I'm at a point where I'm becoming more sophmoric with my banjo playing. In
other words, I know enough to be dangerous. I feel like I can play any
song. Fortunately, I'm brought back down to earth in front of family or
friends who won't destroy me when I blow it. That's why it's good to have
friends and family to play for. It's nice not feeling so bad after my left
hand gets lost somewhere between the fifth and ninth frets.
The songs I've learned have been in C, F, or G. Since it is jazz, almost all of
the chords are sevenths, ninths, minors, augmented, or diminished. The other
day I was playing with a friend learning Scruggs-style banjo. He asked me to
play an E-Major chord. I was lost.
I am happy when I can play a mean chord melody of a song I practice every day
but one song does not a good banjo player make. I have to study in no
particular order:
1. The fretboard.
2. The finger positions of all of the chord inversions.
3. The relative conversions of any chord (inversion I, III, V) and their
matching sevenths and minors.
4. All augmented and diminished positions on the fretboard for every note.
In addition I must learn how to transpose a song from any key to any
key. Right now, Jim is introducing me to the world of jamming so I need to
study the circle of fifths, AABA song structures, ABAC song structures, and the
chord progressions of the C parts, sometimes referred to as 'Harlem
Nocturnes.'
I must know what the I,IV,and V7 chords are for each key too. This is the
difference between learning each song individually and being able to predict
where the song goes next. With the majority of banjo songs I've heard, this is
the case.
The nice thing about learning these things is that you don't need a banjo to
study them. I'm going to gather these things up into a book I'll carry with me
to work and look at in my spare time.
Good sources for this information:
The Ultimate Plectrum Banjo Player's Guide, Vol. 1 by David Frey and
Susanne Sangiacomo
Riley's Routines for better Banjo by Jim Riley
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