Easy to Easy+ Banjo Tunes

[Thomas Edgar]

As a beginner to slightly better player, what are some of your favorite easy to lower intermediate banjo pieces? I've tried to check through the previous discussions, and the current "What's in Your Folder" is probably the closest, but still not what I need at this point.  It is easy to fill books with great tunes, but well beyond my abilities.  I know that there are the extensive tutors (thanks, RNM and others), but just as I remember from clarinet band books 50 years ago, a lot of them are not very tuneful. 

Any of you teachers, what is your list of progressive songs?  (I live almost equally between the two teachers listed in the USA, about 1600 km one way and 2400 km the other. :))

Really, a list of progressive pieces would be a great addition to the "Learn to Play" section.  Once you've gotten the ball rolling, a student could start at the top and work down the list, either with a teacher or on their own.

Thanks!

[Jody Stecher]

Thomas, I think by "progressive" you don't  mean  "up-to-date" as in the outdated (?) term "progressive jazz," but rather you are asking for a progression from easy to harder to hardest. Is that right?   And I think that by "songs" you probably mean "instrumental compositions for solo banjo" and not musical pieces for voice with words, which is really another kettle of fish entirely, and is what the word "songs" generally implies. (There is a large body of music for banjo and voice as well, but I think you are not asking about this).

 Assuming I have those meanings correct : I use different pieces of music for different students. I don't use an inflexible curriculum because One Size Fits All doesn't work very well, as each student is different and has different strengths and weaknesses at the outset. I also teach via Skype so distance has little meaning. You can learn from any teacher anywhere in the world via Skype. It's not quite the same as being in the same room but it's not bad at all.  But it's best to have at least some one-on-one with a teacher first, and then continue with Skype. 

For learning on your own you can do no better than to download the two Emil Grimshaw books from this website and go through them in the order the exercises and studies are presented, which is "progressive".  These are not dull exercises, they are actually tuneful and typical banjo passages each devised to develop a particular skill.

The music library here on this site is *already* graded as to easy, intermediate, and difficult so a student can investigate repertoire according to her/his level of skill and choose to learn something that particularly appeals to them. 

[Mike Moss]

+ 1 to the Grimshaw books. The exercises in "How to excel on the banjo" are particularly pleasant and well worth playing.

The exercises in the Morley book, on the other hand, are very dull but the tutor does include some very nice solos at the end which range from very easy (Apline Waltz, Ottawa March, an Old-fashioned breakdown -- tricky tempo in the breakdown though!) to very difficult (the Tarantella is quite a challenging solo).

[Trapdoor2]

As Jody says, it is difficult to recommend anything conclusively. I started with "Sunflower Dance", "Tyro Mazurka" and then "Berkeley March", "Red Rover", "Kaloola" and some others...but I'd been playing three-finger banjo for over 10 yrs previous to finding Classic-style stuff.

There is a list of "Easy", "Moderate" and "Difficult" compositions over on David Wade's Zither Banjo site...but after having messed about with some of the tunes listed therein, I believe they should be listed "Difficult", "Damned Difficult" and "Virtuoso Only". ;-)

 

[Thomas Edgar]

Correct on both counts.

Jody Stecher said:

Thomas, I think by "progressive" you don't  mean  "up-to-date" as in the outdated (?) term "progressive jazz," but rather you are asking for a progression from easy to harder to hardest. Is that right?   And I think that by "songs" you probably mean "instrumental compositions for solo banjo" and not musical pieces for voice with words, which is really another kettle of fish entirely, and is what the word "songs" generally implies. (There is a large body of music for banjo and voice as well, but I think you are not asking about this).