Your music reaches more than the ears

When I work with banjo students, fairly early on in the journey I begin introducing the idea of realizing that when you pick your banjo, your job isn’t to just pick your banjo. It’s never too soon to start embracing the fact that you are an artist. As an artist, you want to let your artistry come alive and to emanate from your banjo picking. Much like a painter or sculptor, we work with a palette of colors and we appeal to the senses of the recipient of our art. Getting a full understanding of exactly what this means takes a very long time, and likely you’ll spend a lifetime trying to be a better artist. It may be a worthwhile endeavor to take a look at exactly how your 5 string banjo music is received by the listener and just how it affects the listener. This is part 2 of 4 parts. To start at part 1, click here.

When you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands…

In part 1 of this series, we took a look at the fact that when you display artistry in your music, you move the listener in a real physical way. This time we’re also talking about a very physical reaction that people often have when listening to you pick your banjo. We know that when we exude the beat, our listener picks up on this and has a physical reaction to it. When we don’t exude the beat we don’t move the listener. In this series I’m simply reminding you that your listener is listening with more than their ears, and when you are taking your music to heart, having fun with it, and letting the artist in you shine and come out, you can get some great physical feedback from your listener which tells you that you are doing a great job.

The listener can’t help but enjoy your banjo. It’s involuntary

Tapping the foot is an almost universal sign of musicianship in the human being. As a banjo teacher I’ve noted over the years that every human being has been instilled with the God given talent of music. Even a student who is struggling and who can’t master the technique of picking the 5 string bluegrass banjo still displays the universal understanding of music at a raw and primal level. This musical ability is evident in someone who tries to play music but it’s also evident in someone who listens to music. I bet you’ve tapped your foot to music…even music you don’t like…more often than you even realize you are doing it.

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Part 2: the audience listens with their hands

It’s pretty obvious to all of us that people listen to music with their ears, but it’s interesting to note that people actually listen with their hands as well. That is…if you are doing a good job on your instrument. This is another of those autonomic, involuntary things that people do when experiencing music that’s being presented artistically.

You’ll see people using their hands when experiencing your music all the time. I think the most obvious way that people signal their enjoyment of your music is via tapping their feet, but the hands become a close second. Drumming our fingers on a steering wheel, playing air guitar, clapping, snapping, slapping our thigh to the beat of the music…all signs that the music is being received, understood, and enjoyed. To me it almost seems like a responsibility to produce good quality music and to let the artistry and the attention to detail come out, because our listeners are expecting it. We should be taking the time to focus on good tone, on good timing, on good rhythm, on exuding the beat. There’s nothing more disappointing to the listener than to hear someone who doesn’t take these things seriously. When the listener gives him/herself over to the music and is prepared to have a positive experience, but it turns out less than that, it’s quite defeating and leaves a slightly uncomfortable feeling.

Are you moving your listeners with your banjo?

Are you taking the time to prepare, to focus, and to learn to be an artist when it comes to playing your banjo? Have you received physical feedback from those around you by way of tapping feet and clapping hands? I suggest that you begin capitalizing on the artistry that you have inside yourself as early as you can during your picking tenure. Even if you are a first week student, don’t be satisfied with less than making the technique you are working on at any given moment sound its very best. Your audience will thank you.

Part 3 of this series is now posted. To go to the next part, click here: series part 3

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