My 2,000-hour journey ended in a flop! What a sham, what a failure, what a quitter, yeah, I bought a Banjo on Jan 1st, 2024, practiced, watched videos, read books, practiced some more. I listened to recordings on my phone, took videos, and recorded audio of my playing. Fingers hurt, broke a string, and in total, from Jan to March of 2024, put in over 73 hours towards the goal of 2,000 hours. This is the time they say it takes to become proficient. I realized I was a dud. Enthusiasm fizzled out!
I knew then I was no Scruggs or Bela Fleck (what a player, O my!). The Banjo sat in its case for over a year and a half, untouched, thought of little, just sitting there like a decorative piece in my office. I moved it on occasion. Sometimes the family would ask about it, but nothing came of it. I held on to it, though, and I am glad I did because here we are in February of 2026, and I am back at it with renewed vigor. Practicing at least 30 minutes a day, still reaching for the 2,000-hour goal.
You know, there are guys on YouTube recording their own 2,000-hour journey with this instrument. I thought about it, but decided I didn’t want to put anyone else, other than my family, through the agony of my practices. By the way, do you know what a Hurdy Gurdy is? Yeah, go look that one up. It is an ancient medieval instrument. I should put that under – Things I’ve Learned Along the Way.
The Banjo in the picture is mine! It is a Washburn special. I picked it up at Guitar Center. We have had some interesting times together, to say the least. Many, and I mean many, frustrating moments, but I “picked” a few things up along the way. Somewhat get through Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (I’ll take anything that sounds recognizable at this point), Boil Them Cabbage Down. The arrangement was done by Mike Hedding and Amazing Grace, an arrangement by Nickerson, and not much beyond that.
I don’t think I will ever part with this banjo. I am building some “core memories” (many will understand) with it. My goal, my forever Banjo, will be a Deering. They make a great-looking and playing Banjo. I will most likely be in the Goodtime series, although I am keeping an eye out on the FB marketplace. I’m a little nervous about buying used, though. I guess there is risk in anything. I made a commitment to myself that if I can just play one hymn for a church service then that will justify working towards getting a Deering. We shall see.
One of the most maddening things about practice, and I don’t know if this is common with other stringed instruments, my fingers like stopped working. I normally can pluck with not too much trouble, and today they were all mixed up, like what was thumb and index finger thinking. Did they swap places? It sure felt like they did. I mean couldn’t get any consistency. I slowed the tempo way down, but I still couldn’t get through it. I guess you have good days and bad days.
A little about my time practicing. I almost always tune it using GuitarTuna an app you can download on your phone. Seems to work well and is convenient. I normally practice forward and backward rolls, slides, Hammer-Ons, and Pull-Offs. I do this until I annoy myself, and then a little more to make sure I am fully annoyed before moving on to the next section in my practice. Then I turn to the music portion of my practice. Currently, my main sources, aside from the two books I have, are https://mikeheddingmusic.com. He does a nice job breaking each piece down, playing through it, explaining each step, and providing visual and audio. This has been a huge help. I recently discovered https://www.tunefox.com/banjo, and while I have not explored everything they have to offer, what I have seen and used so far suggests they have a good setup.
My practices last about 30 minutes most of the time; on some days, it may be as long as 45 minutes, and I practice twice on some days. I may post a video of me playing when I feel confident. We shall see. Anyway, back to my other tasks. Have a great night!
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