pleased!

So, I officially learned finally and completely the second half of Salt Creek today. I thought I'd only gotten a tiny bit into it with the guessing I'd done at home with just the recording, but I was totally right on! Or at least super close.

And not only that! Normally I am taught the bare bones easiest way to play stuff probably for two reasons: #1 so that I am not discouraged and can pick stuff up quickly and #2 so that I am forced to go forth on my own and show some initiative to learn fanciness because the only way to really learn is to listen and try stuff out.

And today I did just that. I had this hankering to hit an E after that series of hammer-ons at almost the end of the B-part of the song. I'd seen either on that video or watching my banjo teacher do some kind of pull-off thing on the first string but I wasn't quite sure what he was doing or when to do it, then I just kind of stumbled into that right sound by accident today, and I can't tell you how pleased I am with myself for teaching myself my own fanciness!

Now, if only I didn't play the entire song like a kindergartner with thumbs for fingers, my teacher would really be proud.

I keep thinking about how pricey these lessons are and wondering if I can afford to keep them up, then on a day like today I am just so unfathomably pleased with myself. I am playing the effing banjo, and I sound Not Too Bad. I could never have done this on my own. And now he wants to teach me some new song next week blues something or other even as I play my crippled version of Salt Creek. He has faith in me! If I become a pauper after frittering away my income on banjo lessons, at least I will be a banjo picking pauper! I can always play at farmers markets with my banjo case open suggestively in front of me and rake in the big bucks.