Banjo MIDI Songs by Dave Hum

       The following MIDI song files are invaluable! You cannot play a song until you first get the melody into your brain. It is possible, playing chords, to jump into any song and play along, and it will sound good. However, for someone who is familiar with the song, they will quickly realize that you don't know the song melodies unless you play them. Hence, it is important, I think, if you want to become proficient on the banjo, to learn the individual melodies of the songs you want to play.

Also, one of my favorite programs is called MixCraft (I use MixCraft 8 Pro Studio), which allows you to edit songs. It is a recording studio as well. I mainly use MixCraft to change the pitch and tempo of songs. You can input these MIDI songs and slow them down with MixCraft, to play along. For example: I just slowed down Dave's MIDI song for Mississippi Sawyer. This allows me to hear the note in my own SLOW time. I'm getting old at age 52...lol.

Also, YouTube allows users (under “settings” at the right corner of each video) to change the video speed. I've been slowing Dave's songs down to half and quarter speed, to learn the parts, and then play at three-quarter speed until I feel comfortable, and then go at it full speed. This is a very helpful tool to learn to play the banjo. Each and every one of Dave Hum's YouTube videos is an instruction course, if you do what I just said.

Dave Hum used an elaborate program called “Reason.” You can actually download a full working copy of the software for 30 days, which is a great opportunity to see if it works for you. I did try it for free for a couple weeks, but it was way over my head to be honest. I am curious how Dave was able to use Reason to make his tracks, since I couldn't find even one YouTube user who had made Bluegrass or Country tracks with it. Dave Hum is amazing! Anyway, I simply bought a multi-track Zoom R-8 recording studio to lay down my bass tracks, like Dave does. If you listen to his rhythm tracks, they are extremely simple, usually just using a bass and perhaps some slight percussion, like a tambourine. Here is an example of one of Dave's tracks I tried to emulate. The song is called, Merrily Kiss The Quaker's Wife (fast tempo). Here's the song at medium tempo.

Both tracks are in the key of A, which Dave recorded the song in. Dave loves to play in the key of A, for obvious reasons. You effectively now have a zero-fret feel with the capo. The frets are also slightly closer together. These two advantages right off the bat make playing easier and more comfortable. I love playing in the key of A! I made this backing track using an inexpensive 4-string Squire Jazz bass I ordered from Amazon.com for around $200. I encourage other banjo players to get a bass and make your own backing tracks too (and please freely share as I am)!

Listen to Dave Hum's music on YouTube and you'll discover that his driving backing tracks are as much a part of his cheerful and inspiring music as is his magnificent banjo artistry! I have tried to obtain Dave Hum's tracks, but to no avail, likely because they are gone with the man himself. Hey, we can make our own tracks. God willing this will be an ongoing project for me, and I'll try to make a bunch more banjo tracks in the Dave Hum style for others to freely use and share! I think it is a great way to honor Dave, by keeping his music and style of playing alive!!! And as always, I NEVER take a penny, and never will, this is about the love of music! Thank you for reading this. God bless!