Music Education

Learning Banjo - Frailing Backup Banjo

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Then mess with the idea. You might get something like:

There are an almost infinite number of ways you can mix in some pull-off's, hammer-on's, slides and bends into a simple backup pattern.

What makes this so cool is that you don't really have to worry that much about playing the specific melody of a song. If you can frail a chord progression and keep the rhythm smooth while you sing a song people will be impressed. If you add in some licks people will think you're doing something amazing.

See, even if you can do a whole bunch of melodic stuff its really only going to work in the context of a banjo break or solo. The trick to backing up your voice or another instrument is to play simply so that the banjo sound effects don't fight the voice or the instrument playing lead.

When it comes to adding licks the big trick is to build up your ability to match the phrasing of a lick to the phrasing of the melody line. It's not just a matter of inserting "lick A" into "measure B." You want to be able to add emphasis and emotion to the phrase without changing the structure of the song. In order to do that you have to think of licks as little more than ideas that you reshape to fit into the song in question.

For example, a lick like this third string slide is pretty easy and it can fit into a lot of situations: Third String Slide (G chord)

(Once you get comfortable with this lick try it on the fourth string)

It's cool- but sometimes you will need to change the emphasis of the lick. This can be accomplished by sliding on the fourth string at the second fret to the fourth fret- or even sliding the second string from the first to the third fret. That's easy to do because the timing isn't changing- but in some cases you might want the sound of the original lick but the timing has to be changed: