North Carolina banjo player and educator Bennett Sullivan has presented an interesting dare to banjo players of all types. He is inviting all of you to beef up your timing skills through his 32 Days to Solid Timing Challenge for the month of July.
Known worldwide through his online banjo instruction portal, Banjo Licks, Bennett will offer 32 daily practice videos for subscribers during July for a single $67 payment. Once you sign up, you can log in daily and practice along with Sullivan as he helps you refine your sense of time, and your execution on the banjo.
Each day a new exercise will be presented and described on the video, then you will be asked to play along, first with a metronome, and then a guitar backing track. As the challenge goes along, Sullivan will increase the difficulty slightly with each new drill, but keep them at a pace where you can learn a new one daily with minimal difficulty. Each will be roughly 10 minutes in duration, so no major time commitment is required.
The challenge is that he believes that doing these 32 days of exercises will noticeably improve your timing. And access to the videos will be available to subscribers after July so that you can continue to refine your sense of time in perpetuity.
Banjo Licks also provides a community of pickers with whom you can communicate online, ask questions, and either receive or provide encouragement. Once a week Bennett offers a Zoom Q&A where you can present difficulties to your teacher directly.
32 Days to Solid Timing sounds like a terrific way to knock off some rust, or simply learn to lock in to proper meter and time. It is suitable for banjo players without regard to skill or experience level.
Full details can be seen online.
