This 8 unit online course covers what I normally go through in the first few months with my students (plus quite a bit more). We start right from the basics and learn all you need to know to start playing your favourite tunes, jamming with people, and creating your own banjo arrangements.

A little bit about the course:

I developed it to be accessible to beginners but also something that intermediate players could learn a lot from, or that beginners could return to periodically and get more from it each time.  

I also developed it to solve what I think is a problem that new (or often even more advanced) banjo players face… How to think about what you are playing.  There is no shortage of information anymore, you can find out how to play any scale, or what chords are in what key, you can find books of great arrangements of your favorite tunes - or better yet watch a youtube video of someone teaching you that tune!  But I get so many students who have learned a lot from books and video tutorials who find it hard to learn new tunes, or to make the things they play sound musical.  Generally the problem is that they don’t know what the important information is, what to focus on, how to think while playing to make it easy and expressive.  Think about it like copy and pasting sentences into an essay, you can do it but it is disjointed and clunky, but if you understand what is prevalent to your argument (and the basic techniques behind writing a sentence) it is not only easier to write a better essay, but you can now enter into discussions, and express yourself more freely.  

This is the aim of this course, to get you thinking like a banjo player from the beginning.  I think of it as a primer to help you unlock the information contained in all the youtube tutorials, and banjo books that you are sure to consume.  I don’t just want to show you how to play songs (there is a lot of that readily available) but how to feel comfortable on the banjo, in the way you may feel talking to friends, so that you can understand playing styles, improvise, come up with your own arrangements, and be the player that you want to be.

Included in the course:

• 8 graded units each containing at least a main video lesson, a warm up exercise video, and a tune arrangement video

• Over 10 lessons going line by line through tunes such as:

• Cripple creek, Man of Constant Sorrow, I walk the line, In the Pines, I’ll Fly Away, House of the Rising Sun, and more….

• The first several lessons of the Melody of the Week program preparing you to create your own arrangements

• Discussions on:

• Banjo rolls, how to use them

• How to build almost any chord you will ever need

• Licks, and how to change them to suit your needs

• Scales, and Keys, but in a useful way….

• Playing in other keys

• Jamming/playing with others

This is a 3 finger style banjo learning program, in which we take a new simple melody each week and figure out different ways of arranging it. This is an amazing exercise because not only are you warming up, you are working on your ability to think melodically on the banjo, building confidence on arranging and improvising, and developing your own style.

Included is:

• Several primer videos going step by step through the techniques needed.

• A weekly video lesson that contains a short melody and different arrangement ideas.

• Extra technique videos that give you different approaches to arranging melodies (that you can then apply/practice with each new Melody of the week)

*This is not a program made for complete beginners but for players with at least a bit of banjo knowledge and experience. If you are a beginner, I am currently in the process of creating an online beginners course.

This program tries to bridge the gap between what I do with my students and what I can do with video lessons.

Each month we will meet up (online or off), I will check to see where you are technique-wise, and to talk about your musical goals. I will then send you weekly videos including warm ups, theory and technique lessons, arranged tunes geared towards your level (and what you want to learn, and homework assignments.

Included is:

• A once a month meet up

• Weekly curated videos (including MotW videos, and Bluegrass tunes)

• Homework assignments geared to what you want to accomplish