Banjo Primer Book for Beginners: with Online Video & Audio Access Paperback – August 30, 2018

Good info and teaching

I have been playing the jazz guitar (electric, bass) for 43 years now. I have no banjo background/experience. I got this book yesterday in Kindle format. The Kindle format comes with the video access to see the digital version of the DVD that came with the hardcopy version of the book. On the very first page of the Kindle book, there is a URL there. Just click that URL, and it will take you to a page where you need to enter your email address only once. I believe the email address is a token that matches to your amazon email address. Do not wait for Amazon to send you an access link. The link to access the video, as I said is on the front page of the digital version of the book.Geoff Hohwald, the author, is one tough instructor, and I like it. He's serious about what he wants you to do and stresses the importance of getting things right first before going to another section of the instruction. The book touches everything, from the posture, tuning, using the fingerpick, to reading the tablature (love this part)...AND it comes with the backing track bass and guitar mp3s (downloadable) to accompany your playing. The backing tracks some in three speeds- slow-med-fast. There's no need to read music notation as, from what I have seen so far, there are all in tablature format. I am only on the first 10 minutes of the video, and then I stop and read the Kindle book. It is important that you read the book and supplement it with the video or vise versa. But the book has a lot of info that really gets into the specifics and fundamentals of banjo playing.There are online banjo instructions sites out there; there's one that charges $250/month. Ridiculous. Uhh no thank you. This book should suffice as a good starting point to learning the banjo. For a guitar player like me, the transition or rather the learning curve is slightly easier to cope with because some of the fundamentals of guitar playing do apply to banjo playing... hand positioning, picking/plucking, posture, even tablature reading. But there are other basics in banjo playing that are completely different from guitar playing. The tuning is one thing which is completely different from your standard EADGBE guitar tuning. So all the blues scales, pentatonics, major, minor scales you know in guitar is out the window completely because of banjo's GDGBD tuning. And this is the beauty of learning the banjo, the learning to "walk-again" moment to me is a priceless experience.Get this book. This is all you need to get started with banjo playing. To a guitar player wanting to learn to play the banjo, this is the only book you will need. To someone with no experience in playing an instruments, guess what, this book is all you need to. Highly recommended!

I’m learning banjo. So far I’ve been able to follow along well. If I had one negative it would be that you can’t look At jam and practice video online. Only via the cds provided. Not many households actually have dvd players or cd music players any longer

Though the book is a slightly dated, the book is still relevant to learn from. The author, Geoff Hohwald has done a fantastic job of how the book is laid out and is extremely easy to follow. Learning to play from the book took me only 3 days and I was easily able to play the song "Boil Them Cabbage Down" from memory. I have no prior experience playing a banjo, except from noodling around with one from the local big box guitar store. The book only uses Tab format and not music notation. This makes far more easier to learn from as a background in music is not necessary.Book still includes the DVD to learn from and two music CDs with sample arrangements and background tracks to play along with. I have yet to use any of the digital media, but the book alone taught me. Love it, as for I have always wanted to play the banjo.This book is intended for pure beginners with no experience and for a regular size 5 string banjo, not a banjo-guitar, banjocita, banjo-ukelele, or some other different type of banjo.

First off the key word is "beginner". Which means absolutely no experience in playing the banjo or even touching one until you start. If you have some experience or more and somewhat on the cusp of intermediate levels, this book is not for you. Now...for brand new beginners, this book with DVD and CD's, is one of the best I've come across. It tells you parts of the banjo, strings and tuning. The beginning exercises shows you how to hold the banjo and where and how to place your fingers. Roll exercises help get you warmed up and to get your picking fingers memorizing the strings when playing. The step by step process is done in the order one needs to learn seriously. Geoff always expresses to practice individual exercises before moving on. The book also teaches you how NOT to get into bad habits and go at your own pace. I have been learning the banjo for 3 weeks now, and I have progressed quite well using this book. Geoff also explains how practicing at your own pace will greatly improve your technique down the road and in the short time since I started I can safely say this is true.On another note, doing these exercises helps you learn to tune (even with a tuner) with other strings; how to put on a strap correctly and so on. Each new technique such as slides, hammer on's, chokes, pull-off's are explained and shown with 1 or 2 bar exercises each individually then incorporated into songs.I have several books on learning and I have to say this is one of the best.The DVD is a little clunky on some systems, however, I play them on a blue-ray with the CD's. Better sound anyway.