Talent versus Persistence

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I’m always telling my students that interest in any subject can overcome a host of roadblocks. If you are keenly interested in something, then you will easily find time to practice it a lot; and lots of practice equals persistence.

That is the proper way that a beginning student should think about mastering the banjo. Just go for it and apply yourself to it with all diligence.

But there is a white elephant in the room that I can’t go on ignoring: talent. I don’t like to attribute much to this quality, as I see it to be a discouragement to students if they aren’t as talented as so-and-so. Fact is, though, talent is so visible in so many students. It helps someone with lots of it do in one lesson what someone else takes months to accomplish. So how do these two qualities relate and combine to accomplish the task of learning the banjo? Let’s look at the 4 possibilities:

1. No talent, no persistence. Forget it – it won’t happen. Sorry!

2. Talent, no persistence. Ditto. So sad, too.

3. Talent, with persistence. Again, a no-brainer; success is highly probable.

4. No talent, but lots of persistence. Here’s the interesting one! It demands a bit of discussion.

In mathematics, we learn that anything multiplied by zero is still zero, no matter how big a number it is. So it is with talent and persistence; if a person truly has NO talent, then no amount of persistence will have a positive effect. In other words:

Persistence X No Talent = 0

But, almost no one falls into this category; virtually everyone has some amount of talent. So the situation is really ‘little talent, lots of persistence’. That is an important point to remember, as talent is like a multiplicative factor. And persistence is also like that.

The student in this case doesn’t make as much progress, nor do they make it as quickly, but it does happen! Persistence sees to that!

Combine this with the fact that not all students have goals of playing the Grand ‘Ol Opry, or winning a Grammy. Most folks simply want to play well enough to enjoy it and I see that as a greater goal in the grand scheme of things than to strive for lofty heights of performance or acclaim. After all, we are talking about an instrument that is often seen as the hallmark of easy-going contentment and satisfaction – the banjo!

I hope this little illustration explains clearly:

1. Why we should value persistence, even more so than talent, in students.

2. How persistence and talent are both so clearly needed in some amount.

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A Great Time at the Banjo Jam

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Phill Gibson

We had a great time at our Banjo Jam Session at The Coffee Tree on July 18th!

We usually start these practice sessions off by working through a chord sheet with several standard songs we’re familiar with (more or less) and just seeing where it goes from there.

We’re currently practicing some familiar songs such as Cripple Creek, The Ballad of Jed Clampett, Hot Corn, Cold Corn, Amazing Grace, Tom Dooley and Foggy Mountain Breakdown, among others. Since this is a learning experience for most all the students, we keep it fairly slow.

Join us for the next one of you can; it’s open to everyone and is on the third Saturday of each month (that will be August 15 for next month) at 4:00 – 5:00 pm at The Coffee Tree Books and Brew across from Grissom High School in Huntsville.

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Technique Control, Part III – Left Hand Techniques

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Phill Gibson

Last time, we looked at several aspects of control with respect to right hand techniques (or the picking hand, to make it independent of whether you’re left or right-handed). Today, let’s look at how we need to control what happens with the left, or fretting hand.

Approach of Left Fingers to Neck
I keep my left fingers very parallel to each other (once again, with some exceptions for more difficult techniques) and coming down on to the strings almost from straight above; maybe tilted just 10 – 20 degrees from the vertical.

Left Thumb during Slides
Just as your ring and little fingers provide the necessary anchor onto the drum head near the bridge, so also we need an anchor when sliding. By keeping the inside of the left thumb anchored to the upper side of the neck, we can rely on the amount of stretching our hand does to tell us how far to slide; usually either two or three frets-worth. Also, the actual slide is done with the wrist, not the arm or fingers. The fingers should be doing very little work and the arm should be doing no work during a slide.

Angle of Left Palm
Here I’m taking about the angle made by the neck, the palm side of the first knuckle of the first finger and the palm side of the first knuckle of the last finger. For example, if your whole palm were touching the neck, this angle would be zero. I tend to keep this angle also at about 10 to 20 degrees.

Relaxed Left Wrist and Forearm
I keep a very natural feel to the wrist. It’s not stressed at all and, except for some occasional especially difficult left-hand techniques, is very straight.

Keeping Calluses
Calluses on the tips of your fretting fingers will help you execute left-hand techniques. For instance, think about doing a pull-off. If you have calluses, when you press down on the string in preparation to do a pull-off, the callus will cause a small indention around the string that stays there longer than if you didn’t have a callus. When you execute the pull-off, this indention will noticeably help in bringing the string up without as much horizontal movement.
BTW, I like to think of executing a good pull-off as being similar to an airplane taking off from a runway surrounded by tall buildings; you have to get up in elevation quick. I believe it is the Hong Kong airport that is a real-life example of an airport surrounded by skyscrapers, making for a very difficult takeoff and landing (so I’ve heard). Of course, ‘landing’ for us (a hammer-on) is no problem in this regard, unlike a real airplane.
I think calluses also help with just having a bit cleaner sound, as the point of fretting (where your fingers and the fretboard act as a temporary nut) is more tight and definite.
Of course you get calluses by, you guessed it… practicing!

Making Chords in One Movement
It’s important to be able to make chords quickly and that is a challenge every student faces from day one. Sometimes, even after the actual finger positions are learned and become comfortable, it still takes a long time to complete a chord, especially one of the four finger chords. It’s important at this point to make sure you are bringing all of you fingers down onto the fretboard AT THE SAME TIME. Otherwise, you are training you fingers to do it in two, three or four stages, and this is a major impediment to quick execution.
You can practice this by getting all your fingers ready to fret before you actually bring them down onto the fretboard. Have them in position just above their respective places. When all fingers are properly positioned and ready, then bring them down simultaneously. At first, this is a lot harder to do that you might realize. It is the essential component in making chords quickly, and one that is often overlooked.

That’s it for this series. I hope you’ve gotten a good tip or two. Maybe you’ve even found that one trouble spot that was there all along, but was just too obvious to easily recognize.

“Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.”
Dr. Thomas Fuller

Part I  |  Part II  |  Part III

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Technique Control, Part II – Right Hand Techniques

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Phill Gibson

Last time, we looked at an overview of techniques and why we need to keep control of both hands on the banjo. Today, we’ll look at what to control with respect to the right hand; next time, we’ll look at left hand techniques. Here is a checklist of physical details I’ve found useful to keep track of as a beginner, and from time to time as you progress in your banjo studies as well.

Drum Fingers on Right Hand
This is all-important in my book (at least in my 5-string bluegrass book!). It supplies the much-needed support anchor between banjo and fingers. You may be able to get away without any such support closer than where your arm is against the armrest, but you won’t be able to play very fast or precisely without that support.

Snug pick fit – All Fingers
Nothing is more frustrating than having a finger pick get caught on a string on the return movement! It instantly forces a halt to your rhythm. To have your picks consistently be at the exact same distance in relation to your finger tips and the strings will help minimize this and help make your playing as precise as possible. Also make sure you have the drum fingers on the right hand firmly planted as described above. The rest is simply practice.
Something I have all my students do is go home and get a pair of needlenose pliers. Examine very closely how each pick fits on each finger. If there is the least amount of space between finger and pick, close it up by reshaping the pick.
Now, this won’t work with plastic picks, obviously – you’ll have to use Earl Scruggs’ boiling water technique, covered in his book. Don’t try heating plastic picks over a flame or heat!

Length of Thumb Pick
I try to keep a fairly short thumb pick for two reasons. The first reason is because occasionally I do play without picks. Not for very long, but it is nice to sit on the couch and just plunk around with a new lick or melody without formally blasting everyone else out of the house. As I’ve written before thought, I’m careful not to do this for very long, lest I make a habit of it. So if I have a short thumb pick, it isn’t as much of a change to go between picks and no picks.
Secondly, and most importantly, I keep a short thumb pick because the longer a thumb pick is, the more torque, or twisting is introduced into the pick as it is secured to the thumb. Less torque means less tugging to pull the pick away from the thumb, and so less chance of the pick coming off while you are playing.

Right Hand off the Bridge
This can creep up on you before you know it. All of a sudden, you look down, and your right hand is resting solidly on the bridge – no wonder you’re getting a muffled sound. Obviously, it isn’t a good think, usually. It muffles the sound and makes for less volume. Actually, you could use this to good effect for a special technique, but don’t let it start happening unconsciously. This is the same principle behind how a violin, guitar and banjo mute works – adding mass to the bridge makes less vibration that carries through to the rest of the instrument, hence less volume, along with an impaired tone.

Part I  | Part II  |  Part III

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Technique Control, Part I – Introduction

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I’m not a control freak when it comes to people, but I do see the very important role that control plays when it comes to a musical instrument. Hours upon hours of practice drill into our heads the fact that the more precise we can be, the better will be our playing. That’s just common sense, but it’s so easy to let these small details slide and get sloppy if we don’t watch it.

On the other hand, I think of early blues musicians like Blind Willie McTell, Furry Lewis and Muddy Waters. These were musicians who had feeling and soul; borne out of hard Mississippi Delta times. They were not primarily about precision and clean playing. They were from a different time and social environment; still, plenty of soul more than makes up for a lack of high-speed precision in most anyone’s thinking.

Then again, I’m thinking at the moment about bluegrass banjos here, the predominant emphasis being on speed and precision. We can learn lessons from old-time, folk, blues and elsewhere, as we always have. We just have to keep a good balance and not fall off on either side.

So then, we practice to refine our technical skills and at the same time, we bear in mind that these techniques are refined in order to better serve the more general artistic needs of music. That’s one aspect of music that is so thrilling; to be able to blend something highly skilled and physically technical with the artistic vision in our minds, yielding something that is so satisfying to both the left (technical) and right (artistic) sides of our brains – a song.

Next time we’ll get back to specifics of using control to improve our technical capabilities. We’ll start looking at specific techniques and how to best think about and train with them.

Part II  | Part III

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Complexity in Songs

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Phill Gibson

The more full-featured something is (car, computer application, banjo, song, etc.), the more complex it is and so the more difficult to construct. (Also more expensive to fix and less apt to be fixable by yourself!)

This seems intuitive as we think about cars, computers and even musical instruments, but think about it in relation to songs themselves. ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ versus Dave Grusin’s jazzy hit ‘Mountain Dance’, for instance.

Long ages ago, songs were simpler. Even as we think about songs from the late 1800s and early 1900s, we think of songs with rather basic melodies and without the complexity of chords that became prevalent especially in jazz just prior to World War II.

I’m not sure if we have simply exhausted the available permutations on basic melodies for songs, or maybe we have generally developed our tastes to be atuned to more complex song structures. Whichever it is, I wonder if all the low hanging fruit is already taken? Can we expect any new “Twinkle Little Stars” or “Greensleeves” to be created?

And what about the infinite possibilities for songs that we have in our minds? Surely we could expect volumes more, even of simple stuff, to be produced by the remarkable creativity of the human brain?

I don’t have the answer to this, but I can see that much the same situation exists in the IT industry in that most of the easy computer applications have already been written. Nowadays, new computer applications rely more and more on pre-written libraries of code and on pre-arranged code frameworks in order to save re-inventing the wheel. This does save time in the long run, especially for larger applications, although it does replace one type of complexity with another type that makes learning the basics of a new methodology a longer process.

I can’t think of any parallel to code libraries and frameworks in music and composing, but I do see that in computer programming and engineering the easy stuff has been done. The low hanging fruit has been taken. If that’s also the case with songs, then to take up the work involved in creating new songs requires either a new twist on existing ideas (by developing your style sufficiently to set your work apart) or by creating new directions in musical expression (which also requires developing your style).

Although it’s true you could create a new song using the same motifs and place it in a typical I-IV-V chord structure, without anything new, even just a new melody, or perhaps a certain ‘hook’ to characterize the song, you’re just rearranging the components of existing songs. I’ve written some songs that would fall into this category; they differ in that the melody and some new chordal phrases are introduced. I would consider them to be unique and worthy of being considered songs in their own right.

So perhaps the creativity within our minds can reduce the complexity of songs to the level of being yet more ‘low hanging fruit’? Easy-to-grasp and to work with, yet only to someone who has exercised his or her mind to be atuned to this particular musical task.

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4 Hazards of Playing Slow

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Phill Gibson

We usually have an optimal ‘window’ within which we play our songs. Too fast, and obviously we are out of our comfort zone. But play it slower than usual and you hit some different problems.

 

The main problems with playing too fast involve not being able to keep up, which absolutely kills your timing and rhythm; playing sloppily because you’re trying instead just to keep up; and loosing subtle accents in your playing because once again you are trying to just keep pace with a too-fast song. Not to mention, often a song also sounds ‘hurried’ if played too fast, even if you are able to keep up with it.

 

Playing too slow can be problematic as well, but for different reasons. Here are 4 of them.

 

1 – It can make a song sound very dull, especially if it is a well-known song or a song that beginners frequently play. In that case, you’ll either want to speed it up, or get pretty creative with your approach to the song.

2 – If you are used to playing a certain song at a faster clip, then really slowing it down can make it noticeably more difficult to keep good timing. Just be prepared for a more difficult break or backup situation than you would otherwise anticipate.

3 – When I’m playing a song a good deal slower than what I’m used to, I always have the temptation to use this as an opportunity to start improvising. That’s a good thing, but nevertheless, it also makes for the inevitable mess-up somewhere in the song. If this is a ‘Production Run’ (i.e., it’s a situation for being more polished than the usual jam session), then think twice before experimenting on the fly.

4 – Playing a song slower can sometimes make you forget a well-known lick. I’ve done that on occasion. It’s almost like your fingers have it memorized, but only if it’s faster than a certain speed; slower than that and your fingers start to get disoriented.

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Some Freeware All Banjo Players Need

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Phill Gibson

Here’s a couple of software applications that I have found to be pretty essential; one is useful for anyone working with sound on a computer, and the other is great for anyone working with tablature (not just banjos)

Audacity
Audacity is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. It is a great audio waveform editor / recorder that is free. No bought version, or nagware, even. It’s available for PC as well as Mac and Linux/Unix platforms. It does take a while to learn, but once you do, it will be very useful. I especially like to use it to grab a section of a file containing a break I want to learn. I can save just this one section off to a separate file and slow it down as much as I like, while keeping the same pitch – just what I need to be able to pick out individual notes in a break!

I also like to use it in conjunction with songs I have recorded from my old collection of vinyl for placing on my iPod. Using my old record player connected to my PC, sometimes I don’t get the beginnings and endings just right. With Audacity, I can go in and either shorten or lengthen the silence, and fade out the ending if it’s one of those songs that transitions into another with no convenient place to stop recording.

You can also record you own songs and dub one track after another. This takes a bit more effort using Audacity that with commercially available packages, but it is doable.

TablEdit
TablEdit can be found at http://www.tabledit.comand is a great tablature editor for creating, editing and listening to MIDI files based on tablature. It is easy to get used to and has many options to tweak, although I sometimes have to hunt around for exactly where the command is that I need.

It also can import files from several other formats including ASCII, MIDI, ABC, MusicXML, Bucket O’ Tab, TabRite, and Wayne Cripps files. Files can be saved in TablEdit format or exported to ASCII, HTML, ABC, RTF, MIDI or WAV formats.

Also, you can find a lot of banjo tab on the internet that is already in this format. You’ll be able to not only create tabs of your own creations, but also listen to others’ tabs. You can view either the tab or the equivalent musical notation, or both simultaneously.

It can really help if you’re learning about timing in musical notation, too. Just input some examples and play them back to see if the timing is what you’d expect.

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7 Things a Musician Should Never Do

Posted on July 5, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I’ve heard that kids should never ride a dog backwards, downstairs. I’ve never tried this, so I have no first hand experience. But as one of my college professors was fond of saying “You don’t have to stick your head in a garbage can to know what garbage smells like; in similar fashion, I see how kids, dogs and stairs should relate properly.

Likewise, there are certain things musicians should not find themselves doing. Here are 7 of them; some tongue in cheek, some more serious.

Heating Picks on an Open Flame
From time to time it becomes necessary to adjust a pick. Although I use a metal thumb pick, typically, a thumb pick is made of plastic and so you can’t tweak it with a pair of pliers. Neither can you expect to be able to hold it over an open flame in order to soften it up. I tried this once down in my workshop, and found a normal thumb pick to be made of highly volatile material! It caught fire quickly and refused to be extinguished until I threw it in a nearby pail of water.
It’s much better to follow the instructions given in Earl Scruggs’ book where you put your pick in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then take it out and reshape it. After it’s reshaped, just put it in cool water for a few seconds to finish the process.

Sighting Down the Fretboard While Tensioning Strings
This is also something we all have to do – cranking up strings to get them up to proper tension. I’ve heard two bad stories about this.
One was a friend who was tightening a string on his Martin D-28 guitar. It popped loose and came very close to his eye; within an inch or two. Luckily, it only left a small cut.
Another story wasn’t so fortunate. A fellow was tensioning a mandolin string when it popped. Mandolins, in case you don’t know, are under a LOT of tension, so when they go, which isn’t often, they really go. He lost his eye, so I’m told. So sad!
Never tension a string while you have it in line with your face. Also, I always close my eyes when I feel the tension starting to get substantial, even though I wear glasses. If you don’t wear glasses, then be even more careful when tensioning strings!

Picking Up Your Case the Wrong Way
This one won’t result in burns or lost body parts, but will make you regret it nevertheless. I used to pick up my banjo case vertically sometimes, with the banjo inside, which puts undue pressure on the handle. I found this an easier way to get through doors. But one day the handle had had enough and broke, causing the case (banjo and all) to crash to the floor. No harm was done to the instrument, but I had to try to fix the case, which was never the same.

A few other rather obvious things not to do – more along the lines of kids, dogs and stairs than of strings popping:

Never eat a sandwich while wearing your instrument. Especially if it has a large soundhole.

Don’t keep your instrument near or above a fireplace.

Don’t put heavy gauge strings on a mandolin that needs light or mediums. And don’t store it under the bed (or wherever) fully tensioned for a log time.

Don’t forget to check a banjo with a skin drumhead when the weather changes, especially when the weather clears up; that’s when it starts to tighten up.

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The Most Unusual Place I've Ever Played Banjo

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Phill Gibson

I’ve not played that much for large gatherings; mostly less than 20 or so folks. On occasion, I’ve played for one or two hundred folks. But the most unusual place I’ve ever played took place years ago heading into downtown Birmingham (hmmm.. sounds a little like ‘The Promised Land’ that Elvis Presley sang.)

Anyway, I used to take the bus to work almost every day. I’d pick it up the Crosstown South #9 in Tarrant, then change in downtown Birmingham to go into the medical district, where I worked as a biologist.

I had a couple of pickin’ buddies at work, and we would bring our instruments to play during lunch. Some of the doctors really liked it, too. As a matter of fact, one of my fellow musicians was a doctor.

One day, while taking the bus to work, I noticed they changed bus drivers, as they usually do every few months or so. I now had this guy on the morning route that loved bluegrass music, and banjos in particular. He often said he was going to get me to play him a tune one day, and I always said ‘ok’, not thinking much else of it. At last the time came to change drivers again. He said:

“Today’s my last day on this route – play that thing for me!”

” You mean right here – on the bus!?”

“Sure, why not!”

I felt a little self-conscious, as I was about the only white person on the bus, and I knew that the banjo was an historically black instrument. But I didn’t know how typical black people still felt about it. Would playing it right there be akin to making crude jokes about watermelons or slavery days?

After just a moment, I figured most folks probably didn’t give it a second though, so I got out the banjo and proceeded to play ‘Duelin’ Banjos’. Right there on the bus, heading into downtown Birmingham.

And no one threw tomatoes at me. They all liked it and were a bit amazed to hear an actual banjo.

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