I remember teaching a guitar class in which there were two ladies who played and taught piano. They, like Paul, found the strings and frets very confusing compared to the way piano keys lay out everything very nicely in a linear fashion. It seemed to be of some help to them when I commented, as Jody has done, about each string and the frets being half steps. I don't recall if Jody mentioned this, but one exercise you might do for familiarity is to play chromatic scales up each string. Also major and minor scales up each string, and of course using regular fingerlings with open strings.
I also got quite a bit out of the Bradbury book. Its main selling point might be that it is still available. The other method books ("tutors" on this great site, I believe) are also good. Most of them take up quite a few pages at the beginning explaining basic music fundamentals, which you don't need.
i would recommend getting away from tablature. As a music reader, tab seems a very tedious process. I do see its use in some cases where it represents the 5th string more clearly than regular notation sometimes can, but most notated banjo music finds a way to indicate the 5th string.
Last comment: banjo and guitar are interesting in that going "up" a string actually involves going "down" towards the floor, and going "up" the strings also involves going down towards the floor, with the banjo having the additional anomaly of the high-pitched fifth string to add to the craziness! You have to just dive in, use Some of your piano note reading knowledge but immerse yourself in the new territory of the banjo.
sounds as if you are avidly exploring. Good luck and have fun!
Randy....thankyou for a constructive and supportive comment...yes I've been reading everyday...starting to "Get It" it's nice to be able to stack notes so tight together for chord voicing using the fifth string...quit ingenious how the fifth string affords things like that...im working in the Mel Bays Concert Style starting on page 26 today...and also on the videos and working on the part one of the videos with the music and tab....i do have some questions how the tab is wrote...ive seen the lines used and in this video I see the spaces used..also there is a mistake in the tab using the 6 position instead of the 5 bar chord...just thought I would bring this to light just in case of another without music knowledge...again thanks for understanding what I was talking about...regards Paul
Randy Dary
Welcome to Classic Banjo!
I remember teaching a guitar class in which there were two ladies who played and taught piano. They, like Paul, found the strings and frets very confusing compared to the way piano keys lay out everything very nicely in a linear fashion. It seemed to be of some help to them when I commented, as Jody has done, about each string and the frets being half steps. I don't recall if Jody mentioned this, but one exercise you might do for familiarity is to play chromatic scales up each string. Also major and minor scales up each string, and of course using regular fingerlings with open strings.
I also got quite a bit out of the Bradbury book. Its main selling point might be that it is still available. The other method books ("tutors" on this great site, I believe) are also good. Most of them take up quite a few pages at the beginning explaining basic music fundamentals, which you don't need.
i would recommend getting away from tablature. As a music reader, tab seems a very tedious process. I do see its use in some cases where it represents the 5th string more clearly than regular notation sometimes can, but most notated banjo music finds a way to indicate the 5th string.
Last comment: banjo and guitar are interesting in that going "up" a string actually involves going "down" towards the floor, and going "up" the strings also involves going down towards the floor, with the banjo having the additional anomaly of the high-pitched fifth string to add to the craziness! You have to just dive in, use Some of your piano note reading knowledge but immerse yourself in the new territory of the banjo.
sounds as if you are avidly exploring. Good luck and have fun!
Nov 23, 2018
Paul Painter
Randy....thankyou for a constructive and supportive comment...yes I've been reading everyday...starting to "Get It" it's nice to be able to stack notes so tight together for chord voicing using the fifth string...quit ingenious how the fifth string affords things like that...im working in the Mel Bays Concert Style starting on page 26 today...and also on the videos and working on the part one of the videos with the music and tab....i do have some questions how the tab is wrote...ive seen the lines used and in this video I see the spaces used..also there is a mistake in the tab using the 6 position instead of the 5 bar chord...just thought I would bring this to light just in case of another without music knowledge...again thanks for understanding what I was talking about...regards Paul
Nov 23, 2018