The fun continues
I am attending the Advanced Banjo Camp taught by Dr. Banjo, Peter Wernick, in Boulder Colorado from Jan. 18 through Jan. 23, 2009. I thought it might be fun to report from the camp nightly to give you my thoughts on the event. To start at the beginning of the series, click this link: beginning of the series
Lots of great philosophical teaching
It’s really rewarding to sit and listen to Peter Wernick talk and share. We tease him about going off on tangents a lot, but his “tangents” are actually important bits of knowledge, history, and philosophical fine-points of playing the banjo that we’re all finding valuable. Non-professionals like us are picking up some true wisdom.
We’re learning to always be in search of that good tone and clarity. Peter says that if you want to have good tone on your instrument, you have to care to have good tone. If you care to have good tone, it’ll come. Likewise with playing crisply on the beat. Peter often says that it’s important to exude the beat and not just merely concur with the beat. If you as a picker exude the beat, you’ll make great friends amongst the other pickers around you.
Have you gotten loopy?
Peter introduced a wonderful tool to the world of learning to pick an instrument, and he calls it the loop. The loop is something that I’ve kind of done instinctively, but not to the exacting detail that Peter lays out for us. Essentially the loop involves isolating a small section of your picking that isn’t going so well, and then playing it in an end-to-end fashion, over and over, slowly, as many times as it takes to smooth it out and get it playable. You want to isolate just the trouble spot; maybe as small as one roll or even two notes. Play that section over and over and over and over until it’s no longer a challenge, then add speed and context by playing a bigger section around the trouble spot. There’s a bunch more detail to the loop method, but it’s really an eye-opening and useful tool which I’ll be capitalizing on in greater detail. This leads to a great rule of thumb that Peter likes to pass on: the beginner practices until he gets it right. The pro practices until he can’t get it wrong.
Click me! Click me!
Scruggs mysteries explained
I was pretty excited today because Peter took some time to show us some classic Scruggs backup licks. I had actually already sounded out and have been playing what we went over today, but Peter showed us the way Earl does the licks, which was awesome to finally figure out. I’m looking forwad to adopting the correct fingering and sound of the licks when done right.
Tomorrow: the OME Banjo Factory tour
Looking forward to touring the OME Banjo Factory and picking up even more tips, tricks, and pointers as the week finishes out. We’re having a student concert on Friday night, and I’ve been rehearsing a new song to play at the performance: Knee Deep In Bluegrass by Terry Baucum. Hopefully it goes well. More on that later. Stay tuned for the rest of the updates and as I always say: pick ‘em if ya got ‘em!
Update: the next blog post about day #3 is loaded. To go straight to this post, click this link: banjo camp, week in review
Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
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Paul,
I hope you don’t mind me blabbering on about my experience with Mr. Wernick, as I went to his banjo camp as well, but waaaay back in 2000.
I have appreciated hearing what you had to say about Pete’s teaching, I feel very much like I am reliving my own experience in Colorado because the days happenings are so similar to mine when I was there.
At the time, I was so crazy about banjo that I would do anything to improve, and had starry eyes, hoping for the day when I could form a new band and maybe even go pro. I had played with a group in a few churches, but didn’t really have much experience. I was pretty dazzled by Pete, even though he seemed very approachable, like a “regular guy.” At that time, there was no “intermediate” camp, so I was forced to choose from Beginners or Advanced. I knew that beginners was too light, but advanced would be too heavy. I decided to go for the gusto with the advanced, even though I was not at the level I should have been for that class.
I was asked to play for him on that first day and I was mortified. I was nowhere close to being ready to play for Dr. banjo, but he has some sort of hold over people that makes them do what he asks….”look into my eyes…” He figured me out after that first day which still makes me furious! When our practice days came for the show at the end of the week at the Grange in Niwot, he said to one of my compatriots: “She’ll say no at first but keep asking, she’ll do it.” That dirty devil was right about me, just a little prodding and I’m all in.
I got to go and see him in concert, and I knew I had seen without a doubt the best player in the world. It truly cemented the fact in my mind that he is one of the world’s most accomplished banjo players and deserves my respect.
For me it was a world-changing, dizzying and somewhat disappointing experience. Disappointing simply because I just wasn’t at the level that I wanted to be. After that, my banjo playing went to the side, and I haven’t really done much to improve it. Now at the age of 46, I know that I’m over the hill, and any banjo playing that I do from now on will be “just for fun.” I hope that you take your experience and turn it into something valid and real.
God bless, Bobbie.
Bobbie, thanks a million for sharing that story. It’s good to see how consistent Peter has been over the years and that you had the same experience I did. I too was mortified when asked to play for Peter…that is, I was actually excited and charged right in, in a “too big for his britches” way, and Peter immediately labeled my weaknesses and humbled me in ways that I absolutely could not see coming. Of course this labeling wasn’t done critically, it was done as a teacher and as someone who wants me to get better. And I believe I will.
I encourage anyone to attend the banjo camp. It’s worth it.
[...] Update: the next blog post about day #3 is loaded. To go straight to this post, click this link: banjo camp, day 3. [...]