I got my first guitar for my tenth birthday and have played it for forty-five years now. Thirty-five years later I got a plectrum banjo and have played it for ten years now. When I was twenty-five I took violin lessons for eight months. In all of the time I played those instruments - the violin is the one that advanced me the most. I am going to attempt to come up with a reason why...
I learned to play lots of major and minor chords on the guitar and coordinate left and right hands. The same with the plectrum banjo, along with sevenths, diminished and augmented chords at different inversions. Both instruments reflected around playing harmonies with just the banjo being the instrument to combine melody and harmony. But with neither instrument could I play the melody on multiple strings. I just never was given lessons (in the case of the banjo) or discovered on my own how to do so. So playing by ear has alluded me on both instruments. The guitar is tuned in fourths and the plectrum banjo has that second string that throws off a single-string player. On the other hand the violin is tuned in fifths and when I started playing Irish traditional music (all melody-driven) it turned out that it made most sense to tune the instruments that way.
In the eight months I played violin I was reading music. I was also playing melody notes singularly on multiple strings. In almost thirty years since I played this instrument my mind must have kept this information. I gave up classical violin lessons because it was hard and I had no goals. I decided that I would go back to playing one if I could set goals. I was no longer into classical music and I didn't listen to fiddle music at all. I eventually sold the violin. Then 2013 comes around. Last summer when I was taking bodhran lessons my teacher lent me her husband's tenor banjo. In Irish music the banjo is tuned GDAE - just like a violin but an octive lower. I started learning some tunes based on reading the sheet music. I already was learning sight reading on the tin whistle and Irish flute so I knew what notes were what and I was familiar with playing some tunes slowly. Almost instantly I could read and play the music. It must be from pulling from my memory. It made sense. I hardly had to think about it. I could rattle off Irish tunes on the tenor banjo! Since then I got a violin, mandolin and a baritone ukulele that I tuned GDAE so I have four instruments all tuned that way.
To remain in the Irish music (my music love) I play the banjo, mandolin and uke. But for the fiddle I've taken to the style of Cape Breton like the works of Buddy and Natalie MacMaster. The fiddle will take me a while so I will learn how to play Scottish reels, jigs and strathspeys and occasionally learn Irish tunes as well. My goal in December was to play ten Irish tunes by May. I did it by February. So I will learn ten more by May and if that happens earlier than expected I will set a goal for 100 tunes by the end of the year. I hope to get to the point where I can play what I can sing (referencing tune familiarity - I can't really sing.) That would give me unlimited playability. When I reach that goal I'll work on adding the harmony by ear. That will bring me back to the guitar and plectrum banjo with a familiarity that I couldn't achieve with just those two instruments.
I feel like a burden has been lifted. I've decided to avoid jazz banjo fests this year and come back in the next year or two with a real ability to perform as a musician. No memorizing numbers. Just play by ear. Then I can work on improving left and right hand techniques. I also hope to play the GDAE instruments at full speed Irish sessions - all by ear. These goals are more realistic now than in my past.
