Blog – Page 64

Banjo Players Are Great

There’s something special about folks who play banjo.

As some of you know, at the end of December I offered the 12 Days of Banjo songbook at “pay what you want” pricing through the end of the year. Anyone who wanted the book could download it with a contribution of their choosing (including for free).

I mentioned then that the “12 Days” was also part of our family’s holiday fundraising project, and so we would be directing half of any proceeds to charitable organizations of my kids’ choosing.

I was blown away by the subsequent response. But, truth be told, not totally surprised.

For whatever reason (though I have my own pet theories), folks who decide to pick up the banjo are some of the most humble, self effacing, compassionate, and generous people on the planet. In fact, I defy anyone to find a more good natured group of individuals who share a common interest. This also happens to be the thing I love most about banjo camps, the great music notwithstanding.

So, I’m delighted to share with you that, thanks to that generosity of banjo pickers the world over, we were able to make a total donation of $720. My daughter Jules is directing her portion to the Atlanta Humane Society, and my son Tucker to the Atlanta Food Bank (see their checks above).

As Jules says, “we both decided to help living things.”

So to every one of you who contributed, thank you. Like I said, there’s something special about folks who play banjo.

Clawhammer Banjo Tune of the Week: “Flowers of Edinburgh”

Click here to subscribe to the tune of the week (if you’re not already a subscriber) and get a new tune every Friday, plus tabs to all the ones to date.

I’m not sure where exactly I first heard Flowers of Edinburgh. It’s one of those tunes from the old-world (of the Gaelic lineage as you might imagine) that has since worked its way into multiple fiddling traditions. So a variety of places one might encounter it.

It’s a beautiful tune, and one that grabbed me at first listen.

Being a fiddle tune, you’ll find that there are a lot of notes packed into each measure. But as it turns out, most of those notes are fairly easy to access out of standard G tuning, making Flowers of Edinburgh well suited to a melodic treatment. I find the up the neck descending runs in the B part particularly fun to play.

Flowers of Edinburgh

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3

Notes on the Tab

Alternate string hammer-ons: There are several alternate string hammer-ons in this arrangement, noted where you see a number underneath tab with a circle around it. The number represents the finger I typically use to execute the hammer-on.

For the up the neck positions in the B part, I recommend keeping the 1st string fretted at the 9th fret (with the middle finger) and the 2nd string fretted at the 8th fret (with the index) throughout the 11th measure, then barring the 1st and 2nd strings at the 2nd fret (with the index) throughout the 12th measure, then barring the 1st and 2nd strings at the 2nd fret (with the index) during the 13th measure.

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

The Immutable Laws of Brainjo: Deconstructing the Art and Science of Practice (Episode One)

Episode One: The First Law

10,000 hours.

You may have heard mention of this before.

Popularized in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, it’s the average number of hours across disciplines that research shows it takes to become an expert. The average amount of time it takes to master something.

The take home message from the 10,000 hours concept is that, despite the stories we share as part of our cultural mythology, passion and dedication are the key determinants of mastery. From sculpting to picking, humans get really, really good at stuff through hard work, not through some fortuitous genetic gift of talent.

Now, you can read this two ways.

On the one hand, this is a very encouraging notion, as it means that when it comes to your banjo playing goals, virtually anything is possible. With consistent, focused effort, the sky is the limit.

On the other hand, 10,000 hours is nothing to sneeze at. If you can manage 2 hours of picking every day, then you’ll reach your musical Shangri-La in roughly 13 years, 8 months. To someone picking their first note on the 5 string, those kind of numbers might be a little discouraging.

But there’s more to this story.

Specifically, there are a few very important points that are usually overlooked in the “10,000 hours” discussion.

1. Even more important than how much we practice is how we practice.

10,000 hours is an average. If we were to take all the data points and plot them out, we’d get a bell shaped distribution, with the apex of our bell at the 10,000 hour mark. Something like this:

So some folks in this data set have spent a good bit more than 10,000 hours to achieve mastery.

And some have spent a good bit less.

Wouldn’t it be nice to end up on the front end of the distribution, amongst the 5,000 hour crowd (the blue shaded area), not the 20,000 (in the red)?

If some folks can get there in 5,000 hours, there’s no reason to believe anyone can’t do the same. The rate limiting factor here, the primary constraint on the learning process, is the pace at which the brain changes. And that pace is largely defined by our biology – in other words, in properties of our nervous system that are common to all of us.

Those who reached mastery faster were just better at changing their brains. They practiced more effectively, in a manner that fully capitalized on the biological mechanisms that support learning.

2. Most people give up.

Most folks who set about to master anything, musical instruments included, ultimately end up giving up. There are surely more 5 strings collecting dust in closets and attics than being picked lovingly every day by skilled pickers.

And why do the majority give up? If mastery is just about putting in the hours, is it just because they’re lazy?

No.

They don’t give up because of a character flaw. They give up because they stop getting better. Research tells us that the single greatest motivator for learning is progress. Progress is the reward that keeps folks coming back for more. On the flip side, nobody plods on for very long in the face of no progress.

And what causes folks to stop progressing? Ineffective practice.

In this age of information, we are blessed with an overabundance of learning materials. It’s simple to find what we should be learning.

But how we should go about learning that material is seldom, if ever, addressed specifically. In spite of the fact that it’s the single biggest determinant of success or failure, how to practice is rarely considered or communicated.

That needs to change.

3. The greatest proportion of improvements occur early in the learning process.

This concept, which applies to all sorts of various phenomenon, is often referred to as the “80/20 rule” (or the “Pareto Principle”, after the economist who first suggested it).

In this particular instance, the 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results are achieved through 20% of your efforts. In other words, provided that we’re mindful of our learning process, and that we correctly identify what that 20% is, we can achieve most of our gains in those first 2,000 hours. After that, we start facing diminishing returns on our time investment. The final stages of mastery, which take up a disproportionate amount of time, are about putting in long hours for gains that are often imperceptible to the casual observer.

If we plot this concept out graphically, it looks like this:

Again, this is a very encouraging notion. But, once again, it also highlights just how important it is for us to be mindful of how we learn and practice, and what we stand to gain if we are.

The First Law of Brainjo

Without a doubt, mastering any skill, including the banjo, requires focused, consistent effort. That said, 10,000 hours of any-old practice won’t magically get us where we want to go. Masters don’t become masters through the sheer force of will alone. It’s a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Masters become masters because somehow – be it luck, a great mentor, or natural disposition – they’ve managed to unlock the right process for learning. A process that leads to consistent, rewarding progress.

Replicate this process, and you too can enjoy similar results. Which brings us to the first law of brainjo:

To learn to

play like the masters,

you must

learn to play

like the masters.

Unlocking the secrets of and maximizing the brain’s capacity for growth and change has been an intense area of personal and professional interest of mine for two decades now (I’ve written about some of these principles in the “Your Brain on Banjo” article series for the Banjo Newsletter).

In the upcoming articles in this series, we will continue to extract insights from the fields of learning, mastery, and neuroplasticity to build a set of maxims for effective practice, and in so doing create a roadmap for helping us to mold the best banjo playing brain we can.

Go To Episode 2: How to Play “In the Zone”

About the Author
Dr. Josh Turknett is the creator of the Brainjo Method, the first music teaching system to incorporate the science of learning and neuroplasticity and specifically target the adult learner

Clawhammer Banjo Tune of the Week: “Alabama Jubilee”

Click here to subscribe to the tune of the week (if you’re not already a subscriber) and get a new tune every Friday, plus tabs to all the ones to date.

Good artists copy. Great artists steal.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of spending a few days wandering the streets of New Orleans with my wife. Those of you who’ve been know that, for those who love music, New Orleans is a little slice of heaven. The music there is raucous and alive with energy.

The streets are filled with musicians at every turn. And, to my surprise, a lot of those musicians had banjos.

And a lot of those banjos were being played in unconventional styles – New Orleans is a place where many of the folks aren’t too concerned about playing by the rules, and much of the music is free of stylistic constraints.

Walking the streets there, I was filled with all sorts of ideas, which made the fact that I was traveling without an instrument all the more torturous. I did take lots of videos, and I couldn’t wait to return home and try to adapt some of the sounds I was hearing to my own playing.

Several of the banjo players I heard on that trip relied heavily on a basic strumming style, either while singing or backing up other musicians. And it sounded fantastic.

In fact, it sounded so good I was kicking myself for never doing more of it. That changed once I finally returned home and reunited with my five string.

One of the tunes that fell out after that trip was this version of “Alabama Jubilee.” The banjo solo is still rendered in clawhammer style; however, you’ll note that the backup behind my voice is a departure from the bum ditty pattern that typifies clawhammer vocal backup. I think it fits the tune quite well, and it’s one of several techniques that made their way into my bag of tricks after that trip.

So here’s to musical inspiration. Wherever it may find you.

Alabama Jubilee

gDGBD tuning – Brainjo Level 3

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

The Clawhammer Core Repertoire Series: “Angelina Baker”

Episode 16: Angelina Baker

Some tunes can kill a jam.

And some tunes can save them.

Not only is Angelina Baker is a jam classic, it’s also a classic jam saver, perfectly suited for those moments when your friendly neighborhood jam seems to be losing steam. Perhaps a few tunes have gone by that left the less advanced players behind, or you’ve got a fiddler with a penchant for choosing obscure crooked tunes from Southwest Coweta County. The jam has fallen off the rails, and you need a tune to get it back on track. A tune that everyone can partake in, that’s virtually guaranteed to be rollicking along by the second or third run through.

Enter Angelina Baker (aka “Angeline the Baker”). With its strong, yet simple and memorable melody, straightforward chord progression, and common position in the repertoire of beginning old-time musicians, it meets all the criteria needed for injecting life back into a flagging jam.

I also think that if you’re trying your hand at playing a banjo-fiddle duet for the first time, Angelina Baker is a great tune to begin with.

Before we dig in, here’s a preview of my own final take on this tune:

Step 1: Know thy Melody

As usual, there is to be no plucking of thy banjo until you can sing or hum the melody. And to sift the melodic essence from the baking Angelina, let’s take a listen to a few fiddler’s interpretations of this classic, courtesy of the Fiddle Hangout archives:

Fiddle One

Fiddle Two

Fiddle Three

Step 2: Find the Melody Notes

Okay, once you’ve listened enough times to have the melody firmly in mind, it’s time to set out and find it on the banjo. Angelina Baker is typically played in the key of D, so go ahead and get your 5-string into ADADE tuning (“double D”) before you go note hunting.

Here’s what I hear as the essence of Angelina (A and B part each played once through):

And here’s what that looks like tabulationally arranged:

Step 3: Add Some Clawhammery Stuff

Next up, we’ll create a basic arrangement suitable for any jam setting by simply adding a “ditty” strum after each melody note that falls on the downbeat (the notes in bold in the tablature).

Here’s what that looks like:

And it sounds as follows:

Alongside the fiddle, we find it plays very nicely:

Step 4: Add Flavor

Like any good baker, now it’s time to add your own personal stamp to this basic recipe. Spice it up with a few fretting hand notes with hammer ons, pull offs, or slides. Or sweeten it up by adding in the rest of the melody notes – since this isn’t a particularly notey tune, and since the melody notes are easy to grab in this tuning, it’s a good one for getting your feet wet with a more melodic style of playing. The simple melody here leaves lots of room for individual expression, so modify it any you way you please to suit your own tastes.

You can hear my final arrangement in the video above, and the tab for it is below:

Step 5: Practice Smart

Now it’s time to burn this one into your brain circuits. My favorite place to start doing so are the Beats for Banjo tracks (select tempo through the playlist icon on the upper right):