About a year ago a friend of mine who plays OT put his Bacon up for sale - a well cared for vintage instrument. I went over to his place and he played it for me and I just had to have it. Then the frustration started!
Learning Clawhammer means your hands have to adapt to a playing position that is quite uncomfortable for a guitar player, and takes a lot of physical practice to get. Took me about 3 months of determined practice - 15 minutes to an hour 4-5 days a week to get the position.
Then it seemed like I woke up one day and had it! My hand fell right into position on the banjo, kept pretty decent time and made some pretty nice sounds. Why it works this way I really don't know, but months of practice finally paid off. Practice became fun time again - hours went by in minutes when I was playing the banjo.
Playing tunes in the D and G tunings actually came pretty quick - the banjo is laid out so most of the melodies are really accessible and knowing the tunes from playing mandolin and guitar gave me a huge start getting things going.
I also have to credit the book "Banjo Without Tears" by Hillary Dirlam as giving me a basic foundation as to how the rhythm should sound. It also helped to have some great support from my bandmates in Springhouse who allowed me to play a few tunes and songs on the banjo in performance (which made me practice harder to get stage ready). Here's one of the first times I played out on the banjo.
Now I'm not a pro by any means, but after one year I can play dozens of tunes in a few keys, and accompany a bunch of songs. And every time I pick the banjo up it's just plain fun.
Get one - you'll see!!
