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Fantastic.  Congratulations.  Banjo is a great instrument to learn.

Newbie Dean - To help you with lightening up on the fretting, be sure to get your finger as close as you can to the fret and still be behind the fret.  There's a big difference between 1 11/16 and 1 3/4.  You're right about that!  Keep up the good work.  I've got arthritis in my hands too, but fortunate in that mine is manageable with BenGay still. 

- Zurf

Lady Tut -

Many people have had that problem.  Some guitars are wider at the neck then others.  If your fingers are truly very large at the tip, then a wide necked guitar could be your answer. 

That said, I think much more likely is that you need to develop the habit of using the tips of your fingers to press down on the strings just behind the frets.  You want to press the frets down with the very tippy tips of your fingers and not with the pads of your fingers.  If you use the pads or sides of your fingers, no matter how fine your fingers are, you will still mute the string next to it.  Sometimes that is desireable, but it is an advanced technique.  For now, just starting out, what you want to do is get used to curling your finger and using the very tips.  This is easier if, when you hold the neck of your guitar, you leave a space between the crook of your thumb and the back of the neck about large enough to fit a magic marker through.  Your thumb should rest on back of the neck, and you should have a space between the crook of your hand and neck of the guitar, then curl your fingers around to fret the strings.  Support the guitar with either a strap or resting on your leg.  Your fretting hand does not provide the primary support for the guitar.

Now a word of encouragement...There are very few other situations in which you use the very tips of your fingers like this, so don't be surprised if it takes you a little while to develop the strength and dexterity to do it.  You'll also experience soreness in the tips of your fingers.  We all went through that stage, and you will too. You'll make it if you stick with it.  The first time you get a nice cleanly ringing chord it will feel worth it.  Keep up the good work of practicing.  Don't worry about how long it takes.  That's different for everyone.  Just stick with practicing with good form at least fifteen minutes a day and you'll be amazed at the difference a week, and then a month, and then three months will make to what you can do.   

- Zurf

My memories of Chordiestock 2013...  Picture heavy

The flight in was a piece of cake and I got terrific service from Delta Airlines which surprised me a great deal considering the service I last received from them.  To get to Madeira Beach, FL, I drove to a bus station, took a commuter bus to the Metro, and then the Metro train to the airport.  This involved a fair bit of outside waiting or walking, and so I had to be dressed for the cold morning.  It was 20 degrees when I awoke. It had warmed up to 30 by the time I got to the airport.  Once in the airport, I stripped my down vest, and then my fleece jacket.  When I stepped out of the airport in Florida, I was still overdressed in my flannel shirt and big ragg wool socks under my beach sandals.  I must have been a sight. 

Jeff (Topdown) took me back to his condo, which is a nice spot in a lovely community.  Paul (Normtheguitar) was there and after greetings and a couple drinks we went to the beach to watch sunset.  I took along my guitar and we gave a concert there on the beach.  Mostly Paul and Jeff did. 

Saturday was all day to go nowhere but down to the club house.  Paul and I helped Jeff set up a tremendous snack and booze buffet, plus a few non-alcoholic beverages, at his condo community.  There we had a tremendous time and I met with some of my friends who took me to dinner.  The club house was by the pool, and we attracted a crowd of neighbors to come and listen.  One fellow said he was a drummer, so I handed him a shaky egg out of my guitar case and he sat in on a few songs and made a big improvement to them.  This was my first chance to meet Wayne (WLBaye), his wife Liz, and Toney (Southpaw).  All are great people.  We played for a long time, and I literally had to glue my fingernails back together for Sunday.

Sunday was a misty morning.  Paul and I went fishing.  I had brought a fly rod hoping to rent a kayak and go to the flats, but I was unable to locate a rental place that delivered or was on the beach in walking distance.  So we went to a fishing pier at Jeff's condo and had a good bit of luck.  At one point, Paul was off taking photographs and when I set the hook on a fish I heard a big plop on the pier.  I had thought it was Paul setting down his camera bag to take a photo, but it was an enormous pelican.  The pelican had some fishing tackle stuck in his wing.  Feeling responsible for other fishermen, I gave my fish to the pelican.  It is a terrible idea ecologically to train wildlife to humans, but considering that this bird knew the difference between setting a hook on a fish and a simple line retrieve, I think it wasn't his first time. 

Photo courtesy of Paul Wood.

That afternoon was an event at the London Bus Pub not far from Jeff's home.  Toney is the MC for the event.  It is scheduled to run from 4 to 7.  We jammed until 10.  I think everyone did a great job.  Toney had me do a set playing bass behind Wayne.  Wayne was doing some song I'd never heard in C#min/dim7- with a capo.  Or something like that.  I had not played bass with anyone for eight years.  I stunk.  Wayne was unflappable.  He has a terrific stage personality and kept attention on him.  Paul simply rocks.  He did his solo set and then later a British Invasion set with bass and percussion and harmonica for a band.  It severely rocked.  Jeff had people dancing.  I had people laughing and laughed along with them. 

Wayne - photo courtesy of Paul Wood

Paul and Roger.

Jeff and then Liz (Wayne's wife) dancing with Roscoe (87 year old bluegrass refugee)

Jeff's photo courtesy of Paul Wood.

Beer is cheap at the London Bus Pub.  I bought the table a round and gave a generous tip, spending only as much as two beers would cost near my home.  The food was likewise delicious and affordable.  They even let me have a crack at the mic.

Photo courtesy of Paul Wood.

Sunday night I had hardly slept for several days for the excitement and had consumed some adult beverages.  After getting back from the pub, I sat down in Jeff's big easy chair and promptly fell into a deep sleep.  Some time later - it could have been hours or minutes - Paul woke me to hit the sack.  I had laid my bedroll out as soon as we returned, so all I had to do was crawl into it.  I slept like a log and it was wonderful. 

Monday was quiet time.  Paul recorded a song and then we went to lunch and I came home, getting decidedly worse service on US Airways than I did on Delta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjBvtKNi … e=youtu.be

Roger - I think perhaps it may have been "I don't know the words just now..."  There was a fair quantity of adult beverages and if someone didn't want to know their own names that could have been arranged readily.

I don't really know how this works.  You may be able to see this.  You may not.  Hard to say.  The guy in the foreground is Toney Hall (Southpaw).  The licks you hear coming in from time to time are Paul Wood (Normtheguitar) on a 12 string.  The fat bald guy with the red guitar strap who didn't grasp how mirrors work when he set up his camera is me (Zurf).  Every once in a while I hear the bottom end of my passing bass notes.  Also playing are Jeff Taylor (Topdown) whose voice you hear singing first, and beside Toney is Wayne Baye (Wbaye) who also contributes some good licks and breaks. 

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- Zurf

Well, I do love that black beauty you have, guitar wise.  If I don't get a chance to thump on your 12 string, it'll be a sore disappointment.

Thirded.

I like that my arrival indicates the beginning of a real party.

Truer words have rarely been spoken.  Diet, medicine, counseling, and learning from introspection all have to work together in just the right way to get to ... somewhere...and it's very hard to say what is healthy.  It's not hard to say what is 'normal', but there could be some normal things that we do that are terribly unhealthy but we just don't see it because it's so common and readily accepted.  We've got a lot to learn.  In the meanwhile, folks like Ms. McCready get real mixed up and make some terrible decisions that can't be unmade.  May God have mercy on her, and may her soul have the peace she didn't have on Earth.

I just tried a set of medium (.13s) of Earthtone or Earthwood or some such thing.  Hang on...Ernie Ball Earthwood strings.  That's it.  They're very loud and bright.  No idea how long they'll last because I just put them on.  I like them on Tiny so far, though.  I think they'd be too loud on Boomer.  I haven't played Ol' Reliable for a long while, but that may be an interesting exercise.