Dear fellow fan of the five,
Mastering a musical instrument has very little to do with talent.
Combine persistent effort with the right learning tools, on the other hand, and the sky’s the limit.
But to be persistent means you must keep your motivational fire burning. You don’t practice because you have to, you practice because you want to.
Staying motivated and inspired, then, is vital. And the best way to stay motivated? Have really good tunes to play.
Always having great tunes to play that are appropriate for your current level (or just on the edge enough to push you a bit) is the best way to keep your motivational fire burning.
That’s a cornerstone of the Brainjo Method, and why maintaining a growing library of hundreds of tunes and songs with video demonstrations is part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.
It’s also why this “10 EASY but AWESOME” book of tabs exists!
(RELATED: Click here to learn more about the Breakthrough Banjo course, including “The Vault,” the ultimate library of fingerstyle banjo tunes and songs.)
Complicated Does Not Equal Great!
I’ve been playing music for quite some time – piano, guitar, banjo, fiddle, and so on.
And yes, my technical skills have grown over the years, and along with them my ability to play arrangements that are increasingly complicated.
But I’ll let you in on a little secret…
A great tune is a great tune, no matter how simple or complicated you choose to play it.
In fact, being a highly skilled player can be a curse. It’s natural to think that things that are harder to play must be better.
But that’s entirely not true!
The reality is there’s very little to no correlation between how difficult something is to play, and how good it sounds.
Take a great melody, play it cleanly and with good timing, and I guarantee you’ll have a captive audience.
It’s for these reasons that I’ve created the Brainjo level system, a way of categorizing tablature according to its technical demands, to help ensure that folks learning by the Brainjo Method always have great music to play, no matter where they are on the Timeline of Mastery.
Remember, though, just because something is more technically difficult (i.e. a higher Brainjo level) doesn’t necessarily make it better! In the end, that’s for your ears to judge.
(RELATED: Click here to read more about the Brainjo level system)
2 and 3 Finger Arrangements
In this book, you’ll find tablature for 10 songs, each arranged for 2 and 3 finger banjo, so you can select the style you wish to play.
The 2 finger tabs are written in the 2-finger “thumb lead” style, which typically played with the thumb and index finger.
As I discuss in the introductory videos to the Breakthrough Banjo course for fingerstyle banjo (click here to watch the introductory videos), I discuss why learning all the styles of fingerpicking makes playing more fun, expands the range of awesome sounds you can make on the banjo, and actually makes learning the banjo easier.
This is why ALL styles of fingerpicking are taught and integrated into the learning sequence of the course.
The Brainjo Level System
The tabs in this book are all either Brainjo Level 1 or 2, which indicates the technical skills needed to play them (click here to learn more about the Brainjo Level system for fingerstyle banjo).
Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about how to create your own arrangements like these, entirely by ear, it’s one of the many topics covered in the Breakthrough Banjo course. Click here for more info.
Enjoy!
Josh Turknett
Founder and Lead Brain Hacker at Brainjo