Music theory formulas: what initially looks difficult eventually becomes second nature
Learning to play banjo has three general stages (I know, it’s complicated):
Head: The first stage is the intellectual understanding of musical structures (scales, chords), tonal relationships, and tablature. At the simplest level, these concepts apply to all styles of music, whether bluegrass, rock, jazz, or classical. This conceptual stage of learning, which is the usual stuff of music theory classes, is often the easiest.
Ears: The second stage is the development of the ear – that is, the ability to hear the theoretical concepts. Relative pitch perception is developed as you practice. You can accelerate the learning process by singing (using numbers) everything you study: scales, chords, progressions, etc. In this way you will build the skills you need to play your musical ideas.
Hands: Finally, you will want to apply these concepts and sounds to the banjo. You will learn the technical aspects of fingering positions and picking patterns as you practice scales, chords, musical structures and relationships in all 12 keys. With well-chosen exercises (and lot’s of practice!) you will memorize and master the basic sounds and begin playing the music as you hear it.
This integrated three-fold approach is something that can be developed systematically and is an approach I will talk more on in future articles about learning how to play banjo.
Tags: How to play banjo
