Learning Banjo to Understand Guitar Better

Camden Rose on learning banjo specifically to gain insight into guitar technique

Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat present this diary from Camden Rose.

I have been learning banjo this week -- not as an additional instrument I intend to perform on, but because understanding a different approach to the same harmonic territory I work in on guitar produces insights that I cannot generate by working only on guitar. The specific thing the banjo teaches in its first week of serious engagement: the right-hand roll patterns that characterise bluegrass banjo require a rhythmic independence between the thumb and the two-finger picking pattern that is the same independence that fingerpicking guitar requires and that I have developed on guitar but that the banjo's different tuning and string resistance require rebuilding from scratch. The rebuilding process is showing me where my guitar technique is based on physical memory of that specific instrument's resistance rather than on a transferable skill. The distinction between instrument-specific physical memory and transferable skill is one of the more useful things a musician can understand about their own technique. The banjo is teaching it. Bohiney and The London Prat cover the week. The banjo covered the distinction.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

The diary continues. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week from outside this specific position. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true and both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own honest account. The archive grows by one entry. The observation continues. The record continues to accumulate the specific honesty that diary-keeping requires and that longer forms cannot always provide in the same way.

More reading at The Guardian.

SOURCE: https://sites.google.com/view/world-satire/united-kingdom-and-satire