How many people actually play this style?

[Austin]

I'm curious. How many people even know about it? It seems rare to find someone who does.

[Austin]

I'm sorry I don't mean to step on any toes when writing new music for the banjo. I just want to play my own compositions.

[IAN SALTER]

I don't suppose anyone thinks you have done that. You have to do what feels right and makes you happy.

[Ethan Schwartz]

Austin, you can do as you please with the banjo or any other instrument. You certainly don't need permission or approval from anyone here. If you want to do new things with the banjo, that's great, but people who are invested in a particular tradition of banjo playing (e.g. classic banjo, old-time, bluegrass) probably won't be interested in it. That's just how it goes. And I wouldn't consider a new composition to be within the boundaries of classic banjo simply by virtue of it being played fingerstyle on nylon strings. It would have to be rooted in the stylistic norms of the tradition. Again, nothing wrong with taking inspiration from established sources.

[Joel Hooks]

Agreed with Ethan. 

Austin, if you post on public forums you should expect some comment or criticism (constructive or not) as that is just the nature of the situation.

Also consider that making such claims might be taken as if you are saying that what we play (classic banjo) is not good enough and needs to be taken to "new" places.  This sort of thing will never go over well in a special interest group.

The regulars on this website are here because we like the existing repertoire. We like Grimshaw, Morley, Armstrong, Stewart, Lansing, Eno, Hunter, Bradbury, Ellis, etc., etc..  We like the sound of bare fingers in nylon strings.

You will find that we would more than welcome expanding that repertoire with new works.  But there is a reason we like this music, and speaking for myself, I would like new works "in the style of" the existing repertoire.

This does not mean that you should restrict yourself in any way.  But rolling back the clock, you started on BHO proclaiming that you would be able to work out a better system using all five fingers somehow and that it would be better than any established systems of alternate fingering.   Then you abandoned that and started perusing what we now call "classic banjo" through Farland's method book while writing that you don't like the music and you could do better.  You talk about "expanding" the banjo with no "limits".  Great, but each time you do this, intended or not, you are telling us you are only here to explain what can be done better than what we like, which is not good enough.  

So I will give you some unsolicited advice.  How about dialing it back a little and instead of making sweeping declarations, give something a chance. 

As far as composing, I'll give you more unsolicited advice.  Learn to play the banjo.   Learn to play in time.  Practice shifting positions until they are smooth and in time.  Take your time to work on alternate fingering.  Take your time to learn the chord shapes on the banjo fingerboard. 

Then compose on and for the banjo.  Write your music to lay on the fingerboard and to be playable.  Start with very simple melody ideas and keep to consistent tempos/time in until you master it.

If you make it playable, and you use all the established banjo specific edits in your writing, I will attempt to play your music.  If I like it I will play it.

So, try this...  It is March.  Why not compose a simple two part piece in the style of an Irish jig.  Keep it in first position, key of C (or A minor).  If you are half way through Bradbury you should have the basics down by now.  You can even take an existing Irish Jig and shift it around to form a new piece.

Try that.  Small successes lead to bigger successes. Hemingway did not write The Sun Also Rises a few months into learning to read and write. 

[Richard William Ineson]

Austin, have you taken a good look at the existing repertoire of music which was composed especially for the instrument? There are thousands of pieces, of which, in my opinion, you should have a reasonable knowledge, otherwise, how are you to know that you are composing things which have not been composed by somebody else, in times gone by? The compositions of Morley, Grimshaw, Cammeyer, Eno, Hunter, alone, run into the many hundreds, then there are the lesser lights such as Lawes, Kirby, Fillis etc. who wrote some interesting pieces. 

Austin said:

I'm sorry I don't mean to step on any toes when writing new music for the banjo. I just want to play my own compositions.

[Austin]

I plan on learning a lot of them. I still have my training wheels on though. I just write in my spare time. Most of my time is spent either composing or practicing.

[Richard William Ineson]

It's a big job but I'm sure that you'll do it, nothing can stop a determined man or woman.

Austin said:

I plan on learning a lot of them. I still have my training wheels on though. I just write in my spare time. Most of my time is spent either composing or practicing.