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Fingerstyle Productions





 

Ballast for Balance
 

BALLAST FOR BALANCE!
Rescuing Your Technique
by Fingerstyle Productions®

By far the most common problem for new pickers is ‘cuddling’ the neck with the chord hand.  This is usually no fault of the player.  It’s due to a badly balanced banjo.

If you have a ‘beginners grade’ banjo with alloy brackets and flange, you’ll find the banjo won’t sit on your lap without help from your chord hand.  The weight of the neck is greater than the pot.

Your chord hand needs to be free to move up and down the neck without the burden of supporting any weight. 

Here’s a practical remedy to rescue your technique—before bad habits take hold!
Cuddling the neck

‘Cuddling’ the neck stuffs your technique

  1. Grab a 1kg bag of rice.  Empty out a third.  Top it up with lead shot or fishing sinkers.
  2. Make sure the lead is evenly spread through the rice then re-seal the bag.
  3. Unscrew the resonator and place the bag inside.
  4. Re-attach the resonator.  Shake down the bag into the lower quadrant of the banjo.
Rice in resonator

Now test...

The banjo should balance between three points of your body when sitting in a straight-backed chair.  The inside of your thighs, and your tummy.

The wider you open your knees (no jokes from female musos!) the lower the banjo will sit.  ‘Putting your feet up’ (on the closed banjo case?) helps tip the banjo back against your body.  
Ballast - no hands needed!

“Look Mum!  No hands!”

Thanks to Alan from Beerwah, Qld for posing on a hot, wet afternoon in January.)

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Fingerstyle Productions, Nambour, Queensland, Australia.

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