Wednesday, May 15, 2024

“The Session Book” Banjo Course By Sean Ray

I found this nice banjo course today by Sean Ray for $45. Best of all, it comes with some quality backing tracks played by real musicians, not BIAB. I ordered the course and am pleased with it. I've been working on Foggy Mountain Special just now, which I recognized right away as one of the songs Dave Hum recorded. Dave does some great things in this song. It's a fun song to play.


In this e-course you get tablature in both .PDF and .TEF format, and then backing tracks with and without the banjo (which you download from Google drive) for the following 26 songs:
  1. Blackjack
  2. Bugle Call Rag
  3. Clinch Mountain Backstep
  4. Cripple Creek
  5. Cumberland Gap
  6. Dear Old Dixie
  7. Earl’s Breakdown
  8. Farewell Blues
  9. Fireball Mail
  10. Five Speed
  11. Flint Hill Special
  12. Foggy Mountain Breakdown
  13. Foggy Mountain Chimes
  14. Foggy Mountain Special
  15. Ground Speed
  16. Home Sweet Home
  17. John Hardy
  18. John Henry
  19. Lonesome Road Blues
  20. Pike County Breakdown
  21. Randy Lynn Rag
  22. Reuben
  23. Sally Ann
  24. Sally Goodin
  25. Shuckin’ The Corn
  26. Train 45
Good stuff! If you check online for the going average cost to pay someone to make you a backing tract, it is now $150 per song. Great fluffy biscuits in the morning! So, here you're getting 26 great backing tracks with violin, mandolin, guitar and bass for just $45, plus all the tablature.

The musicians are:
  • Sean Ray – Banjo, Guitar, Bass
  • Brian Ray – Mandolin
  • Paul Kienitz – Violin
That's a great deal if you ask me! I don't get anything for promoting other people's stuff, I just like sharing things that help to enrich other musicians.

Also, on a different but related note, I love the program MixCraft and have used it for over 10 years to work with backing tracks and record my music. I use the Pro Studio version of MixCraft for $149, but I'm sure I could easily get by with the cheaper version. I've always had the philosophy that it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. If you do opt to buy the less expensive basic version, you can always upgrade for a discounted price at a later time to the Pro Studio version if you want. With just the lower priced $79 version you can edit any backing track to change it's tempo, key, add effects, et cetera.

For example: I really like the song Ground Speed. Sean Ray made an awesome backing track for it in his The Session Book course, but I wanted to speed it up a bit (it's one of a few songs I can play at a faster tempo), so I used MixCraft to make it a bit faster today. If you do purchase MixCraft and have any questions, I'll do what I can to help you. There's plenty of helpful information and tutorials online for the program, which is invaluable. Plus MixCraft has good tech support. Once you buy the program, it's yours for life. I like that. I hate the Microsoft wants to charge you every year to use their software. I try to avoid those traps.

A Cool Dave Hum T-Shirt I Had Made

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5 String Banjo Instruction [1967] - Earl Scruggs

5 String Banjo Instruction Album [1967] - Earl Scruggs