C
Decent overview but not a good book for learning
I bought this book to learn bluegrass banjo and found it very disappointing. There's a quick overview of basic technique and some serviceable chord diagrams, but beyond that it's not much use for actually learning the music or the instrument.
The biggest problem is the included CD. Each song is included once by full band & vocals and once as a backup track without banjo. They're covered only very briefly (30 to 90 seconds each, typically closer to 50 seconds) and only at fast tempo, so they're useless to play along with, particularly when learning. The sound mixing of the recording doesn't bring out the banjo part, so the banjo is hard to hear and pretty much blends into the background most of the time, meaning that the CD is also useless for learning by listening. Many (most?) of the songs to learn as lead banjo are tabbed and recorded using a capo, which is an unnecessary complication.
I have used books to learn instruments many times before, and honestly, this is the worst one I have had. It ultimately wasn't helpful either for learning basic technique nor for learning any of the individual included songs. I got far better results out of free videos on YouTube and other tabs. Unfortunately I was not able to return the book for a refund.
The biggest problem is the included CD. Each song is included once by full band & vocals and once as a backup track without banjo. They're covered only very briefly (30 to 90 seconds each, typically closer to 50 seconds) and only at fast tempo, so they're useless to play along with, particularly when learning. The sound mixing of the recording doesn't bring out the banjo part, so the banjo is hard to hear and pretty much blends into the background most of the time, meaning that the CD is also useless for learning by listening. Many (most?) of the songs to learn as lead banjo are tabbed and recorded using a capo, which is an unnecessary complication.
I have used books to learn instruments many times before, and honestly, this is the worst one I have had. It ultimately wasn't helpful either for learning basic technique nor for learning any of the individual included songs. I got far better results out of free videos on YouTube and other tabs. Unfortunately I was not able to return the book for a refund.
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