I know you're all pining to know how the banjo is going, here's the report. I'm getting better. I did well enough on "Roving Gambler" the other night that I moved on to "Loch Lomond" for a little while, so now I've got three songs that I rotate between when I practice, which makes practice more fun and also makes it easier for me to make it a whole hour in spite of exhaustion and tired and achey hands.

I've also received and put to use my banjo mute. It turns out that there's a bit of a learning curve there. The first thing I did when installing it is knock my bridge over, which is really no good. I'm better now, and hopefully have learned enough that I won't damage the bridge. They're not too expensive to replace, but man, I really don't want to get into that level of banjo maintenance right now. On that subject, my third string is not holding tune as well as the others, and I've realized everything I play relies heavily on that string. Next on the agenda is to try to pick up some other songs that will at least wear my strings out more evenly.

I'm in the induction phase of The Banjo Diet, so I've been listening to as much bluegrass as I can get my hands on (the better to be able to tell when I sound good and when I sound like crap). I am digging Flatt & Scruggs, but I was surprised that nothing that I'm learning comes close to Scruggs's sound, not even a seriously slowed down version. Then I remembered that Scruggs has his own unique method of playing, a method which I was told by the banjo maven at Different Strummer is too complicated for an absolute beginner, so I should really be listening to other things. Gonna roll around in some Osborne Brothers and Ralph Stanley tunes and see if that helps. At least I'll get to know some other banjo players.

It turns out that my tendinitis does affect my playing more than I had optimistically estimated, but it's like crochet in that it kinda balances out other tendon-straining activities. I can still definitely overdo it, but as long as I don't start off the night with an hour of banjo (and now that I've got my mute, I'm not limited to early evening practicing) I can use it to take the edge off the strain of, say, painting or handwriting or coloring with Gaz. In other tendinitis news, I'm planning on a cortisone shot and contemplating acupuncture as a way of fixing things without surgery and trips to the hand surgeon. There's a place in the old 'hood that treats everyone in one big "lounge" instead of individual treatment rooms, so that keeps the costs down. I'm thinking of checking that out.