Category Archives: Tips & Techniques

Know When to Drop a Bad Break

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Phill Gibson

As you advance in your banjo-playing skills, you’ll often be coming up with your own breaks (and backups) to various songs. Maybe you’ve tried your hand at songwriting and like it. Maybe you’re simply adding depth to your own coverage … Continue reading →

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When the Going Gets Tough

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I’ve often had students come to me and say they’ve hit a wall in terms of their practice. They keep trying, but it just seems like they are not making any progress. First, I always try to eliminate a few … Continue reading →

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Pick Your Battles

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Phill Gibson

Sometimes, our musical efforts can be a lot like raising kids – you have to pick your battles. Just as with young ones, you have to know when to pursue discipline (lest the effect of discipline becomes worse than the … Continue reading →

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Ben Freed's List of 100 Songs to Learn

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Phill Gibson

A while back (July, 2006 to be specific), Banjo Newsletter featured a list compiled by Ben Freed detailing his take on the 100 songs a banjo player should have in his/her repertoire. This article is actually a follow-up to another … Continue reading →

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Pursue the Difficult, the Easy Will Follow

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Phill Gibson

One of my myriad hobbies is birdwatching, or ‘birding’ to the dyed-in-the-wool birder. One of the main areas of interest to a birder is adding to his or her life list. A life list is the list of bird species … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Ramblings, Tips & Techniques | 2 Comments

A Tried and True Technique for Easy Backup

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Phill Gibson

Here’s an easy technique for the very common situation in which you are playing a song you don’t know the chords to. Assuming it is a fairly simple song with only I, IV and V chords, this works very well. … Continue reading →

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A Little-known Technique to Improve Your Playing Quality

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I am not ashamed to admit that I love easy things. So if I find something that is not easy, the first thing I do is try to see if I can make it easier (but not if making it … Continue reading →

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Slide-out, Switch-in

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Phill Gibson

As I’ve taught students the basics of chords and their positions on the banjo fret board, I’ve continued to marvel at the various symmetries and relationships that pop up. For instance, Let’s look at the D and F chord positions … Continue reading →

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Defining Your Own Style

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Phill Gibson

As a web developer by day, I often work with something called cascading style sheets, or CSS for short. On a web page, this is where you put all of you ‘look and feel’ properties for a web page, or … Continue reading →

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A few notes on my own practice – Improvising

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I’ve been so busy at work these past few weeks I’ve only just gotten caught up with things here at home! I’ve got a lot of banjo topics to blog on – I just need the time to sit down … Continue reading →

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