Beginner banjo question - lessons

HCDavies

The man in red also left a banjo at my house. Mine is tuned to Cm, as I want to play Journey Of the Sorcerer by The Eagles, best known as the theme to The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy. 

Thanks for all the advice from posters, looks like mine is well set up. And it included a hard case to keep it so.

Peaceful New Year to all.
 

Mellish

@Kalimna ; "Play Bluegrass Banjo by Ear" by the late Bill Keith is a DVD  aimed at beginners and should get the basics under your belt.

However, banjo heads (at least new ones) are not stable. They stretch, brackets become loose, and that's why you need to get used to tensioning the head.

 

Kalimna

Ahh, gotcha (head tensioning). I'll also check out the DVD you recommend.

So far, ive managed the first few bars of 'Duelling Banjos'...... No cliche there, eh?

Mellish

@Kalimna ;;Well that's not bad.

Here's the head tensioning pattern I use. It's in pairs and starts right of the neck heel with 1 (going clockwise with 24 on the other side of the heel):

1 & 24

12 & 13
6 & 7
18 & 19
3 & 4
15 & 16
9 & 10
21 & 22
2 & 5
14 & 17
8 & 11
20 & 23.
This is for an 11" head

Mellish

@HCDavies ;

Same to you mate  

Mellish

@Kalimna ; another, very good DVD is "The Complete 5 String Banjo Player" by Tony Trischka.

He explains forward/backward rolls and both  hands  can be seen in detail.

The beauty of a DVD is that you can stop and rewind as many times as it takes.

 

Kalimna

Thank you for all your advice - it has been very kind of you!

Mellish

You're welcome

 

Dominic

Get Steve Martin to pop over for an evening