How do you learn to build banjos?

Years ago friends invited our family to spend time at a lake in northern Minnesota.   A number of prominent Kansas City families had cabins on the lake.   One afternoon I found myself sitting on the deck of the community dining hall with a very well known lawyer from Kansas City, whose name still appears in the firm name one of Missouri's largest and most prestigious law firms.   As a young lawyer just starting out, I was pleased to be in the company of such an accomplished and successful attorney.   At some point in the conversation, I complimented the older gentleman on his success.   He thanked me but gave a long pause and said wistfully that the law had not really been what he had wanted to do with his life.   Intrigued, I asked him what it was he had wanted to pursue.   He looked out over the lake and proceeded to tell me that all of his life he had yearned to be a writer, but that first came the war and then when he returned from the war he married and had several children to feed and then and then and then.   "Great," I said innocently, "a writer."   "Well, what have you written?"   He looked around at me sharply and said: "No I couldn't be a writer because of my family and my law practice and the need to make a living."   He then resumed looking wistfully out over the lake.   I think I saw tears in his eyes.   Not deterred, I said "Well, if all your life you've yearned to be a writer, surely you must have written something?"   Now he was really irritated with me and he somewhat testily repeated all of his reasons why he couldn't have become a writer.    He went back to staring out over the lake.   He looked sad.   Not knowing what else to say, I waited a few minutes and found somewhere else I needed to be.



A couple of years later, I was reading an article in Banjo Newsletter.    Yes, there was and still is such a magazine.   I was a beginning banjo player and I was reading everything I could find.   The little magazine was published by a man named Hub Nitche, who I believe is now deceased.   Hub wrote a regular column and the column I remember was about learning how to build banjos.   Hub said that he frequently got calls and visits from guys who had an interest in learning to build banjos and wanted advice as to how to get started.   Hub said that his first question was always whether the guy had built a kit banjo.   Stewart-McDonald Company in Ohio sold banjo kits back then and still does.   Hub said that the guy always said no, he didn't have time to bother with that.   He wanted to go straight to building high quality banjos from scratch and needed some sort of class or course or apprenticeship.   Hub would report to the guy that he wasn't aware of any such class or course and that the guy would leave disappointed.   None of these guys ever seemed to realize their stated goal of learning to building banjos, according to Hub.   Hub said that he had talked to a number of instrument builders over the years and inquired about how they had learned to build banjos.    I think that trial and error was the consensus response.   Hub ended his column by saying that he had given the subject of how you learn to build banjos a lot of thought.   He said that he had finally concluded that the way you learn to build banjos is--tada--you build banjos.  

I have marveled over the years that my lawyer acquaintance apparently spent his whole life disappointed about the fact that he had not become a writer when he never once attempted to write anything.   He apparently had no real desire to do what you do to become what he ostensibly wanted to become.   Although he is long deceased, I see his name on a building on my drive home every night.   Despite his disappointment in his career choice, he clearly accomplished a great deal.   I think the answer to how you become a writer is pretty much the same as how you learn to build banjos.   You get a legal pad and a Bic pen and you write something.   You can use a computer if you are high tech.   It no doubt helps if you have something you really, really want to get off your chest.    And if people don't like your writing, you can always try building banjos!

As an avid (if mediocre) musician, I have heard a lot of people say over the years: "I have always wanted to learn to play the piano/guitar/flute/bagpipes/whatever."   I always ask them:   "What's stopping you?"