Good One Day

“Bury Me Beneath the Willow”, tab arrangement courtesy of Jim Pankey’s YouTube video. (I wrote it out for myself and can post that if it would be helpful for anybody).

Played a bit too fast and I feel like I should start trying to put the words with it soon.

Here’s another attempt at Cripple Creek, with the second part added in. Off to a bit of a rough start and the triple slide bit isn’t as clean as I wanted, but I”m going to continue uploading on the first take in the interest of seeing progress.

I”m going to continue to practice Cripple Creek (but ultimately don’t think I”ll attempt to sing along since I”m not terribly familiar with the melody and had honestly never even heard of the song prior to picking up a banjo), but will now move on to the roll Mr. Pankey showed in his sixth lesson before going on to his seventh.

I’ve just watched Lesson 6, which adds another part on to Cripple Creek, and teaches a different roll pattern for a new song in the next lesson.

I’m going to work on cleaning up Cripple Creek a bit and may post my progress later on tonight.

I intend to loop the 08:49-10:32 section and play and singalong to it until things are a bit smoother.

I was able to sing a long a bit to Cripple Creek while playing and watching Mr. Pankey’s fourth lesson!

I’m pretty sure my singing is both off key and too soft, but it’s progress nonetheless.

Once that’s down a bit better I’ll record and post that and move on to the 6th lesson, which has another part to put into Cripple Creek (the 5th lesson is banjo tuning).

So, here’s my first banjo video! After going through Jim Pankey’s first four bluegrass lessons on YouTube, this is me playing Cripple Creek.

I decided to post the first take, mess ups and all, so it’s easier for me to track my overall progress.

And yes, I know that I should be in a straight backed chair, and this is looking more like a sitar set-up, but one does what one must. Speaking of, the computer does not appear to have a great microphone for recording, or perhaps I was too close, but the feedback is a bit annoying, so I’ll have to look into how to address that.

There’s clearly plenty to work on, but still, being able to remember what part goes where after not practicing for the past three days is encouraging. I’m sure with more steady practice things will get smoother.

While I don’t have a good singing voice I would like to be able to sing along. I have a tendency to clam up when I’m playing so that I can’t really say or do much of anything aside from just focusing on the instrument. I think I’d like to stay on this lesson (#4) and this bit of song until I can sing the lyrics that Mr. Pankey uses, so I will work on matching up my timing to his:

I'll roll my britches up to my knees

An' wade in ol' Cripple Creek when I please

Goin' up t' Cripple Creek, goin' on the run

Goin' up t' Cripple Creek t' have a little fun

Goin' up t' Cripple Creek, goin in a whirl

1. Go through Jim Pankey’s YouTube tutorials for bluegrass banjo (I’m up to Lesson 4)

2. Record and post progress

3. Complete lessons

4. Select three songs in that style to work on and post

5. Begin Jim Pankey’s YouTube tutorials for claw hammer banjo

6. Repeat steps 2-4