A Greater Degree of Control

Accenting Quarter Note Rolls

Accents! They will add so much life to your music once you can gain control of them. They can help to reinforce the time signature you are playing with, create new grooves, and just really brings in so much feeling to the music you play. We need to start simple. Don't go through the entire exercise top to bottom until you can do each accent pattern section consistently for 1-2 minutes. to practice these individually. Remember, accenting a note can mean you play that one louder, or the other ones quieter. Don't hit your accent note so hard that all the tone just goes out the window. The banjo only has so much to give and we need to work within that. You can also accent your vocal count! This is something that can really help develop your internal sense of timing and music.

If you are using the Tunefox player to practice this exercise, the accents are denoted with a ">" sign. You should be able to hear that in the player. Make sure to crank that metronome volume in the playback tab, you also may want to turn the banjo volume off to make sure you are really in time. You want to be able to hear when you play a split second before or after the metronome. This tells you whether you are dragging or rushing. After learning your tendency you will be able to make adjustments in your playing to stay even more in time. Remember to just stop, listen, and count before playing if you get off beat.

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