Attempting to Learn the Banjo in Just 24 Hours

Mastering a musical instrument, especially one with distinct techniques like the banjo, typically requires months or even years of dedicated practice. While it’s possible to pick up basic chords and strumming patterns within a day, achieving proficiency is unrealistic.

Can You Learn the Banjo in Just 24 Hours

Factors like finger strength, muscle memory, and understanding musical theory all contribute to the learning curve. While short bursts of intense practice can be beneficial, consistent, daily practice over a longer period is key to mastering the banjo.

That said, with focused effort, you can certainly grasp the fundamentals and enjoy playing simple tunes within 24 hours. However, building the skills to play confidently and expressively takes significantly more time.

In this video from Six String Fingerpicking, we try and learn how to play the Banjo is 24 hours.

Video Text:

0:00:00. –>
I honestly don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this it’s just really killing me I just can’t get it that’s all and then I just can’t get what I’ve been working on just that two hours but I just can’t get it can I learn how to play the banjo within 24 hours I don’t know maybe let’s find out hey I hope you don’t go to precipitance extreme finger-picking or maybe I should say five string finger picking today because in my hands I’m holding a Deering good time to banjo that I’ve just purchased it is brand new I’ve never played it I haven’t even tune it yet so I’m going to see if I can learn how to play the banjo within 24 hours now I’ve been playing the guitar for many years but I’ve never played the banjo I know absolutely nothing about the banjo but I thought I’m gonna give it a go because I love the sound of it and just to see if I can

0:01:02.2 –>
do it so my challenge is to learn called scales arpeggios and to learn a song and perform that song to you by the end of the day for now so stick around to the end to see if I can do all of that but anyway not much to have to say but a heck of a lot of practice to get on with so I guess a good place to start would be to get the banjo nicely in tune but I don’t even know the chin of it so I could have to look that up online banjo GD g bgp let’s get this baby – that’s not right I was tuning this one maybe I’m shooting this one but is this one I got the tuning [Music] G D G B D I’ll take that off that is

0:02:00.1 –>
just so weird having this string here it’s just so weird here we go so that’s the G chord it’s very cold I’m gonna work just on the right hand and trying to get the finger placement right done where the strings are on how they feel let’s just start playing around I just completely forget around left hand and start doing some random roles this is a relief D chord so it’s all gonna work [Music] this string is wrong two guitar players it’s the highest string it should be the lowest string as far as guitar players are concerned so that’s gonna be really harder then that when to use it exactly [Music]

0:03:00.2 –>
it was a really way to hold as well [Music] just do the same thing I think I should probably get a youtube messin up or something just to give me a bit of direction there’s some patience Gee Gee Gee Gee Gee Gee something g g g g BD something G GD okay by the way if any of you I’ll be out banjo players and you have some tips for me please leave a comment and just just say Chris you do this here’s a tip check

0:04:02.8 –>
out this player you know a good source of Education because I’m gonna continue to play the banjo anyway you probably don’t wanna watch be doing this for hours on end so I’m gonna keep working on this not catch up with you in a bit [Music] so I’ve been playing around with these bands of roles for about 45 minutes now and to be honest they feel pretty good but then that’s not that surprising because I play fingers down guitar and the technique is kind of there it’s just getting used to the strings the distances between the strings gaps between strings and this we know is high Gino on the bottom but I people doing this one [Music]

0:05:03.6 –>
and in a few others and as I say they feel pretty good so I feel confident just to keep working on that but now moving on to kind of step two I’m going to start thinking about looking at the fret board more it’s in the open G and then you know I rarely play an open G tuning on the guitar so we’re going to start learning the notes and I’m going to start figuring out some chords and then we can put the banjo rolls on top of the chords and it’s going to start to sound a bit more musical fingers crossed so that’s G chord that’s straightforward that’s going to be an alien called a strum work out a C chord so that’s a G leave that oh that’s it B so that’s fine obviously that’s the root note this we’ve got five and the one and then this string is G so that’s gonna stay this string is d so back that this is

0:06:00.4 –>
this string is district [Music] to see that must be c-minor [Music] that sounds good [Music] a B let’s see if I can figure out D G and then this rings B BC D that’s a chaser shops sure that’s a date

0:07:01.2 –>
this kit makes music [Music] you [Music] gee I’m gonna tell you I am having a lot of fun honestly this is so much fun but one thing I keep on doing is getting the strings wrong and actually leading me to make mistakes I keep on thinking that the highlight this is the high E string on the guitar but it’s not it’s the D string I’m pretty sure so I keep on playing my C’s wrong it’s held to cause wrong so I was playing seats us too you sound very nice so then push that up

0:08:00.9 –>
two frets B minor and I’ve worked out a minor F – oh gee [Music] just GNE minor [Music] slow down – excited [Music] goddammit t25 one so of course I’m going to keep on practicing these chords because there’s so much fun and there’s so many other chord types to play around with but I’m also going to start looking at some scales start thinking about a song that I want to learn and I’m just gonna get some more practice down because it’s all about practice [Music]

0:09:28.2 –>
[Applause] [Music] you good morning day two let’s get back to work so this morning I’m going to be working on some scales to read out some scales and arpeggios and then combining those with the cause and see if I can come up with some music and then after that I’ve got

0:10:02.6 –>
to get cracking with this song cause it’s not going to learn itself and I really really really want to perform this song for you because I think if I could pull it off in this tiny amount of time that I have to do it I think it’s gonna be so much fun scales the banjo is in G it’s tuned to G so the G Major scale seems like a good place to start so let’s see if I can work that out that’s a G F sharp F sharp G C [Music] [Music] even just a regular scale sounds really

0:11:01.3 –>
good just randomly start playing around with that mix it up with the cause and hopefully I can get something that sounds good [Music] anyway I’m gonna put in some real practice time now on this and going to work through some different keys and I’m gonna try out some different scales as well [Music]

0:12:08. –>
you [Music] oh look what’s arrived look was just turned up loop finger picks finger picks so this um Lucy oh we’ve got thumb pick that’s fine that fits really well that’s fine I’m used to a thumb big that’s fine it is these two finger picks that go on the end here do you see banjo players wearing like that that is what it’s so

0:13:00. –>
much louder but boy that feels strange [Music] I gotta practice all my roles again can you get that tapping sound metal or metal yes that feels really weird really weird but I think you know it’s like anything if I just give it good you know if I spend a day or two playing with these on then the technique yeah what you just get used to them and the accuracy it will obviously go but I haven’t got time I can’t if I want to play my song or perform the song there’s no way that I’m gonna be able to do that with these honkers the accuracy isn’t going to be there at all so I’m going to have to do it without the pigs I’ve gotta take a break really hungry so got a gun make some lunch and then I have to get cracking with the song because time is not on my side and yeah I’ve got to get on with that I’m English so of course I’m having Grumpy’s flows this is so hard I’m

0:14:11.2 –>
working on the song and it’s so different guitar the technique I am struggling with so much I can’t remember anything that I’m playing and I can’t get the rolls right at all [Music] I am really starting to like this I just cannot get it I’ve been working at it for a while now and it’s just going nowhere this is so hard

0:15:00 –>
I I honestly don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this it’s just just not getting it at all [Music] let’s keep on forgetting it every time and then I just can’t get what I’ve been working on just that for two hours but I just can’t get it maybe I’ll take a break [Music] no Whitney so 24 hours is up and it’s time for me to play you a song it’s nowhere nearly as good as I hoped it would be it’s going to be full of

0:16:00.2 –>
mistakes but hey I haven’t been playing the banjo for all that long so here is my humble attempt at Dueling Banjos [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

0:17:17.1 –>
[Music] yes [Music] I really hope you enjoyed this video I certainly had an awful lot of fun putting it together if you did enjoy it please consider subscribing give me a thumbs up if you have any banjo suggestions anything at all please leave it in the comments that I just don’t have a lot to learn but that’s it thank you so much and I’ll see you next time Cheers bye bye [Music]

Can You Learn the Banjo in Just 24 Hours

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