I bought a banjo about 3 years ago. Figured that Don and Brian were into playing different instruments, so figured I needed to get with the program. At first I was looking at a guitar banjo, or as some call it, a six string banjo. You might have seen Keith Urban or Neil Young play a 'six string banjo'. Basically, they have a guitar neck and are tuned like a guitar, but they have a banjo body. They sort of sound like a banjo, but then they really don't have that high G (if in G tuning) that you get playing your thumb of the top string on a banjo. Of course Keith and Neil can make them sound pretty decent.
I figured that a guitar banjo would be easy to play if you are a guitar player, so I went down to The Acoustic Music Shop on Whyte Ave. They had a couple sitting there. I picked them up. They were strung and tuned in standard tuning for a guitar. Easy enough to play, but they still really didn't sound like a true banjo. Something seemed like it was missing.
I had an old 'Raven' banjo that my father-in-law had, so I had learned a few things on a banjo. So I picked up a 5 string banjo and played what little I could on it. It did sound more like I thought a banjo should sound. I also figured that if I was going to start playing different instruments, that I should really learn how to play a banjo, not just another guitar. So I ended up buying the 5 string. Actually, the other deciding factor was the Acoustic Music Shop had a great deal on a Goldtone - half price. Certainly was in my budget, while the guitar banjos they had wasn't.
So I took the banjo home and started to learn. Took me a while to get my fingers to work, but since I play a little bit of finger picking on guitar, I just applied what I already knew. I have figured out a few different finger picking styles on the banjo. Can't get the hang of the 'clawhammer' style though. Looks easy, but ----.
So for a while, I played the banjo at home until I heard someone yelling "that's enough'. Learning a new instrument can be cruel. Good thing i wasn't trying to learn a fiddle. I managed to get somewhat adept enough to play a couple of tunes with the Magpies. We used to do a cover of 'You Ain't Going Nowhere" which is a Bob Dylan song that the Byrds did. Simple 3-chord song. Then slowly, I quit playing the banjo.
A few weeks ago, I picked it up again. funny how all that I learned before had gone. Started re-learning all over again. Fingers don't work like they used to either. no speed. Frustration set in. Yet, I kept trying and I'm still trying. My playing is certainly not going to impress even a reasonably good banjo player. Hell, I'm not impressed.
So the other day, I decided I'd try to play a song that Don wrote called "Clouds of Alberta". Its a rock beat country folk song - or something like that. We play the song a fair amount, but with two 6-string guitars and a bass. I picked up the banjo and played around with it. Last night, we got together to practice to get our songs. when we came to 'clouds', I picked up the banjo. Figured I'd surprise Don a bit with a different sound. he didn't even blink. All he said was "don't come in off the start - come in on the second verse". He didn't say put the banjo away.
This morning, I listed to the recording we did of the Zoom H2 recorder of the song. other than a few rough spots, the banjo did fit in quite nicely. There isn't a dazzling banjo musicianship, but it adds a driving beat into the song. Now I just need to keep working on the banjo with this song and get it right. Get it so it is second nature without even thinking about what I'm doing. Got 30 days to do that.
