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Articles & Books From Bill Evans
Here’s the quick way to get pickin’ with the best of ‘em The banjo is both a staple of old-time music and an instrument that makes frequent cameos in today’s chart toppers. Whatever your musical leanings, Banjo For Dummies will show you how to pick your way around your instrument, even if you have zero musical background!
Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-25-2022
The picking-hand sequences known as roll patterns are what gives bluegrass banjo its unique and incredible sound. It’s important for these patterns to become completely second nature, because you use them in all aspects of bluegrass banjo playing.Melodic and single-string banjo techniques offer alternative ways to play based around scales.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Bluegrass banjo players can’t live by G alone, no matter how much they may wish this were true! It’s now time to look at ten great‐sounding licks based around the C chord, which is the chord you’ll often encounter just after you play a G lick in a song (and sometimes — as in the songs “This Land Is Your Land” and “John Hardy” — the C chord is the first chord you’ll play).
Cheat Sheet / Updated 01-31-2022
Knowing how to interpret chord diagrams and being able to read banjo tablature, the written form of music for the banjo, will pave the way for a much smoother road ahead on all of your banjo adventures. Becoming familiar with the most important chords and essential right-hand techniques will put you in the fast lane for having more fun playing music with others.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Bluegrass banjo players live in the world of G! The open strings of your banjo are tuned to a G chord, most of the songs you play will be in the key of G, and you’ll encounter the G chord most frequently in chord progressions. For all these reasons, you simply can’t have enough G licks. The phrases you’ll encounter here lay the foundation for great bluegrass banjo playing.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
D licks can be real bluegrass banjo attention getters. This is probably because bluegrass banjo players have come up with a lot of creative things to play when this chord inevitably pops up in a song. Most of these licks are based around different roll patterns. If you grasp the picking‐hand moves first, you can then more easily add fretting‐hand techniques to play each phrase smoothly.
Step by Step / Updated 02-01-2017
Fill‐in licks comprise a special category of phrases that are treated by bluegrass banjo players with special reverence. You call upon a fill‐in lick when there’s a break in the musical activity of some kind, as when a singer takes a breath between the lines of a song lyric. You can also use one or more fill‐in licks to raise the musical temperature for the final measures of your next banjo solo.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
If the banjo is the first stringed instrument you've ever attempted to play, it may seem as if you have a million things to remember at this first stage. Everything feels so new and unfamiliar.
Don't get discouraged! Banjo players tend to be perfectionists, so be careful not to let your desire to play things correctly overwhelm your love for playing (and remember that everyone learns from his or her mistakes — even banjo players).
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
One of the things that separates music, such as you’re learning to play on a banjo, from random noise is that time is organized (in some way) within a piece of music. For now, the word rhythm refers collectively to all the different aspects of music that have to do with time and duration.
The most important aspect of playing the banjo well — both as a beginner and as an advanced player — is to play with good rhythm.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Although the five-string banjo is by far the most popular type of banjo being played today, decades ago the most popular banjos in the first half of the 20th century were four-string tenor and plectrum banjos. These banjos are really different instruments and shouldn't be confused with the five-string banjo.
Understanding the differences between banjos is important, because before you begin your adventure, you need to make sure you're traveling with the right kind of equipment.