Pages 46 through 55

All good accurate information and useful things to play. My only issue is with the lack of explicit words explaining how to use the example at the start of the section on Elevated Bass. We are not told what the example exemplifies. The top of the page tells us that the bass C note goes up a step. So I tuned it up. Then we're given four bars of music. I tried to play it and discovered it was impossible. It turns out that this is intended to be an example of what can easily be played with the bass string tuned to C but which can't be played in elevated bass tuning. This is a useful example if we are told that this its purpose. But we are not told. 

Everything else in these 10 pages is clear and explicit.

Pages 56 through 59

In the section on broken thirds Bradbury uses an apostrophe to indicate a plural. Whoops. The apostrophe is useful in indicating plural when following a number. So " 3's "  is ok as an alternative to "threes".  But in this book we see "3rd's".  That means "belonging to 3rd." But what is meant is the plural of third. And using the apostrophe to mean that is just plain wrong.  Would it have been so hard to print "thirds"?  

The broken thirds exercise is good but we are not told the meaning of "broken thirds". It means two notes a third apart that are played in succession instead of together. I think the student would be better off if the author was explicit. He so often is. So why not here?

All good with the next page.

Then I came to The Gauchos Gallopade. This is the first piece I've come to in this book that confused me at first.  Once I comprehended how it should sound I was able to play both banjo parts and found that once again Bradbury does a good job in introducing  new techniques in such a way as to provide a challenge to the student that is just enough for stimulation but not so hard as to overwhelm or discourage. 

As for the title: once again it is a title with no discernible  connection with the musical content. And with no apostrophe in the middle word what can the title possibly mean? If the title was The Gaucho's Gallopade it would suggest that gallopade is a noun and this music is meant to indicate something that a  South American cowboy dances to when not herding cattle upon the pampas. But without the apostrophe in Gauchos the word Gallopade becomes a verb and there is now at least one more cowboy.

 The title seems to be a statement: The cowboys do dance.  OR.... since gallopade means "gallop" maybe we are meant to imagine gauchos moving fast on horseback. I have no way of knowing.  A good editor would have caught this.

But I found nothing in the music to conjure such images.

The Final Pages of Book One : 60 through 64

Before I discuss these last pages I should mention yet another problem I had with the paragraph at the bottom of page 45. We are told that when we squeeze in the third finger it should be well squared up.  I have no idea what is meant.  

On page 60 we are introduced to the key of D major and its relative minor B. The left hand fingering for D is clever in its use of the second string on the higher frets. Most new students would not think of this on their own. I have a quibble with the prescribed fingering in B minor. Why play the lower notes in 1st position? I use my 2nd finger on fret 2 when the index is occupied on fret 1. But here the 1st fret is untouched.  By beginning in 2nd position the B minor scale(s) becomes easier to play. 

Then comes Home On The Range. This was my favorite song at age 5.  How would it sound on the banjo in D major? Bradbury's arrangement does not disappoint. It simultaneously sounds good to the listener while educating the player in new ways to play the banjo. Everything here makes sense musically and technically with new fingerings introduced at exactly the right time in the course of the student's banjo education.

The last page presents useful exercises, parts of which will not be easy to play at first. And that is the point. Their purpose is to make the student more able.