My parents encouraged me to learn how to play a lot of different instruments over the years. At some point, I picked up a harmonica. This came natural enough that I would play it at churches with my cousin Sammy accompanying me when we performed at churches. Another instrument that I got around this time was a banjo. I found it a frustrating instrument and I didn’t pick it up easily. It occupied a place in the corner of my room, then got tucked into a closet to be forgotten until another cousin expressed interest in playing around with it. The banjo was a failed experiment.
I’ve mentioned getting a good guitar in several other posts. I was able to play well before I got the good guitar. I entertained for many hours in college at my fraternity house with friends’ guitars. All of this was playing rhythm guitar using what are commonly referred to as the easy “cowboy” chords. In the early days of having the new guitar, I was happy to stick with the chords and techniques that had served me well. As time went on, I became more interested in different techniques of playing, including fingerpicking. At some point, I was doing some research into general fingerpicking and started playing around with it. I soon became comfortable enough with it to add it to my bag of tricks for playing. I came easily enough that I thought I might be able to take another stab at banjo. I picked up an inexpensive banjo along with some instructional materials. I didn’t want to take lessons. Using the materials, I was able to start playing banjo. The more I stuck with it, the better I got. While I got comfortable enough with it to eventually use it on one recording, I never developed much speed. Over time, practicing often enough to keep my skills sharp became tiring. I rarely practice now and have lost much of the banjo skills that I developed. It’s a loud instrument that can drive away friends and family. The best time to practice is as far away from humans as possible. But I was able to prove to myself that I could fingerpick well enough to play a banjo.