banjo Rolls - The Backward Roll

Banjo Rolls - The Forward Backward Roll

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If you want to hear a few versions of this song just check out YouTube and search - Black Mountain Rag. You’ll find a variety of different approaches to this song, and I’m sure one will inspire you. Most of the YouTube videos I found feature the guitar, even though this is actually a fiddle tune.Here are a few versions to get you started.

A little history of this song is in order. The Black Mountain Blues was the original name of this song, and it first appeared as The Black Mountain Rag in the 1947 recording by Curly Fox. This version has gone on to sell over 600,000 copies. The song was originally adapted in the 1940’s from “The Lost Child” by Leslie Keith, who played fiddle for the Stanley Brothers.I’ve also included a version played on the banjo to round things out - I hope you like it, rough edges and all.[See post to listen to audio]

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