Cold Feet Playing the Banjo

Banjo lessons are a lot tougher than I thought. I�d been taking these online banjo lessons for months now � you know, downloading videos of this guy strumming his banjo and trying to follow along, stroking that banjo to my heart�s content � but when my first actual, person-to-person banjo lesson came, I felt like I was all thumbs. It was a disaster.

I admit that I was a bit of a slacker following those downloaded video lessons, mostly doing only the lessons and the songs that interested me and skipping the rest. But still, I actually thought I was making great progress. Then I had to take those real lessons and all my illusions were shattered.

I was really and thoroughly disappointed with my first actual banjo lesson. Maybe it was because I was trying to show off and display to my instructor my �hard-eaed� banjo-playing skills. Or maybe I was nervous. All I know is, the instructor took one look at me and I immediately missed a chord. Admittedly, I have absolutely zero experience in musical instruments and this was the first time I actually played for someone. But I was always a relaxed and competent public speaker so crowds (even a �crowd� of one) shouldn�t faze me. I thought playing the banjo would be a breeze. After all, I�d been practicing for months, right? Wrong. It was just horrible.

Just the thought of playing in front of my banjo instructor still rattles me. Now, I�m puzzled as to how I can actually lea anything from my banjo lessons if I can�t even play in front of my teacher. He�s nice and accommodating, so it�s not a clash of personalities at all. Not to mention the fact that he plays the banjo great and I gain much just by watching him play. And yet, I have to ask myself, will I sound any differently when my next lesson comes around?

he big question in my head is, how will I know if I�m making any progress if I can�t play in front of him? In fact, how will I even know if I've leaed anything from one banjo lesson to the next? I realize there�s no way of getting around it, but I still can�t will myself to play in front of him. For now, I�m going to start recording my banjo playing and let him hear it. But even with that, it might still be hard to play, knowing that� I�m actually still playing for him. I only hope that things will get better eventually.

Phillip Culver has written many articles based on arts and entertainment. View more arts and entertainment articles here. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Philip_Culver