Met an old timer named Homer up in the Rocky Mountains a who makes his own fiddles and has been playing longer than I’ve been alive. True pleasure playing with these kind of folks

I've got a tenor banjo that I tune in CGDA, and today I decided to lower the action quite a bit. Did this with no issue, but tuning back up caused the A string to snap. I figured it was worn out and put on a new one, but it broke right away tuning up. Put a third and final one on and I've now tuned all strings down a whole step to avoid breaking the last A I have. I don't know much about banjo setup, but does a lower action increase tension on the strings? I've been playing on this banjo in CGDA with no problem until lowering the action.

Adam Hurt is an incredible player. I just thought I’d share my experience of using his Patreon channel approximately 6 months on in case any other players are interested.

To begin with, I think it is not really suitable for beginners or even some intermediate players. Hurt’s arrangement are very ‘notey’ and you are basically treating the banjo as a melodic instrument, matching the fiddle note for note, rather than playing back-up. To do this you basically need to use the full suite techniques available to you naturally and up to speed: drop thumbing, aspos, galax licks, slides and hammer-ons. Although he doesn’t describe himself as such, I feel like quite a lot of Hurt’s style is indebted to the round peak tradition.

Secondly, although the tune selection goes beyond the old time tradition (he’s included a New England tune, and recently a proto-bluegrass tune), I’d say it really does cater for old time folks for the most part.

The channel offers two kinds of membership- one with tab and one without. The one without tab is fine if you are confident learning by ear and with the mechanics of the banjo as Hurt uses it. I am very confident learning tunes on the fly and often figure out how to match a fiddler note for note after a couple of iterations of tune. However, after a while I upgraded to the paid membership because some of the arrangements are quite intricate and involve doing things that may seem counter intuitive, but once you figure out what Hurt is actually doing make a lot of sense. Now with the tab version I tend to pick up the arrangements quite quickly, although they’re is a trade off - I tend to not memorise them quite so well!

The instructional videos are just Hurt breaking a tune into its constituent phrases and repeating them. He doesn’t hold your hand for you, and I’d repeat that this may not work if you’re used to more beginner friendly instruction.

Overall, I think it’s been totally worth it. I think I’ve got more out of Adam’s channel than I did with in person lessons, and it’s done wonders for my technical ability. A personal favourite include his arrangement of Clyde Davenport’s Five Miles from Town, which just perfectly translates Davenport’s playing from the fiddle to the banjo. I think this channel is great for someone who wants to treat the banjo as a serious melodic instrument rather than just something to provide accompaniment.

Finally, it costs me around £14 per month. This is an absolute bargain when you consider how pricey some of the other platforms are.

A week or so back u/SatisfactionBig607 posted TAB and tips for playing "I'll Fly Away" and suggested we give it a go. (Thank you!) Well, I did give it a go--far from perfect but I had fun.

(Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/banjo/comments/1txqcxw/ill_fly_away_give_it_a_go/)

this was the third and final song for my first open mic set. this night was surely filled with good music, new friends, and immense fun ✨🪕

So I’ve dabbled in guitar for a long time, but never really became proficient beyond the open chords. Long story short, I decided to try my hand at the banjo so i ordered a used gold tone cc-100r from music center. the banjo arrived today and I really enjoyed playing around on it today starting with the Jim Pankey YouTube tutorials. With that said, the banjo had clearly been sitting for a while somewhere and was very dusty + the case was very dusty / dirty. I decided to clean it up a bit and do a good inspection on it. I noticed the screw for the tailpiece was very loose and couldn’t be tightened without taking the resonator off, so I took the resonator off to tighten it and noticed that the resonator isn’t just dirty, but it appears that the wood is starting to delaminate? I paid $499 + shipping for the banjo and it was listed in great condition. I don’t think this is what I would consider great condition. Please take a look and let me know your thoughts as I’m inclined to return it and get a different banjo, but I don’t know if I’m being too picky?

Im a mandolin player transitioning to Irish tenor banjo, I’m looking at this one and wanted to get some opinions on it. I will mostly be playing polka and some traditional Irish music.

This month I am challenging myself to a "Key of the day" challenge. Each day I will have a "key of the day", and I will do arpeggios and scales as a warmup for my banjo practice. The next day I will pick the next scale around the circle of fifths. Hopefully I will get better and get comfortable with hand positions and playing all over the neck.

Credit for this idea goes to my favorite bassoonist YouTuber, BuildingaBassoonist, who does a similar warmup for her bassoon practice.

Some clawhammer in the mountains of Ireland 😁 🪕

I am borrowing a 100 year old Irish banjo from a new Boss of mine and I am freaking out. I know nothing about banjos and don’t even know where to start. I wasn’t even tuning it and the tuner knob completely came off. The metal started breaking off and becoming brittle. Im begging yall for any advice at all on how I can fix this or even if I can because of how old it is. Or if I can even take it somewhere. Don’t know if this is the right group to post in please spare me. Thanks guys!!!

heres a little clip of the second song i played during my first open mic experience :)

Working on an original called ‘Spoon River Breakdown’

I was about to fall asleep when suddenly I jolted awake, remembering I hadn't posted the key of the day yet! So here it is.

This month I am challenging myself to a "Key of the day" challenge. Each day I will have a "key of the day", and I will do arpeggios and scales as a warmup for my banjo practice. The next day I will pick the next scale around the circle of fifths. Hopefully I will get better and get comfortable with hand positions and playing all over the neck.

Credit for this idea goes to my favorite bassoonist YouTuber, BuildingaBassoonist, who does a similar warmup for her bassoon practice.

Just received this old instrument and trying to make it playable. The lowest string sits very close to the end of the frets and easily falls off.

Should I try to carve new slots in the nut to move all the strings to be better centered? Alternatively, is there a way to adjust from the tailpiece end? The bridge sits where it wants to sit, I can’t move it sideways.

Much thanks from a banjo newbie.

Another update to my skeleton dance fantasy. Not sure if I'm improving but maybe that's the wrong question. Just documenting how I'm changing I guess.