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Episode 32: The Most Important Skill You Probably Never Practice

by Josh Turknett, MD

About the Laws of Brainjo Series

Written in partnership with the Banjo Hangout, the “Immutable Laws of Brainjo” is a monthly series on how to apply the science of learning and neuroplasticity to practice banjo more effectively – these are also the principles that serve as the foundation for the Brainjo Method for music instruction.

(RELATED: The Brainjo Method forms the basis for the Breakthrough Banjo course. Click here to learn more about the course.)

Knowing What You Don’t Know

Some of the things about learning to play the banjo are obvious.

You must know which strings to pluck, for example. Or where to place your fingers on the frets.

Other things are not so obvious.

Not surprisingly, those not-so-obvious things are oftentimes overlooked, creating hidden barriers to progress that may seem impenetrable.

Because to learn anything well, we actually first must know what it is we need to learn. Put another way, we must know what we don’t know to understand what we still have left to learn.

It’s the things we don’t know that we don’t know that often present hidden barriers to progress. In fact, one of the primary benefits of a teacher or a system of instruction is to alert you of the things you don’t know you don’t know (dizzy yet?!).

In this installment of the Laws of Brainjo, we’ll be covering one of those hidden barriers – arguably one of the single most important skills a musician needs, yet one that many never practice.

9 Ways to Practice Smarter – free book and video

The “9 Ways to Practice Smarter” is a collection of 9 essential ways to get more out of your banjo practice. Click the button below to download the book, along with access to the full video.

Download the book

Magic Secrets Revealed

In prior episodes, I’ve talked about one of the seemingly magical things that a seasoned fiddle or banjo player can do, which is to conjure up an apparently endless stream of tunes to play on their instrument.

And there are really two fundamental skills required to perform such feats of musical wizardry.

One is musical fluency, a concept we’ve addressed several times in prior episodes. Here, musical fluency is defined as the ability to take imagined sounds in the mind and map them onto movements of the limbs so those sounds come out of our instrument.

Developing the neurobiological apparatus that allows us to accomplish such a thing takes many hours of specific, focused, practice. And most deliberate practice time is spent in pursuit of this goal.

Yet, the other oftentimes underappreciated, or neglected, skill is the ability to remember how a tune goes.

This may sound obvious, even trivial, which perhaps is why it’s rarely, if ever, touched on in teaching materials.

For some, especially those who’ve spent a considerable amount of time singing, it’s a skill that may already be reasonably well developed by the time they pluck their first banjo string. In this case, it usually won’t present a significant barrier in their learning progression.

Others, however, may come to the banjo without a particularly well developed musical memory. And if that’s the case, you may well find yourself smack up against a wall you can’t figure out how to get through.

Either way, it’s something few spend time practicing, in spite of its critical importance. Those who already have a good musical memory don’t practice it because they have no pressing need to, and those who don’t already have a good musical memory don’t practice it because they don’t realize they need to!

How do you know, then, if this is something you should be spending some time developing? Here are some of the “symptoms” of an undeveloped musical memory:

  • You find it hard to “memorize” tunes when learning them
  • You struggle to remember how to play tunes you’ve learned previously
  • You don’t find it easy to sing songs from memory
  • You like to keep tabs or other written notation around so you can “remember” how a tune goes

In previous installments, we’ve covered the use of tab in the learning process. Used wisely, it can be a helpful tool. Used carelessly, it can become an obstruction, and this is certainly an instance where that can be the case.

Furthermore, we’ve covered strategies for the wise use of tab, including the importance of playing a tune without the tab as soon as possible.

(RELATED: For more on how to learn wisely from tab, click here to review the 7 Step Tune Learnin’ Process.)

But, equally important is to not rely on tab or written notation to remember a tune you haven’t played in a while. And one reason why you may find yourself having to do such a thing is an underdeveloped musical memory.

How To Develop Your Musical Memory

So, if you recognize any of the aforementioned symptoms, here is a suggested remedy.

This strategy has the added benefit of not only improving your musical memory, but simultaneously building those sound-to-motor mappings that support musical fluency.

Two birds, one stone.

In fact, even those of you who haven’t experienced the aforementioned symptoms will likely find the following exercise a valuable one:

STEP 1 – Create an audio playlist of tunes you know how to play.

STEP 2 – Every time you learn a new tune, make a recording of yourself playing through it, and add the track to your playlist.

STEP 3 – Periodically quiz yourself on your playlist – look at the tune title, and then try to recall how it goes from memory.

This is something you can do quickly, multiple times per day even if you wish. And, it will double as a handy record of your growing banjo repertoire.

You can also take this a step further:

STEP 4 – Play the tune from your playlist, and as you do, visualize yourself playing it.

As covered in a prior episode, this sort of visualizing is an incredibly useful way of building and solidifying those sound-to-motor mappings that are essential for being able to play by ear and conquer tab dependency.

Another less banjo-specific way of developing your musical memory is to simply maintain a playlist of your favorite songs, whatever genre they may be.

Then, periodically quiz yourself. Look at the track title, and before playing it out loud, see if you can hum or sing it to yourself (this is also a great thing to do with tunes you WANT to learn on the banjo but haven’t yet).


To learn more about the Breakthrough Banjo courses for clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo, click the relevant link below:

— Breakthrough Banjo for CLAWHAMMER Banjo —

— Breakthrough Banjo for FINGERSTYLE Banjo —


— The Laws of Brainjo Table of Contents —

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

brainjo 1

 

Clawhammer Tune of the Week: “Black Jack Grove”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


I think Adam Hurt deserves credit for bringing some well deserved attention to this wonderful and modestly quirky (to modern ears at least) little fiddle tune, including it as one of the tracks on his sublime Earth Tones album.

That was where I first heard it, though I didn’t learn it back then.

Adam also chose “Black Jack Grove” as part of the learning progression in the Brainjo “Fiddle for All” course (where he is lead instructor). Being that I’m lead video editor, the melody burned its way into my memory, refusing to let me rest until I’d learned it for myself.

(RELATED: Interested in a complete, step-by-step course for old time fiddle created by two clawhammer banjoists? Click here for details.)

Now I’m quite glad that I did, as I recently I often find it to be the first tune that falls out of my fingers when I grab the banjo.

In working it up on the banjo, I decided to try to recreate Adam’s fiddled rendition (which is quite faithful to the original source recording by Kentucky fiddler Walter McNew fiddle) note for note on the banjo.

As I’ve touched on in prior posts, the process of working out a tune in this manner – re-creating a fiddle tune note for note – is actually quite different than the usual manner of woodshedding a new song.

(RELATED: Click here to review the process for working out a new song, by ear.)​​

It’s a process that, if you enjoy solving puzzles, is both enjoyable and satisfying. The central challenges, in my opinion, is to choose, out of all the possible ways of playing the notes of a tune, the arrangement that best preserves the drive and magic of clawhammer.

Conquering the challenge of arranging fiddle tunes in a melodic style, for both clawhammer and fingerstyle, in a manner that retains the idiosyncrasies of the banjo is a topic I’ll be exploring in more depth in the near future – as part of the latest season of the Core Repertoire Series I do in partnership with the Banjo Hangout.

So stay tuned for more fiddle tune puzzle solving geekery!


(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)


 Black Jack Grove

aEAC#E tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

black jack grove clawhammer banjo tab

 

Notes on the Tab

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes. To learn more about these, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

[RELATED: Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

 

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

 

Clawhammer Song and Tab of the Week: “Handsome Molly”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


All of the various styles of banjo pickery each seem to have their own set of signature tunes.

Since any tune can essentially be rendered in any style, these associations are more a happenstance of history than anything else, typically a matter of which banjo player popularized it first.

Clawhammer banjo has its Snowdrops, Last Chances, and Sandy River Belles in its set.

Scruggs banjo has its Foggy Mountain Breakdowns and Ground-speeds in its set.

And 2 finger thumb lead has its set, which includes this week’s selection “Handsome Molly.”

I’ve loved 2 finger thumb lead since I first learned it years ago. In fact, I think what draws folks to 2 finger thumb lead are some of the same things that draws folks to clawhammer.

Like clawhammer, the rhythm is baked into the style, so it’s easier to play with good rhythm and timing, and, unlike Scruggs banjo, it’s great for solo playing or vocal accompaniment.

So it also makes for a nice and easy way for clawhammerists to dip their first toe into the world of up-picking.

You can hear those above described similarities by listening to the 2 finger version below (click here to check out the 2 finger thumb lead tab for “Handsome Molly.”)

Handsome Molly, 2 finger thumb lead style


(RELATED: Should you get bitten by the 2 finger bug, the fingerstyle course is waiting. It’s the first style taught as part of the learning progression (because it makes learning of Scruggs style way easier), and because of the level of interest, Im continuing to add a large library of 2 finger tune tutorials. Click here to learn more.)


(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)


Handsome Molly

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 2

Handsome Molly clawhammer banjo tab

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

  • Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
  • Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
  • Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
  • Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
  • Episode 5: “Freight Train”
  • Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
  • Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
  • Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
  • Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
  • Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
  • Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
  • Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
  • Episode 13: “Swanee River”
  • Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
  • Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
  • Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
  • Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
  • Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
  • Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
  • Episode 20: “Way Out There”
  • Episode 21: “New Slang”
  • Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
  • Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
  • Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
  • Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
  • Episode 26: “Budapest”
  • Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
  • Episode 28: “Paradise”
  • Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
  • Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
  • Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
  • Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
  • Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
  • Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
  • Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
  • Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
  • Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
  • Episode 38: “Dixie”
  • Episode 39: “Hard Times”
  • Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
  • Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
  • Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
  • Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
  • Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
  • Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
  • Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
  • Episode 47: “Groundhog”
  • Episode 48: “Lazy John”
  • Episode 49: “The Gambler”
  • Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
  • Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
  • Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
  • Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
  • Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
  • Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
  • Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
  • Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
  • Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
  • Episode 59: “Little Birdie”
  • Episode 60: “Train on the Island”

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

brainjo larger musical mind

Clawhammer Song and Tab of the Week: “Train on the Island”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


“Train on the Island” was first recorded in 1927 by Ralph Peer for Victor Records during the famous Bristol sessions with Virginia musicians J.P. Nestor on the banjo, and Norman Edmonds on fiddle.

On paper, it doesn’t seem like much.

Its another in a long line of songs about trains. It covers familiar terrain of tragic love lost.

It’s short and simple, with just one simple repeating phrase.

And yet, it has become a classic, recorded countless times in the intervening years since it the original was cut.

Once again, simplicity for the win.

While the pulsating pace of the original recording provides a contrast to the tragic story, here the melancholy mood is enhanced by the relaxed tempo of the brooding gourd.

Train on the Island 

gDGBD (dADF#A on the gourd) tuning, Brainjo level 3

Train on the Island clawhammer banjo tab part 1

Train on the Island clawhammer banjo tab part 2

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

  • Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
  • Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
  • Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
  • Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
  • Episode 5: “Freight Train”
  • Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
  • Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
  • Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
  • Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
  • Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
  • Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
  • Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
  • Episode 13: “Swanee River”
  • Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
  • Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
  • Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
  • Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
  • Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
  • Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
  • Episode 20: “Way Out There”
  • Episode 21: “New Slang”
  • Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
  • Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
  • Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
  • Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
  • Episode 26: “Budapest”
  • Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
  • Episode 28: “Paradise”
  • Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
  • Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
  • Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
  • Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
  • Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
  • Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
  • Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
  • Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
  • Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
  • Episode 38: “Dixie”
  • Episode 39: “Hard Times”
  • Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
  • Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”
  • Episode 42: “Johnson Boys”
  • Episode 43: “Bad Moon Rising”
  • Episode 44: “Reuben’s Train”
  • Episode 45: “Let the Mermaid’s Flirt With Me”
  • Episode 46: “Rocky Top”
  • Episode 47: “Groundhog”
  • Episode 48: “Lazy John”
  • Episode 49: “The Gambler”
  • Episode 50: “8 More Miles To Louisville”
  • Episode 51: “Who’ll Stop the Rain”
  • Episode 52: “Pretty Polly”
  • Episode 53: “You Are My Sunshine”
  • Episode 54: “Old Molly Hare”
  • Episode 55: “The Miller’s Will”
  • Episode 56: “Walking Cane”
  • Episode 57: “Feast Here Tonight”
  • Episode 58 “Let Me Fall”
  • Episode 59: “Little Birdie”

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

brainjo larger musical mind

Clawhammer Tune of the Week: “Shoes and Stockings”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


This week’s tune, “Shoes and Stockings,” is another that entered the old time canon by way of Alan Jabbour’s recordings of Virginia fiddler Henry Reed (click here to listen to Reed’s original recording).

And it’s one of a handful of tunes Reed is said to have learned from his mentor, Quince Dillion (or Dillon, as the family now spells it).

It’s a sticky melody, too – one that’s remembered readily, which always makes the learning of it that much easier.

Shoes and Stockings includes some ventures up the neck in the B part. And for those to whom forays up the fretboard still seem formidable, I think you’ll find the excursions here to be pleasantly manageable.

And while it sounds just fine at dance tempo, I think you’ll find on the banjo it opens up a bit more at a moderate tempo. Also, a sparsely played A part (see the liberal use of skip notes) provides a nice contrast to and tension that’s released by the notier B part.

As for the key it’s played in? Well, in Reed’s Library of Congress recording, he’s in the key of A. Yet, in the beginning of the recording, you can hear a puzzled Jabbour stating “last time you played it in G.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m still not sure there’s a general consensus. My advice: learn it in G on the banjo, and be ready to capo to A in a jam if need be.


(NOTE: For those considering acquiring a Brainjo banjo, the banjo played in this video is a “Hobart” model. Click here if you’d like to learn more, or claim one in the next batch.)


Fingerpicked Version

Incidentally, Shoes and Stockings also makes for a nice fingerpicked tune, which you can hear in the video below (click here for the tab, which will take you to the sister site fingerstylebanjo.com).

 Shoes and Stockings

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

Shoes and Stockings clawhammer banjo tab part 2

Notes on the Tab

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes. To learn more about these, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

[RELATED: Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

 

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

 

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