The Old Time Banjo Project

Featured on BoingBoing.net! http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/12/open-banjo-instructi.html

Also on See Yourself Teaching! http://seeyourselfteaching.com/content/old-time-banjo-project-stardom-and-online-collaborative-teaching-part-1

Back in 2009 I launched The Ukulele Project as a collaborative teaching experiment. The project was a lot of fun and wound up reach a heck of a lot more people than its intended audience.

The Ukulele Project came to mind the other day as I read an email from Karen in Michigan. She was discussing how frustrating it is to practice while hoping that the techniques will eventually someday make sense:

I just wanted to let you know that some of us who are trying to learn this, get frustrated when we practice 1,2&3,4 & 1,2& 3,4 and then when you wind it up and play, it doesn’t sound like that at all. We think we’re doing it all wrong. It’s not you, it’s us, those of us who are picking with hope and eagerness. It is helpful when you keep telling us that you still practice the frailing stroke, ’cause we can see that we need to do that too!

Dear Old Dad and I have gone over the basic material countless times – and we will keep on doing that – but after reading Karen’s note  I think it might be cool and helpful if there was a collaborative lesson series where frailers from around the world and from varying skill levels can contribute workshops from their individual persepctives.

I have written out a lesson plan and I am inviting musicians everywhere to choose a lesson and send in video workshop covering the subject.

The Old Time Banjo Project First Lesson Plan

Basic Banjo Setup

• Parts of a banjo -  Don, Ohio
• Head tension – Robert Marr, Michigan
• Bridge placement – Robert Marr, Michigan
• Changing strings- Don, Ohio & another one from Danny, England
• Open G Tuning – Jay Plemons, California
• Attaching & wearing a strap – Warren Mayo, South Dakota

Basic Frailing

• Holding the banjo -Cameron, New Mexico
• The Basic Frailing Strum – Craig Johnson, Scotland

Introduction to rhythm

• 4/4 time Allison Manzino, New York
• Quarter notes – James
• Eighth notes   Jeff Lost, Oregon
• Quarter note runs – Warren Mayo, South Dakota
• Mixing the basic frailing strum & quarter note runs Steve Harrison, Ohio

Chords & Chord Changes

• Open G, C and D7 chords – James, New York
• Chord change exercises -  Denton Jordan, Tennessee

Playing & Singing

• Boil ‘em Cabbage Down – West Palm Dan, Florida
• Skip To My Lou – John Campbell, Michigan
• Handsome Molly – Etowah, Sarah, Selu, Georgia
• Reading Tab – Carlos in Spain
• Roving Gambler – Tim Davis,  Korea

The Old Time Banjo Project Second Lesson Plan

Banjo Stories 

Record yourself – video or audio will do – answering these five questions:

1. What inspired you to start playing the banjo?
2.  Tell us about the first time you heard somebody playing the banjo.
3. What was the most challenging thing about learning to play the banjo?
4. What was your breakthrough moment? When did making music with the banjo start to make sense?
5. Has making music with the banjo changed your life in any way?

My Banjo Story – Robert Marr, Michigan
My Banjo Inspiration -Ian, Kent, UK
Shaun’s Story – Shaun in the UK
Craig Shares His Banjo Story – Craig, Oakland, CA
Patrick Costello - Manassas, VA
Al’s Banjo Story
NEW! Alison’s Banjo Story

Add YOUR story!

The Old Time Banjo Project  Third Lesson Plan

• Hammer-on’s -Warren Mayo, South Dakota
• Pull-off’s – Father Keith, UK
• Double Thumbing -Alison, New York
• Drop Thumb – Alison, New York
• Slides – Cameron, New Mexico
• Bends - Carlos, Spain
• Phantom Effects
• Full-chord hammer-on’s
• Chopping & Vamping

T o take part in the project, contact me at ask.patrick@gmail.com, choose a lesson and film a short video workshop.

For example, let’s say you choose to cover the C Chord. All you would have to do is introduce yourself  (for example, “Hi. I’m Patrick from Manassas, Virginia and I am here to show you how to make a C chord“) and walk the viewer through the steps of making a C chord on the banjo.

You don’t have to be an expert. If you are worried about teaching a specific technique think about doing something simple like covering how to attach a banjo strap or how to make a D7 chord.

Once you have filmed your workshop, upload the video file in the highest quality format you can to the Internet Archive.

To join the Internet Archive :

• Go to http://www.archive.org/
• In the upper right hand corner you will find the following: “Anonymous User (login or join us)”.
• Click on “join us”.
• Fill out the form. Click “Get library Card” when finished.

Files stored on the Internet Archive are publicly available under a Creative Commons license. You can read about how Creative Commons works by visitinghttp://creativecommons.org.

To upload a file to the Internet Archive:

• Log in to your account.
• In the menu across the top of your browser click on “contributions”.
• Click on “Create and upload a new movie, audio recording, live concert recording, or book”.
• Enter a title for your upload and click on the button marked, “Next”.
• On the next page, fill in the form (name your project after the chapter you are covering – for example, “C Chord”) and click on the button marked, “Upload Files”.

After uploading, archive.org will automatically generate a page where people can download and view your file. Send an email to ask.patrick@gmail.com with your Internet Archive link.