Let’s think about the tone of a banjo as dark and
bright; “dark” tones being the low frequency sounds and “bright”
referring to the upper ranges.First,
the picks that you use have everything to do with the tone that you get.If your picks are thick or spoon shaped, your sound will be dark.If your picks are thin or pointy, then you will have a bright
sound.If you have too bright
of a sound, try thicker picks.If
you have too dark of a sound, try thinner picks.Below are some picks that you are likely to use.
To the left is a Ernie Ball Pickie which produces a
high frequency tone.
In the middle is a Dunlop pick which produces a darker tone
because of its shape. The thicker they get in material size,
the darker they get.
To the right is a Dunlop pick that is made of brass. I
think it is about the same as the other Dunlop. I like the
look of them but I can't say that they are better.
These picks have become my favorite.
They both are National picks but they are shaped a little
different. The one to the left has a dark sound
because it feels thicker (not sure) and it is more spoon
shaped.
The one to the right is made more flat across the picking
area. This one is easier to pick the notes faster with
a brighter sound. With these two picks, I can get just
about any sound that I need.
The two picks have the same numbers on them except the
one of the left is stamped harder.
Tip! You can change your sound by
using a thicker or thinner pick on one finger. If you have a
middle finger that picks too hard, use a lighter gauge pick on it to
soften it up. You arrange them however you can find an advantage.
Another Tip! The soft
metal in a pick does not remove pick noise. It is not
the sound of the pick tapping the string, it is the
harmonics of the string between the pick and the
bridge. If soft material would help, then the
plastic thumb pick would not have a problem. Notice when I
deaden the string before and after, the pick has no sound. See
for yourself. So how do you get rid of it?
Once you start picking hard and with other musicians, it
gets lost in the crowd. In the studio, the sound engineer
can cut those frequencies out of your recording.
Thick bridges have dark tones and thin bridges have
bright tones.Then there are
bridges that are thin on top and thick on the bottom.In both cases, the bridge can be somewhere between dark and
bright.Some woods work
differently compared to others.If
a wood does not transmit sound very well, then thin helps it.If it is a really good wood for sound transfer, then thicker will
help to control the tones that you get.If the head is too loose, you get more lows and volume loss.If it is too tight, you get too many highs with tone loss.
If you have a dark sounding bridge and you are using dark sounding
picks, then you really have a dark sounding banjo.Sometimes, your sound can be so dark that you will need to change
one or the other.On the
other side, you might have bright sounding picks with a bright sounding
bridge and again, something might have to change.
Needless to say, your banjo is a complicated
instrument with plenty of adjustments that gives you a wide range of
things to try searching for that “perfect” sound.Throw a little personal opinion in there and it gets really
confusing.In
any case, maybe you will see your banjo differently now so you can start
looking for your “perfect” sound.
Guitar and mandolin flat picks are no exception.A thick, dull edged pick has a very dark sound.A thin sharp edged pick has a bright sound.There is every thing in between to choose from.I like a thick pick with a thinner edge.The thick picks make less flapping noise while holding the volume
up.The sharper edge helps
to bring out a few more of the highs.A pick that is pointed tends to stick between notes where a more
round pick shims over them.So
as you can see, even the shape of the pick has room for adjustments.
If you want it to float across the strings better, go toward a rounded
tip, and if you are skipping across too much, move toward a more pointed
pick.Below are some
examples.
Here are some choices that you can think
about. The first one is very thick and has a dark
sound. None of these pick have any flex to them.
The second pick is very dark and is easy to skip across the
strings. The third pick I use to pick out slower music
where I need the higher tones. The last one
is similar to pick number 3 except that it is made of
coconut shell. It is about equal to pick number
3. You can try making your own if you like a shape
that you can not find. Ebony works well too.
I like pick one and two for bluegrass guitar, pick
three and four for mandolin and country music guitar.
I also like pick three and four on my electric Stratocaster.
None of these picks have any slapping noise. The flex
that a pick needs can be created between your fingers rather than the ability for the pick to bend.
Keeping Time
It is one thing to keep time playing your
instrument with the radio or your favorite CD, but it is quite another
keeping time with a band.Many
times I have played with a group of musicians and we might start a new
song.I'll kick it off the
speed that I think it should go and then end up feeling like I am pulling a loaded
trailer behind me, and up hill at that.That is a symptom of a timing problem.It is hard to tell when you have the problem yourself, but it is
easy to tell when someone else has it.It is not easy to tell just who is causing it either.Musicians commonly feel that the person leading the music is
driving the bus and the rest are just riding.If you are only a passenger, you are likely the weight that they
are pulling.If you are not
in the drivers seat steering, then get out and push.When it is your turn to steer, the others need to push.
Often I may feel that my timing is slowing down in a song so I will ask
the bass player to push me.What
may feel to him as if he is speeding up will really be keeping up.I also have to remember when the bass player is taking a bass
break, it is my job to give him some timing licks that sound like back
up, to keep him in line.This
is the case from any instrument to any other instrument.I have played music with Chris Messer quite a bit and he has the
best timing that I have ever experienced.Chris told me that he got his sense of timing by playing with a drum
track.When he plays, he
hears that drum track in his mind and he plays to it.Bluegrass has a drive to it; if we all think of ourselves as drivers, the timing will be much
better and it will be much more fun.
Here
is a clip from my DVD that shows how to start Foggy Mountain
Breakdown. I show how to walk into the first section and
where the forward roll starts. It also explains how to use a
slide and what it means. The run will work in many songs
that are similar. Click
here to view it.
The
Warren Yates Method
is a simple technique of learning to play by ear.Songs can be broken down into segments that often
times are common to every song.By placing these segments together, we can create
longer sections which eventually become complete songs.By arranging them differently, we can create new
pieces of music more easily.
In
this video, you will learn many of the most common roles and
runs and how to use them; in addition to exercises that will
help you learn how to connect them with melody notes. Some
of the old standards are broken down so that you to can
reproduce them. Enclosed for your reference, is a chord
chart of the entire neck.
The new "Transcribe!" software
allows you to slow CDs down to a 1/2, even 1/4 speed, without
affecting the pitch. It will help you to understand what is
going on in the music. Download
a Free 30 Day Trial.
