Interested in learning how to play the banjo ...

[dane]

go ahead, laugh it up ... but I'm really interested in learning..

Is it easier/harder than guitar? I've never really played any instruments except a little piano when I was a boy...

I'm interested in picking up banjo ... but don't even know what I'm getting myself into just by thinking about it..

Anybody play one?

Anybody have one they no longer use that they can part with cheap?

Doesn't need to be the highest quality -- I'm just looking to learn how to play ...

thanks in advance,
..dane

ps.- if a banjo ends up being not the easiest thing to learn -- any advice on what is? I'm mainly just wanting to learn to play some simple tunes on some kind of instrument that can go along with storytelling... folk singing type stuff.. something portable would be nice... :)

[m-fine]

Should be no harder than guitar or bass or any other string instrument with frets. If you want something easier, check out Guitar Hero. There are only 5 buttons and they are color coded to make it "easy" for you! :D

[dane]

There's no need to laugh at you. Some of the best music I've ever heard involved a banjo. For example:

1) I heard a trio several months back where there was a banjo, guitar, and an upright bass being played in a coffee shop. They were doing lots of great bluegrass-type songs to include several by the Greatful Dead.

2) I have a CD by Cornbread Red. They are a bluegrass band and did an album tribute to the Bare Naked Ladies.

Good luck in your venture.

thanks wje ... we'll see how long my interest lasts... :)

Should be no harder than guitar or bass or any other string instrument with frets. If you want something easier, check out Guitar Hero. There are only 5 buttons and they are color coded to make it "easy" for you! :D

oh thanks .. ;)

Seeing as I've never learned any other string'd instrument (well, unless you call piano "stringed" since it uses them), that doesn't help me a whole lot.. :) And I'm looking for a REAL instrument, not a game.. :)

..dane

[m-fine]

I found guitar MUCH easier to pickup than piano if that is a more helpful reference. Key changes are much easier on strings without those silly black keys that only make sense in C major and A minor. If Guitar Hero is not your cup of tea, how about the gong, tamborine, triangle? They would all be easier to learn than banjo.

[dane]

thanks m ... :)