Banjos Rock

I own a shiny new banjo. First thing, I adjusted the bridge because (being held in place by string tension and never played before) it was an inch and a half out of place. Then I got online to see how the thing should be tuned. Armed with this information, I tuned up and cranked out some sweet bluegrass. That short fifth string sent my guitar sensibilities into the fetal position. I went out the next day and bought a ‘lern to play the banjo DVD’, a set of heavier guage strings and some finger picks. You should have seen the kids at Guitar Center[tm] boggle when I started asking banjo questions. Their worldview doesn’t allow for people actually being interested in banjos. That afternoon I had the thing disassembled on the floor and tried tightening the ‘head’. After that I replaced the strings and tightened the fifth string friction tuner since it wasn’t holding the string in tune. Some improvement I think. I can’t get the hang of the finger picks. I’d rather use my sausage fingers to pick at the strings since I can actually feel what I’m doing, but they say you’re supposed to use the picks. So far I’ve learned to play the theme to ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ and some basic banjo chords and picking patterns. I need to find somebody who knows about banjos so I can ask some burning banjo questions and get a few things straight in my head.