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Banjo

C

Chunky_Lover

Nov 30, 2008
39
0
33
somewhere in Nebraska
#1
So I've been playing bass for roughy 4 years or so. I recently went to the music store to get some strings and while i was there i saw some banjos and just thought it would be amusing to pick up a 2nd stringed instrument and i am really thinking about buying one. Plus lately I've been listening to a lot of bluegrass and i really enjoy it. So does anybody happen to know if banjo is easy to pick up on from a bass? or would another instrument be better suited? (preferably a folk instrument) I dont know a whole lot about chords, just a little bit, but i do know stuff about intervals and other music theory. So does anybody have advice about banjo in general such as technique differences compared to bass?

thanks:D
 
#3
IMO it's bad TB form to bump a thread more than once every 24 hours.
That said, I bought a cheap($60)5-string banjo several years ago & after a fairly good effort on my part concluded that the banjo is a very strange instrument. The tuning, coupled w/that weird shorter-scale C-string where a B or E would be on a bass is just confusing. I did transfer the one little exercise I learned from the Scruggs book over to bass-plucking: T-I-M-T-I-M-T-M-T-I-M-T-I-M-T-M(T=thumb, I=index finger, M=middle)in a steady, rolling/circular motion. Another huge stumbling block for me is the string spacing, which also makes guitar tricky for me. I have even glued up a couple of neck blanks for a large-handed redneck friend who also can't put his stubbly sausage-like fingers where they need to be on these things; we want to build or own, w/nice wide spacing.
 
#4
I play bass and banjo, bass for about 10 years and banjo just since last year.

Once you get used to the neck being very small (as said above), I wouldn't say its hard, as long as you don't start off too far ahead of yourself by trying to learn fast stuff. I use mine in G tuning and the chords a quite easy.

Hope this helps :bassist:.
 

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