How Hard is it to Learn to Play the 5-String Banjo? https://nativeground.

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How Hard is it to Learn to Play the 5-String

Banjo?

I get asked this question all the time, so I thought I might as well answer it. Learning the
banjo can be as easy as falling off a log or as painful as a good ole root canal. It all depends
on how it’s taught.

Bluegrass banjo as pioneered by Earl Scruggs sounds like it has a billion notes. It not only
sounds complicated, it IS complicated. But friends, it doesn’t have to be that way.
Unfortunately, most instruction books and banjo teachers completely miss the boat by
starting the total beginner off with complicated rolls and then wonder why their students
are so frustrated. The failure of these methods is that you cannot hear the melody.

After many years of teaching I have developed a different and much simpler approach that
stresses the melody instead of the rolls. I start beginners off by showing them easy
melodies that they’re already familiar with, When the student can play just the basic tune
of a few well-known songs, I then introduce a very simple roll that I call the “thumb-pinch.”
All you do is play an open or unfretted string with your thumb followed by pinching or
plucking the 1st and 5th strings together at the same time.

Here is an example of a thumb-pinch.

Note: the horizontal lines are the five strings of the banjo. The 1st string is at the top and
the 5th string is on the bottom. A “O” means you play that string “open” (unfretted).

Now let’s play the same thing, but this time you’ll recognize the beginning notes of “I’ll Fly
Away.”

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Let me contrast my simple Melody Method with the “normal” way banjo is usually taught.
Below you’ll see a rather complicated arrangement of “I’ll Fly Away.” It uses a slide (s) and
what’s known as a reverse or a backwards roll. For the beginner, this is pretty hairy stuff. It
would scare the pants off of me if I were to attempt to play it as a beginner.

The main problem with this complicated arrangement is that you can play it all day long
and it’s still not going to sound like the tune of “I’ll Fly Away.” In contrast, my Melody
Method is so simple and straightforward you can hear the melody almost immediately. It
also lends itself to making the tunes your own by showing you how to plug in different easy
rolls that substitute for the thumb-pinch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you like learning music in the most simple way, I invite you to try
my book, Bluegrass Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus. This funny and friendly
book has taught tens of thousands of beginners to play. It clearly lays out the simple bare
bones melody of 22 popular bluegrass songs that you can play with a thumb-pinch. For
each song, it provides additional simple rolls you can go back and substitute for your
thumb-pinch. This book makes it so easy, you’ll be kicking yourself for putting off learning
to banjo for so long.

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Bluegrass Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus comes complete with an audio CD so
you can hear what each song sounds like. You can also download the audio for free on our
website, and for those of you who like everything to be digital, you can purchase the
book/MP3 set as a PDF or for Kindle. If you have any trouble learning what’s in the book,
give us a call at (800)752-2656 and I’d be glad to help you out myself!

In my article entitled “Guitar” I showed you a number of basic guitar chords. Armed with
that knowledge, there are thousands of songs you can play simply by strumming the chord
and singing, humming or whistling the song.

Before you can do that you will need to figure out which chords to play when.

The good news is that most bluegrass, folk and country songs can be played with just three
chords. These three chords form a little family called a “Key.” We often give the chords in
this family the numbers 1 4 and 5.

As you can see in the illustration below, in the key of A, the 1 is A, 4 is D and 5 is E.

Let’s take another example, the key of G. In the key of G, G

is 1, C is 4 and D is 5.

To make your task even easier, I’ve compiled the following list of bluegrass songs that only
use only two chords. Important Fact: When a song has only two chords, only the 1 and the
5 chords are normally used.

Select a song from the list that you’re familiar with. For the moment, let’s choose the well-
known folk song “Down in the Valley.” Let’s play it in the key of D. That means the 1 chord
is a D and the 5 chord is an A. Or if you prefer to do it in the key of G, the 1 chord is a G and
the 5 chord is a D. Correct?

So strum your 1 chord, and begin singing or humming the melody as you strum down with
your pick on the chord.

You already know what chords to use, the 1 and the 5. What you may not know is WHEN to
change chords. The melody will tell you when to change chords. The melody needs to
sound harmonious with the chord you are playing. If the melody clashes with the chord you
are on, change to the other chord. Pretty soon, you’ll get used to what sounds good and
what doesn’t. TIP: Most bluegrass or folk type songs always start on the 1 chord.
Somewhere in the middle or end of the verse, it will change to the 5 chord. On the very last
word of the verse it will resolve back to the 1 chord.

So here is a list of of songs that only use TWO CHORDS.

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A Distant Land to Roam

Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down
Bonepart’s Retreat
Bring Me a Little Water Silvie
Buffalo Gals
Cotton-Eyed Joe
Country Blues
Dark Road’s A Hard Road To Travel
Darling Corey
Did You Ever See the Devil Uncle Joe?
Dig a Hole in the Meadow
Dixie Darling
Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan?
Don’t Go Out Tonight
Down in the Valley
Driving Nails In My Coffin
Get On Your Knees and Pray
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Handsome Molly
Hold To God’s Unchanging Hand
Home Among the Hills
Hop High Ladies
Hot Corn, Cold Corn
Hush Little Baby
I Just Think I’ll Go Away
I Am The Man, Thomas
I Dreamed I Searched Heaven for You
I’ll Go Stepping Too
I’m Working On A Building
I’ve Always Been a Rambler
It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
John Henry
Johnson Boys
Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
Katy Hill
Kentucky
Leather Britches
Letter From My Darling
Little Moses
Lonely Tombs
Lonesome Wind Blues
Lost John
My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
Oh Death
Old Gospel Ship
Old Blue
Old Joe Clark
Old-Time Religion
Peg and Awl
Pick a Bale of Cotton
Poison Love
Poor Old Dirt Farmer
Pretty Polly
Raleigh And Spencer
Reuben’s Train

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Sally Goodin
Sally Johnson
Shady Grove
Sharecropper’s Son
Shortnin’ Bread
Simple Gifts
Single Girl
Somehow Tonight
Standing in the Need of Prayer
Take Me Back to Tulsa
These Men Of God
Tom Dooley
Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down
Train 45
Twilight is Falling
Uncle Joe
Walking in My Sleep
Waltz Across Texas
Warfare
Wayworn Traveler, The
What Would You Give in Exchange?
Where the Soul Never Dies
Will You Be Satisfied That Way?
Will You Be Lonesome Too

By the way, I have a wonderful new book,Flatpicking for the the Complete Ignoramus!

This book will be your new best friend. Its friendly style and easy
songs makes learning the guitar fun and nearly painless. It comes as a set with a CD with
90 tracks where I play each melody very slowly and clearly on the mandolin. I’m so sure
that you’ll like the book that I’ll offer you this guarantee. If you purchase the book and CD
and either don’t like it or don’t get anything of value out of it, return it, and I’ll send you a
check. Just tell me how much you paid for it. I only ask that you USE the book first. Fair
enough?

Yours truly,

Wayne Erbsen

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