53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great way to learn to be a banjoist & a musician, December 28, 2004
This review is from: The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo (Paperback)
Pat's How and the Tao of Old Time banjo is one of the best basic instruction books of any kind that I have ever seen. I don't just mean banjo, but any kind of music, and I am sure people writing other instruction books can learn from this too.
Too many banjo books center on the author showing off his own virtuosity and presenting a course that really isn't helpful to a beginner. This book IS oriented at getting a beginner going playing the banjo, learning how to do everything practically. You will be playing tunes quickly, but more importantly you will be learning basics about the banjo that will take you further places.
All along, Pat has very good and basic tips about banjo playing that often are not in banjo books that can save a beginner who cannot afford a teacher much trouble.
What impresses me is that this book teaches basic concepts of music to the new player without going into things an old time banjoist doesn't need to know. Pat's concept of a player is someone who is really getting to learn more broadly about music itself than what a particular instrument can do. This is a good approach, but I have never seen it done as practically as in this book.
My only quibble is Pat's obession with doing everything in the G tuning. One is taught to play in other keys by making chords and positions from the G tuning, something that I've never heard of before in an instruction book, although I confess I have done this playing in bands when my knowledge of the banjo was scant and inaccurate.
Old time banjo is played in a multiplicty of tunings. Indeed, the adjustment of the tuning is really key to this approach to music unlike the tenor banjo, plectrum banjo, bluegrass banjo, or guitar. Even a beginner who hopes to play old time music should learn the double c tuning, the D tuning, and the sawmill tuning.
Despite this one drawback, this is a great instruction book. The thinking is clear and easy to understand. The book addresses practical problems a beginner will face in clear and easy and instructive language, there is a good selection of real old time songs here that are worth the price of the book.
This is a good book to use, but once you get picking look around for information about other tunings
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than a book just for learning to pick a banjo, June 24, 2004
This review is from: The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo (Paperback)
Patrick Costello's book started as "a couple of pages covering tuning and basic banjo skills" to get some high school kids started in another teacher's after school program. It's that basic, but it's also rooted in his deep understanding of musical theory and human nature. I'm a beginner, finishing my first year and probably 250 hours of practice, and I've collected many of the instruction books that pop up on Amazon when you search on "clawhammer." You really can't have too many of those books, because there's likely to be something useful in any of them, even if it's just learning there are a lot of ways to teach the same thing.
This book is unique, though, because anyone who picks it up can enjoy Costello's stories of his life of musical adventures. I left the book on the kitchen table when it arrived, and my wife, who's not a musician, started reading his anecdotes and laughing, and pointed me to those I had not yet seen. She loves the stories, because Costello is a great story teller. The stories are not just diversions, though. He tells them to teach things through examples from experience. The opening anecdote's a great example. It ends with the lines, "First thing you've got to do is slow down.... It's the rhythm, kid.... That's got to stay the same no matter what happens.... OK now, son, get lost. Go on and work on that. Don't come back until you can do like we showed you," which was advice to Costello at the beginning of his banjo life. At the end of the book, Costello tells us, too, to, "Get lost" and go play.
You could go a long way on the advice in these quotes from a story that's great for a beginner, whether the story is real, anecdotal or apocryphal. Costello provides what you need to start Old Time clawhammer banjo, and if we all follow the advice (slow it down, keep the rhythm, and "get lost" and PLAY until we can do what we've just learned the way it's described), there'll be a lot more music and a lot less book collecting among the beginners, sooner rather than later.
Costello teaches chords, but he's teaching us to pick the banjo within the structure of those chords and within the relationships among those chords, not just to strum. The purist may say that's not real old time banjo, but it is, just as much as the great modal mountain fiddle music that defies chording, because the old time banjo is an instrument for entertaining all folks who love a good song as much as it is part of the modal mountain tradition. Costello points out right away that, "...if all you ever manage to learn is the basic strum and three chords, you can play thousands, yes thousands, of songs." Now, that's encouragement for someone who wants to play AND sing with others of like mind. What's more, he's put a lot of songs, with the words no less, in this book.
Now, there are other approaches to teaching old time banjo picking epitomized by the advice from one guy I've heard, who says more or less that you probably should stick to one tune for months before you try another. If you've got the guts after hearing this advice to play anywhere but in your bedroom until you come out like a mayfly, play your tune, & disappear, you're tougher than I am.
Costello's book encourages you to make music, because that's the point. Getting it right just means slowing down, keeping the rhythm and singing along, and that's the sort of approach that will free the beginner from solitary confinement. There's plenty here to teach clawhammer technique, with the subtleties of double thumbing, drop thumbing, pulling off, hammering on, sliding and, well, that's about it for most books except to provide more & more difficult ways to use those pieces of the technique. Costello teaches the technique, but in the background there's both his mastery of theory and his great philosophy of sharing music with others.
I've learned something from each old time banjo book on my music stand. This one is on top. It's inspiring and fun, and it has something for your friends and family to enjoy while you're lost, playing the music and singing the songs.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book offers great guidance for new banjo player!, August 26, 2004
This review is from: The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo (Paperback)
I purchased The How and Tao of Old Time Banjo for my husband for his birthday in March. Within a month, with practice, and a special visit to the Costellos, he was playing dozens of songs and continues to improve steadily as a banjo player.
What helped Brian as much as the book was the companion computer CD-Rom that features Pat Costello, the author's father, giving a virtual lesson. Brian was able to stop the CD and watch over and over as he practiced his basic skills.
Also, a note about the essays included in the book: These are delightful reflections that each have a lesson for the novice player. They are thoughtfully written and enjoyable, even for non-banjo playing readers, such as myself.
Before How and Tao, Brian had gotten a banjo but had no guidance. It has been a wonderful resource for him!
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