Do you hear what I hear?
I have some interesting discussions with students. I really recommend that you try your hand at teaching anything that you are halfway good at, because in trying to get ideas and pointers across, you think in new ways and come to new realizations in an almost forced way. Interacting with wide-eyed beginning banjo students has made me understand concepts and ideas in a newer, more complete and more complex way. It also shows me that some things are extremely hard to vocalize; I understand various things intrinsically, but to formulate a concrete sentence about exactly why and how something is like it is, leads to those interesting discussions that I mentioned in my opening sentence.
When I teach you to play the banjo, I’m giving you new ears
Does that seem like an odd thing to read? I guess that’s fitting because most would say I’m an odd guy. But it’s true! Or, more correctly, I’m helping you to hear with an educated ear. The analogy I like to draw on is to compare a beginner’s current state of affairs regarding how they hear things to a horse wearing blinders. Over the weeks and months that you work with me, I’m helping you to remove the “blinders” from your ears (or perhaps ear muffs from your ears if you will.)
When you are a rank beginner, there are a definite set of items that can be shown to you to open up your ears, your eyes, the sensory perception of your finger tips, etc. “Learn these chords”, “pick this song”, “play rhythm this way as I sing a song”, “do this, don’t do that”, etc. What happens to propel a student to the “next level” though? What is the next level? What is the difference between a beginning picker and an advanced beginner? How about the difference between an advanced beginner and an intermediate picker? The answers are multi-faceted, but at least a small part of the discussion hinges on “hearing with new ears”.
Can you truly hear what you sound like?
I can go in so many directions with this discussion! I think back to my early days of picking. There was a little retail store that sold stringed instruments, and I visited often. Didn’t have the money for a new one, especially a really high-end banjo. I was playing a beginning level instrument and just drooling at the thought of getting a new instrument. (Admin. note: the drool was coming out of both sides of my mouth, so you know I was level-headed.) I would visit this little store and pick my “dream banjo” at the time: a Washburn B-19. Gosh it was pretty; carved heel, nice inlays (nicer than mine) clear head, and sounded awesome…to my as-of-yet untrained ear. Oh, and it didn’t cost the $3000 that a Gibson Grenada did at the time! Now, I’m not trying to disparage the Washburn brand by any means as I continue this discussion: they are nice banjos, and they are what they are. They are Washburns. They aren’t high-end Gibsons or Deerings. Washburn has a place and a fan base, and when you look for that grade of banjo, there you have it. But back to my story: to me, it sounded like the sweetest sounding, most high-end banjo in the world! (I never did come up with the money for it, but ended up finally getting a higher-end banjo years later.) Fast forward to several years later, and I’ve discovered that I can hear both glaring and subtle differences banjo-to-banjo. I can hear some of what makes a banjo “high end”, I can pick up on subtle undertones, and my ear is just so much more refined. When I happen to flip through a bluegrass channel and hear a banjo track, now and then I get stopped dead in my tracks by the tone and timbre of some particular banjo on the recording which just floors me. You might say I have “new ears”. I most definitely hear things quite differently now than I once did. And when I shop a big retail store like Eldery Instruments and get to compare a Washburn side-by-side with a more premium brand, well…sorry, but I can sure hear why the Washburn has a lower price point. New ears!
Click me! Click me!
Alright, here’s a different direction on the “new ears” thing: the bold headline above asks if you can hear what you sound like. Not just that there’s noise coming out of your banjo, but can you truly hear the “sound” you are putting out as you pick? Hearing things with “new ears” is crucial for moving forward, and all it takes is to really sit and notice how the sound that’s coming out of the professional’s hands is different than yours. Learn why it’s different than yours. Heck, just to be able to hear that it is different than yours is a learned skill.
I’ve noticed that when someone who has been “picking awhile” on their own but who is still at the relative beginning of their journey will sit down with me for lessons, if they try to demonstrate a song or two for me to show me what they’ve been working on…it’s a mess. Now, that’s not a criticism of the student. It’s more than what they could do before they bought their banjo, and every stride forward is just that…a stride forward! Kudos to them that they can play! However, they are coming to me to help them to improve, so they are paying me to dissect their picking and make it better. With that in mind, what I often hear coming out of their hands are inconsistent timing, poor aim of the picking fingers (missing strings), no finesse, herky-jerky picking…you name it. I’ve also noticed that many of these beginners are somewhat satisfied about what they are demonstrating for me; they feel like they are doing alright. They are still wearing their “old ears”. They can’t truly discern the sound they are putting out. Time for new ears! This changes as we work together and I use my refined, experienced ear to help them hear their own picking better. I’ve suggested to many students over the years that they tape themselves playing whatever they can play at the time, then put the tape away for 6 months to a year, or longer. Listening to themselves later is quite an eye-opening experience to say the least. We usually grimace at how bad our “ear” was back then and how we couldn’t truly hear the sound we were putting out.
To further illustrate the question of how well you actually hear yourself, I relate to you my recording studio experience. I’ve been in the studio to cut a CD several times over the years, but for the very first project I ever did, I had a bit of an eye-opener. For years leading up to the recording sessions, I had played certain stock licks a certain way and developed somewhat of a “style”, if you will. When I was in studio, we would record some and then play it back to make sure we were happy before we moved on, several times a night. More than once…more than three times…more than that even!…during playback of what I just recorded, I would grimace inside. “THAT LICK SOUNDS TERRIBLE!” “That roll doesn’t sound right!” “That technique doesn’t really sound good in such-and-such a situation!” “That wasn’t smooth at all!” were all things I said to myself internally throughout the recording session. Hearing myself during playback illustrated how little I actually knew about the sound I was putting out. It was an eye-opening education, and it made me a better picker. It’s strange because I made those sounds. I stood right there while I was making them. I heard them flow in and out of the rest of the instruments and voices. Yet…it’s like I was listening to a different person during playback. Very mysterious.
Record your banjo picking!
My recording studio experience is one that you can learn a lot from. Take some time to record yourself and then play it back. Listen to your picking. Is it smooth? Does it resemble what you’ve heard coming out of the CD’s and stage shows and jam sessions that you’ve heard? Does it sound good? Listen to it. No, no…you perhaps you aren’t hearing me even now: really listen to it. I love to quote Dr. Banjo, Peter Wernick. In wondering if you are playing or doing something right, he says “if it sounds good, it must be right.” The converse of that is: “if it doesn’t sound right…time for a little more work!”
What makes an intermediate picker better than a beginner? It’s not always that the intermediate picker can do this roll or this technique or knows where all the G’s are but you don’t know or can’t do any of those things. It’s more than that; yet, trying to define it is like trying to bag up fog or trying to nail Jell-o to a tree. It’s the touch, it’s the finesse, it’s the awareness…it’s the ability to hear with new ears…and many other things besides these. I suggest you take the time to work on picking out your new ears. Don’t wait until it’s too late and you have to go to the second-hand store like I did. Mine are the wrong color and size. *Sigh*
Whadda ya think?
As always, those are my lousy opinions. As always, I’m Banjo Paul. As always, I’d love for you to contact me (see the menu above). As always, I hope you’ll leave a comment below or even sign up to receive and email when I post new blog posts. And, as always: pick ‘em if ya got ‘em!
Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
www.banjosrule.com (main site)
www.mybanjolife.com (blog)
Kathy is right on when it comes to how different banjos make different sounds and how this can affect your ability to hear what another banjo player is doing because his banjo sounds “strange” to your ear.
Quite often, I’ve been asked about which banjo a beginner should buy. Naturally, you want the best one you can afford, but I’ve seen folks who could afford the best go out and buy some “sow’s ear” of a banjo and expect to learn how to produce the same sounds as the guys up on stage.
I recall one fellow asking about which banjo would be a good “investment”. He wanted to learn, but he was looking to get his money back if he didn’t learn to pick inside of a couple weeks, or so. Two years later, we met again and he was still asking the same question. In two years he had made zero progress.
As luck would have it, Don Wayne Reno had a banjo for sale. I picked it up and played it for him…assured him it was a real gem and a real steal for the price…and encouraged him to buy it. Don Wayne had used it onstage, so how could you go wrong? Get him to sign it for you and the value would go up, not down.
Well, he walked around and around, looking at the banjo. Eventually, he looked me in the eye and said, “Well, I don’t know. If I buy it and find out I can’t learn, then what do I do? I mean, after spending all that money…! After all, I’ll be 70 years old in October!” I asked him how old he would be if he didn’t buy it? That made him think.
Finally, I told it like it is. A banjo isn’t an “investment”. It’s a “pet”, maybe even more like a marriage. If it works out, you’ll have a mate for life. It’s not something you’re going to profit from. If that’s what you want, you need to become a music dealer, not a musician. Your children, or your grandchildren, maybe your spouse, might sell it after you’re dead and gone, but with any luck, you’ll never see a dime from the sale of that banjo. You’re not going to want to get rid of it. It will becme a part of you. I left him standing there, thinking and talking to the Reno brothers. I had a show to do.
Make no mistake, a “top of the line”, professional sounding banjo will help you learn faster. I’m convinced that it will. The banjo, itself, will be something you can be proud of. You’ll want to be seen in it’s company. You won’t be the least bit ashamed of it’s sound. This will lead to more satisfying practice sessions. The professional sound it generates will help train your ear that much faster.
Furthermore, a “top end” banjo should be more “playable” than a cheaper one. The neck is going to be easier for your fingers to “get around on”. I’ve played “beginner’s banjos” that were like playing baseball bats. I’ve seen guitar necks of thinner girth than what some of those beginner models have. Far as I’m concerned, a “beginner’s banjo” only has one purpose on this earth and that is to discourage all but the most determined students. They should be outlawed.
Sure, an accomplished performer can make a lesser quality instrument sound good. An accomplished performer got that way from performing with fine instruments. As such, he knows how the things work. However, most beginners have enough trouble trying to hear how things sound and to reproduce those sounds without having to fight a “punky/plunky” sounding banjo.
I know that “tone” can be a matter of taste, but we’re talking about 5-string banjos that will, most likely, be played in a performance style that represents a close approximation of Earl Scruggs’ techniques. There is a certain “tone” that you’ll want this kind of instrument to have.
My advice? Get yourself a top of the line instrument, even if you have to make payments on it. Don’t know a top of the line banjo from a flat doorknob with cobwebs on it? Get a musician of good ability to tag along and recommend one for you. Don’t know a good musician? Hang around any music store that carries fine instruments and, sooner or later, you’ll find a musican who’s more than happy to offer good advice. You’re going to invest a lot of your time in your banjo. The least you can do is invest a little time trying to find the best one you can. Invest some time before making your decision about which one to purchase.
No doubt about it. A top quality, well adjusted banjo will spur your advancement beyond anything you could hope to accomplish on a lesser model. Everything about it will make your “banjo life” easier.
Oh yeah, about that fellow and Don Wayne’s banjo…he bought it. I don’t know if he ever learned to play it, but I do know how proud he was of it. If he didn’t learn, it wasn’t the banjo’s fault.
One more thing…always remember and never forget. Music is a game you play against yourself in your own mind. Winning the game means doing your best to remove every possible obstacle that may hinder you from learning. That, of course, means having an instrument worthy of performing with in the first place.
Invest in high quality banjo and invest in yourself at the same time. Get the message? Get the fever! Strap yourself into one and ride!!
-Jesse
Another thing with “ears” is that they are specific to each instrument and they take time to develop. When I bought my first banjo, I spent 2 hours in Elderly’s playing the lower-end ones before I found one with what I considered to be acceptable sound. I liked that banjo for about one year until I came to a song that proved what I suspected…it didn’t play in tune up the neck. So far nobody can fix it unless they replace the neck. Hearing the tuneless notes going along with my mostly tuneless playing increased my loathing of the previously cherished banjo and then one day I heard someone else play that banjo. It sounded dead and I had never noticed that before because I had not heard a lot of banjos played and the darn things sound different depending on if you’re in front of them or behind them.
Figuring that maybe I can someday play well enough to deserve a higher end banjo, another trip to Elderly’s was in order. After another 2 hours, I was drooling over a Deering when a sales guy said “try this one…it’s on sale.” No wonder…it was the dirtiest, grime covered thing I’d ever seen. The tuning pegs were loose and the strings were shot. I handed it back to the guy and asked him to restring it and tighten the head. He handed it back an hour later. Then I played it. What a difference it was when compared to my old banjo. This one effortlessly drowned out the canned music in the store–even after they turned it up–and attracted the attention of several customers. Evidently they were banjo players because everyone else was offended. Deciding to go for a real discount, I kept playing badly and they finally offered a great deal in order to get me to leave. So now I’m having fun offending more neighbors with my new Stelling and my new ears. They can tell that this banjo has more punch and a brighter tone with more sustain than the old one. My friend Cheryl, who has no musical background, said that she can tell all of that without ears because she can use her eyes to see that instead of the neighbors next door getting out of their hot tub when I play, the neighbors in the next block do it too. But I still think ears are more important.
Kathy, that’s a great story and it dovetails with my blog post nicely! Thanks so much for sharing it and I hope the new pickers paid attention to what you wrote.
Paul is absolutely, right. You can really learn a lot about yourself by listening to what you sound like on a recording…even the most unprofessional of recordings. You dont need a studio set-up to take advantage of this. I’d like to add a little more to it, as is my habit.
Most banjo players, beginners or otherwise, will learn quite a few tunes “by ear”. Some folks think this is a real “marvel” of a feat, but it’s really nothing more than “practiced listening”. The key is knowing what you’re listening for. Of course, familiarity with various “picking techniques” is going to play a large part in developing your listening ability.
When you look at it, there are only a very few ways of “emblishing” a tune. Of course, you can play some parts softer, but I’m not talking about volume. I’m talking about picking techniques such as Pull-Offs, Slides, Hammer-Ons and Chokes. Each of these techniques produces a distincitve sound as it takes one note into another note. If you can learn to recognize these picking techniques when you hear them, you’re well on your way to being able to learn a tune “by ear”.
Add to this the ability to recognize the use of certain “Rolls” and that will really help. Of course, there are some advanced techniques that can make a “Forward Roll” sound like a “Backward Roll”, but most beginners won’t be trying to learn tunes like that. Listen for the use of Forward Rolls, Backward Rolls, the ever popular “Forward-Backward Roll” that was popularized by Earl Scruggs, and the “Thumb-in and out Roll”. You will become acquainted with many more Rolls and variations of them, as you progress. Every one you can learn to recognize will help you when trying to learn a tune by ear.
Eventually, your ear will get trained. You’ll be able to recognize when certain “passages” are being performed and whether they’re being played “up the neck” or farther down. You’ll recognize which notes are being hit and where on the neck they’re being played. The “timbre” of each string will be recognizable to you. In a lot of cases, you’ll be able to tell the difference between a note being hit on the first string and that same note being hit on the fourth string. The “tones” will sound different to you.
Music is an “aural” art form. It’s “ear candy”. Sure, you perform it with your fingers and you can’t discount the “visual” aspect of performance, either from the artist’s point of view or the fan’s, but as a performer, you’re more concerned with how things sound.
You’ll figure it all out. Just keep listening.
-Jesse
I can remember during my early days of picking, I had a tape of some hot banjo solo, and try as I might I couldn’t tell for the life of me what the guy or gal was doing in the recording. After some time I began to be able to pick out the 5th string…just the 5th string…from the flurry of notes he/she was playing. Of course I got better over the years but as Jesse said, my “aural training” had to be developed by listening and doing…and listening and doing it ALOT.
Good stuff Paul. Any recommendations on what to record your playing with (software nnn hardware)?
Hi Steve, it’s hard to narrow down a recommendation. I use a $225 handheld digital recorder that is WAAAY overkill for the average person, but I’m doing a ton of things for my business with that. (It’s a Tascam DR-1) You could use everything from an old cassette recorder to any kind of recording software that you have on your computer. I know that the office supply stores often sell a nice little handheld digital recorder for under $40. This would be ideal because you can copy the digital files to your computer and save them for playback through the big speakers or to burn onto a disc.
Great post, Paul. I learned a long time ago as an organ student that you hear your music the way you conceive it in your head, not the way you’re playing it. Recording yourself is a great tool for finding out the truth about how you’re actually doing.
Thanks for the great comment Terry. Your organ recording advice is right on!