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| Site last updated . This particular page was created 23/01/2005 and last updated 23/04/2005 Site updates |
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Before we begin: this series of lessons is called "Absolute Beginners" and this is the very first installment of it. We take that literally here at Irish Banjo. We start at the most fundamental details and we move onwards slooowly.
If you feel the progression is too slow - no problem. You can always skip a lesson or two. If you think you should start at a higher level - try one of Gerry O'Connor's book/videos tutorials instead. Actually you ought to try those videos anyway as a suplement to these lesson. But perhaps it's a bit too early for that.
Tuning
First we better tune. The first few lessons we'll only use one string, the second string:
Click on the graphic to hear a midi file with the note and try to tune your banjo as closely as possible to the note.
Fourth notes
For our first exercise we just play that string open - that is without using our left hand. Just play a steady fourth note beat like this:
(Click on the example to hear a midi file)
Can you figure this out on your own?
It's not hard: the dots are the notes, and the strange symbols above them tell you which way to pick, the 
symbol means you play the note with a downstroke (move the pick downwards across the string), the 
means an upstroke. It should sound something like this:
Bars
To keep things better organised we group the notes into bars:
(Click on the example to hear a midi file)
This is exactly the same as the previous example, only we have added barlines separating the notes inot groups of four. To emphasise the bars we play the first note in each a little bit stronger than the others.
A and B
A tune with just a single note can be a bit boring of course, so it's time to introduce note no. 2. Press the string lightly down with your left index finger right behind the second fret:
Then play the last exercise again, this time while holding down the string. Again: click on the diagram to hear how it should sound.
Let's call the first note we played a and this new one b.
Now we can try to switch between them:
(Click on the example to hear a midi file)
You figured this out? Good!
Not exactly rocket science, but then again music often is much simpler than many people believe. It's all about doing the right thing and thinking clearly.
I'd really love to finish the lesson with a proper tune, but I guess it's long enough as it is, so it'll have to wait untill the next lesson.