Lesson #106, Relative Minors I

Hello Everyone,

In order to understand the term "Relative Minor", lets first look at the staff in standard musical notation. By viewing the chart in this video, you can see some of the things you will encounter when reading sheet music and how it pertains to Relative Minors.

Every Major scale in music (there are 12 of them), has a different amount of #'s or b's (sharps or flats) within the scale. Also, every Major scale has a Relative, that Relative is called a Relative Minor scale, or can also be called a Natural Minor scale.

Play a C major scale on the banjo......now name the notes as you play the scale. There are no #'s or b's. Play a G major scale........name the notes again.......now there is one #...that being an F# note. You can play all of the twelve major scales to find out how many, and also what the names of the sharps or flats are within any major scale.

Although I'm going to discuss what is known as the "Circle of Fifths" in future lessons, pertaining to #'s and b's, the only thing I would like for you to understand at this point in time is the term, Relative or Natural Minor.

Since every Major scale has a DIFFERENT number of sharps or flats.......by looking at the Key signature to the right of the Clef.......in this video you see one sharp.... that is the key signature....since the G major scale is the only major scale with one sharp contained within it, we know that this piece of music is in the KEY of G major....... or........its relative minor......we'll get into that soon.

Since every Major scale has a Relative Minor scale associated with it.... THAT RELATIVE MINOR SCALE CONTAINS THE EXACT NUMBER OF SHARPS OR FLATS AS......ITS RELATIVE MAJOR SCALE.

We will continue to discuss this in the next lessons, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

David

Lesson #104, Minor Chords IV

Hi Everyone,

Practice these new chord shapes in the three full positions. Since they are new to you , they will feel a little weird at first, so take your time and get these new minor chords under your fingers.

It is also important to finger these new formations using just three notes with your left hand......especially with the second string position, and the bar position.

Practice these minor chords with the index, middle and ring finger of your left hand leaving your pinky free. This will help later when we start to work with upper neck fretting in our soloing, and in our backup in the scruggs style.

Keep it goin Everyone,

David

Lesson #103, Minor Chords III

Hi All,

Always remember........where ever you have the 1 within your major or minor triads.............that is the root............that note is what you are going to name your major or minor triad chords. If you need to refresh yourself, you can always go back in the lessons to "naming notes on the fingerboard", in the beginning banjo lessons.

Rock on All,

David

Lesson #102, Minor Chords II

Hi All,

CLOCKWISE........... I made a verbal mistake at one point in this video. The rotation will be clockwise as you move up the fretboard.

The formula for a minor chord is this......the 1, 3b and the 5. That is the formula for a minor chord. Since we know from previous lessons where the 1,3,5 notes are along the fretboard with the major chords, all we have to do to form minor chords is to flat the 3. Remember to flat a note, all we have to do is go back one half step, or one fret. Waalaa........we now can form all of the minor chords on the five string banjo and also we know why they are minor chords.

Keep it going everyone, if you have any questions, just give us a holler.

Rock on,

David

Lesson #100, Amazing Grace VI

Hi Everyone,

I hope you've enjoyed the series on Amazing Grace. I sure did enjoy bringing the lessons to you. Keep it going everyone, and feel free to ask any questions along the way.

David

Lesson #099, Amazing Grace V

Hi All,

Continuing with Amazing Grace. All I would like to say about this video is that if you don't want to use the hammer on in the D/D7 chord portion, you can leave it out as in the C Chord portion. Again, play whatever is comfortable for you. The song will sound fine with or without the hammer ons. Just be careful of the timing.

David

Lesson #097, Amazing Grace III

Hi Everyone,

I noticed a little mistake I made while watching this video. I want to make sure you have these "three" notes correct while going through this video. The note before the first fretted note within this video is an open second string, then the next note is the fourth string fretted behind the third fret (that being the first fretted note), then the third string fretted behind the second fret. I just want to make that clear while you watch this video. If you can read the tab accompaniment, that will show you the correct notes as well.

I started out this video with a 3/4 time picking pattern. It will help if you practice this pattern before attempting to learn this song. Actually, I like to play this pattern before the song begins so as to set the tempo and timing within this song.

If you have any questions about any videos here on the moose, please let me know and I will certainly help you through anything that I'm able to.

There is one more thing I'd like to add.......you can use the picking pattern in this video for backup as well. All you have to do is pick this pattern through an open G chord and use it as well through a two finger C and D7 chords when they change. You dont even have to worry about the Eminor chord because the open picking pattern will work beautifully over the minor.

David

Lesson #094, Cripple Creek VII

Hi Everyone,

There are a couple more variations in this video if you'd like to try them out on the cripple creek. Hope you've enjoyed playing the song now, and I hope you enjoy it even more many years down the road!

In the next series of lessons we will start to get into chord extensions , back-up and a little more theory to keep you busy.

Keep it going everyone!

David

Lesson #093, Cripple Creek VI

Hi Everyone,

Always try to get your left hand techniques just as nice and clean as you can, that is something strive for as you progress .

If you would like to use a metronome to help you with the timing variations discussed in this series, feel free. You can set your metronome very slowly at first, and you can tap your foot along or whatever and however you feel comfortable to understand the timing the best way that you can understand it.

Listen closely to the slides in this video, the variations are quite subtle, but definetly worth exploring.

Be aware of the rests in the notation and of the slides being carried over into other measures.

Timing is everything! Roll Away,

David

Lesson #090, Cripple Creek III

Hi Everyone,

Let me first say that in measure 6, that is a quarter note rest. I mis spoke at one point calling it an eighth note rest.....it is a QUARTER note rest.

Looking at measure 6 we see that it starts with the rest. The other s in measure 6 are quarter notes. So we can count measure 6 like this.........1 2 3 4
Remember we dont play the 1.... we only play the 2 3 4.

Lets look at measure 5 now. It starts with 4 eighth notes, then 1 quarter note, then 2 more eighth notes. The last 2 eighth notes are coming from the 2-5 slide that you see in the tablature. When we play the 2-5 slide we only pick the first note(the2), but the sound of slide when we reach the 5th fret gives us the sound of another eighth note and must be counted as well. You can see what the markings for a slide look like in the tablature as well.

Lets look at measure 12 and 13 now. Measure 12 starts with 4 eighth notes followed by 2 quarter notes giving us our count of 4 beats for that measure. If we look at the last quarter note in measure 12 it is a slide. Remember we are only picking the 2 in the 2-5 slide.

Now......looking at the first note in measure 13 it is a quarter note......but that note is also the second note of the 2-5 slide.....so we dont pick that note, but it is being sounded in the slide and being counted as quarter note. These are some of the subleties I was talking about. The timing in these slides is affected by how fast we perform the slides. You will see what I mean in these upcoming lessons of cripple creek.

David

Lesson #085, Eighth of January IV

Hi Everyone,

Lets continue on with the Eighth of January. In this video you can see that I played a slight variation on the first part that we previously went over. Instead of stopping by using that 1/4 note, all we are doing is continuing the line using 1/8 notes. You can play the section either way. You can hear the difference for yourself playing the first way and with the variation.

Playing these slight variations in tunes and songs gives them a different flavor to keep interest in the tune, instead of just playing it in only one way. When you become more familiar with the banjo and its fingerboard you will be able to create different "colors" in your playing through improvisation. Playing these variations will help you understand the different colors of improvisation in just this one way of playing 1/4 notes in spots and the use of 1/8th as well. This is adding color by the use of different timings. There are many ways to add color, breaking the notes up is just one way.

Roll Away,

David

Lesson #083, Eighth of January II

Hi Everyone,

Before we get into playing this tune, lets start by playing a G major scale in the Keith/Thompson style. You can see in the video how we are going to approach this scale. When you pick this scale for yourself you can feel the motion of the right hand, and it is basically using the alternating thumb roll. In later lessons when we start to move up the neck perhaps going towards a second octave with some of these scales, we will feel the forward and backward rolls in different places on the neck as well. Its very important to learn the all of the basic rolls from previous lessons first! before giving this tune a try.

You can also see in the video that I gave you a few two finger positions to work on a little bit before you actually start to play this tune. It will help your left hand fingers to know where they are going and how it feels before you start to pick. Good luck with Eighth of January all.

David

Lesson #081, The Major Scale & Playing Styles On The Banjo

Hey Moosers,

cool thing my friends.I'd like to talk a little bit about different styles on the Five String Banjo. As you know, I started these lessons out with the Scruggs style of playing.......the rolls.....the rolls....the rolls.....those ever present rolls. I cant tell you enough how important learning the different rolls are.....they are the matter by which we will navigate all the different ways and styles on the fingerboard. We can relate the rolls to the Keith/Thompson style (melodic) and we can also relate the rolls to the single string style. We can mix them up....keep em straight.......play it here....play it there.....we can literally do whatever we want whenever we want. Thats a veeery

When the three finger style of Scruggs was being developed, it wasnt really associated with playing scales. Although we can play the rolls around melody notes that do come from scales in that style, it isnt a style that totally defines or outlines any scales. In later years a couple of guys came up with an approach of playing scales on the Banjo, they being Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson. Two outstanding players who changed the way the banjo was approached. I'll be delving into their approach in future lessons, but still we can apply the rolls and motions of our right hand into that approach.

There is also the single string style, and the early pioneer of Don Reno, who was another of the major powers of the Five String along with Scruggs. Two brilliant players who both deserve the highest regard. The single string style can be used to define the scales as well. We can also relate it to the rolls and motions of the right hand. We will be dicussing and teaching all aspects and styles of the Five String Banjo so you best approach the Banjo how YOU want to. To express yourself and create your own ideas on the Banjo. There are many ways to conceptualize the fingerboard of the Banjo, thats what makes it such an extreme instrument...an extremely versatile, magnificent instrument.

Rock On The Moose!

David

Lesson #072, When the Saints Go Marching In IV

Hi Everyone,

In this video we eventually come into our first Minor chord. That being a Cminor chord. There are many different things we can do with Minor chords. I love the Minor sounds in music. They can create so many different moods. I'm going to be talking alot about chords in future lessons. How they are constructed and the endless possibilities of their usage.

David

Lesson #070, When the Saints Go Marching In II

YO EVERYONE! WHEN YOU GET TO THE PINCH ON THE FIFTH AND FIRST STRINGS...... THE THREE NOTES AFTER THE PINCH ARE THUMB INDEX MIDDLE ON THE THIRD SECOND AND FIRST STRINGS OPEN! I just looked at this video and I made a mistake when explaining that series of notes after the pinch. Don't play the C note on the second string after the pinch. Sorry everyone, my bad. The Tablature is correct.

David

Lesson #069, When the Saints Go Marching In I

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd give you another song to work on before continuing on with other things. This is an old Jazz song...... When The Saints Go Marching In.....
I can see and hear the dixieland bands meandering through the streets of New Orleans as I type!

I worked up a version using the three finger style, and also your first introduction to a Minor chord and a very basic two note sequence using single string technique. There are many different styles that can and are played on the Five String Banjo....... Scruggs or three finger style....... single string stlye......Bobby Thompson or Bill Keith "melodic" style. I don't like to use the term melodic style, because to me playing melodically means something else. Playing something melodically is playing a selection of notes in a melodious way.... a selection that is very unobtrusive to the ear... it flows very easy .. thats how I think about melodic playing, and It can be accomplished with any method or style that you like. We can also combine any or all of the stlyes listed above. I'm going to be relating most everything I teach on the banjo to the three finger style. Single string and Thompson/Keith style as well. There are no limits to what can be done on the Banjo, and we will continue to explore, explore, explore.

Rock On All,

David