There are so many! What first?

This is a guest post by my good friend Jesse Taylor. Jesse lives in Indiana and is an ex-member of both Foxtail Grass and Brian Tussey & Route 5. Jesse is a phenomenal banjo picker with a brilliant mind for moving within the scales, licks, and colorful chord chunks. Jesse can be read regularly on my blog because he leaves very long, thoughtful comments at the bottom of my blog posts. Go back and read many of the posts before this one and you’ll see Jesse’s opinions and commentary. If you’d like to give Jesse a “shout out”, go ahead leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post for him to see. Here’s Jesse’s advice on what tune to learn first:

Foggy Mt. Breakdown? Yankee Doodle? Smoke On The Water?

Eventually, you’re going to start thinking about “Which tune to learn first?” Surprisingly, it seems that quite a few beginning banjo players aren’t really all that familiar with “banjo music”, as such. They’ve heard the sound a banjo makes and want to recreate it for themselves, but they’re really not into the “musical Genres” where most banjos are used.

True, you’ll hear some banjo music in today’s “country music”, but that’s only a recent development. If you’re a fan of “yesterday’s country”, what some folks like to call, “country gold”, you’ll hear very little banjo music. For the most part, banjo music has been limited to the genere of “bluegrass” or “folk”. Not forgetting, of course, Mr. Steve Martin, that “wild and crazy guy”, who brought banjo music to an entirely new listening audience by using it in his comedy routines.

But, back to our question, “what do I want to learn, first?” Truthfully, there is only one good answer for this: “learn the tune that you’re most familiar with.” The logic behind this is simple. A tune must be in your head before you can begin to try bringing it out of an instrument. It’s as simple as that.

And really, no tune is “too corny”. If the only tune you really have a grasp on is “Old McDonald Had a Farm”, then learn that tune. There’s nothing corny about it. If you can’t already play it, then learning it is going to be a challenge. I’m not saying you’re going to want to perform it as part of your first concert, but you can bet that even the best artists have, at one time or another, performed Old McDonald’s Farm for a small audience, somewhere.

Click me! Click me!

There are some “common songs”, musicians call them “old standards”, which are learned and played by most pickers in any given area. Most banjo players, who are familiar with either bluegrass or folk music, will strive to learn Cripple Creek, Dueling Banjos, Foggy Mountain Breakdown or that great, modern American masterpiece…The Ballad of Jed Clampett. Those are all challenging and well worth learning. So is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Eensey Weensey Spider or Mary Had a Little Lamb. Whatever the tune happens to be, if it’s familiar to you and you don’t know how to play it, you should put some effort towards learning it. If you’ve got a banjo teacher, he may have his own ideas as to what tunes you should learn. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess as to what to call a “standard”.

You may be wondering: “if all I know is Old McDonald’s Farm and other childhood tunes, how do I progress from there?” Simple, just learn another tune. Once you start playing with other musicians, you’ll discover that fiddle players, mandolin players, guitar pickers and vocalists all have their own set of “standards” on which they “cut their first teeth”. With the exception of a very few, these ”old stand-bys” will vary from region to region. Of course, these pieces may be unfamiliar to you and, probably, won’t stick in your head until you’ve heard them a number of times…

Once you start recognizing the tunes and get to where you’ve memorized them, to the point that you can hum or whistle them, you’re ready to try your hand at playing them yourself. Until you are familiar with those tunes, you’re going to have to do one of two things when the music starts. You’re either going to have to “sit that one out” or you’re going to have to “improvise” and fake your way through it.

As you’ll learn, music is based on repetition. There are only just so many chords to be played in only just so many keys and only just so many different ways to arrange them. When you learn the tune to one song, sooner or later you’ll encounter the same “chord progression” that’s been used in another song. The two songs may even sound exactly the same except for a note or two. It’s like the old joke, “Why do they call banjo tunes by such funny titles?” The answer is “so you can tell them apart.”

As your skills and “repertoire” develop, you will learn how to “go about thinking” when you encounter a new tune. Figuring things out will become easier and easier. Eventually, when you encounter an unfamiliar tune, you’ll try and figure out what key it’s being played in, listen for the chord changes and see if you can’t get a “feel” for the melody. Then, if you’re well practiced in performing your rolls and grabbing your chords and if you have a grasp on a few basic “performance techniques” plus a few “fancy licks” to your credit, you should be able to improvise your way through the song without “throwing anybody off”. It all starts with the learning of that first tune and building upon that. So, what’s it going to be?

Banjo Paul asks: what do you think?

This is a great article full of good information to consider as you learn your craft. Do you have any experiences or opinions to back up what Jesse is saying here? Do you agree/disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please consider leaving some comments in the comment box below. Don’t forget to click “subscribe to comments” so that you can see if Jesse or anyone else leaves anything in reply to your comments.

Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
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