Been playing guitar for six years, self taught with the help of youtube. picked up the banjo 5 days ago and started watching your videos. Never in the six years of me surfing through guitar tutorials have I found someone who explains things as well as you. These videos are a huge help, I've learned incredibly fast in the past 5 days because of them. Thank you, and keep up the good work!
Steve.. I know it's a few years since you posted this, but I just want thank you for the clarity. As a guitarist/mandolin player new ti the banjo and drawn to the clawhammer sound, this made everything so clear and shows me a way ahead. Thank you
Thanks for this. I agree with other commenters that you do an incredible job of explaining and demoing these techniques. This is so helpful. Thanks again!
Thank you. This is what I needed to here. Ive bounced back and fourth between clawhammer and 2 finger. Clawhammer is how I want to play the most and this information is incredibly helpful.
Thank you for your informative posts Steve. Being a relative beginner in the UK, where clawhammer and even the tunes are "foreign", I hit a bit of a block with technique. I think your clips have helped me over it and made me a lot happier, which is great!
I really enjoyed this video, thanks, this will help a lot. I'm very much at the beginning stages of learning clawhammer and this video I believe is just what I needed at the moment. Keep them coming please!
I highly agree with Chris Rico.. Ive been watching your videos for a while now and think Ill be able to do much more with the banjo by watching your videos.. Id like to say "thanks!"
Thanks, this was very helpful. I've always admired the way you mix in the drop thumb with your frailing, but I struggled trying to play that way. I stated over with the drop thumbing and it's making more sense. It is starting to fall into place.
Get my 1st Banjo next week- been watching a grip load of videos and I’m putting down my PlayStation when it arrives and following your vids. Thanks for posting- I’m gonna annoy my family practicing!
Thank you for sharing your technique and knowledge with us. I'm new to banjo playing and I was surprised that those beautiful ways of playing (claw hammer and fingerstyles) are separated. I think you answered that with this video. I tried to pick the strings with my middle claw finger, but I didn't remember to pick the strings with my thumb.
Steve Harrison, I THINK you are CLEARLY an extraordinary 'Information Sharer'. Couple that with your knowledge and command of your instrument, and these posts become the MOST WORTHWHILE available! Grateful, Ted Furlo
Thank you for making this video, Steve. I just bought a banjo today, so this is the first time I've been able to properly follow a lesson. I come from a guitar background, so I'm going to have to work a bit to break myself of my usual picking pattern habits. Muscle memory is strong with this one, as it turns out. lol
This is the best instructional video on ole timey banjo playing that i've come across so far. I'd still love an exercise played for about thirty secs slowly that would encompass a lot of the subtle facets of this style.I can play it put i keep noticing that i'm doing upstrokes to fill in the rhythm .Help !!!
Good stuff! I can hear a Christmas tune coming out of the drop thumb really easy. I need to learn a song to play at Christmas. Traditional tune I mean.
My biggest problem is that being a guitar fingerpicked all my life my 3rd finger in right hand wants to play!!!its a real pain. You are a good teacher.
I've been trying to find a way to make my frailing sound cleaner. This is it. Thank you for making the video and please don't stop. Love your protest song too!
hi, thank you very much for this video. come from Germany, started playing the banjo 3 weeks ago. I can't wait to get home from work to practice. (thx google translator) stay healthy merci, Sven PS: Andrea ist my wife
Ive recently become a big fan of your page. Thank you so much for taking the time and teaching people how to pick. You can't find banjo teachers out here in California. At least not in my area. Do you have a patreon or any other support pages?
Steve, of the many "D" chords you don't mention the beginner "D", first finger, 2nd string, first fret,: second finger, 3rd string, 2nd fret. As an apprentice of Patrick C. who's taught me everything I know, your videos have opened my eyes to Dynamics in a profound way. Keep up the good work! & Thanks for sharing the gift!
Nathan Stack my pleasure! That chord you're talking about is the D7th which is definitely a good one for songs in G, too. Try playing G-D-D7-G in progression and you can hear the difference. Gives it a nice blues sound.
I bought a cheap banjo several years ago. I learned the basic bum ditty and enjoyed it for a while. I was actually making music. But I noticed my playing was missing something when I listened to all my favorite players. Enter the drop thumb. Needless to say, being absolutely stuck in the brush strokes, bum ditty, frailing strum rut, drop thumbing defeated me. I gave that banjo away and forgot about it. But a buddy of mine ended up giving me a cheap resonator banjo and I thought I'd learn two finger. Anything but drop thumbing. Well, I gave that banjo away too yet here I am watching banjo videos on RU-vid again and thinking about buying a good banjo and trying again.
Hi Steve, Thank you for all of the videos so far - very informative and very well done! One big issue that I'm having with frailing banjo is the muted sound that I seem to get whenever I strike a string other than the first. I am fine with drop-thumb and I am fine striking the first string; as soon as I move away from that string (using my middle finger, of course), any other string that I strike only seems to give off a muted sound. Do you know what that could be, possibly? How can I fix it? Thank you!
I enjoy listening to this, yet may I ask to see a video lesson of exactly what you were playing? I am wanting to learn how to play tge banjo. I'm thinking about learning how to play claw hammer. Someone has loamed me a banjo to study on.
I started out long ago with a two finger thumb lead up-picking technique that I kinda made up myself, long before there was an internet. So the bum-pa-dit-ty rhythm come quite naturally to me. Later on I went whole hog into 3 finger Scruggs style. So that constant stream of eighth notes is kinda intuitive to me. I always struggled with clawhammer though. Accuracy with the downstroke, head noise, along with the bumditty underlying rhythm always resulted in a train wreck when I tried it. But just this last week I put some nylons on my little Gold Tone open back and slowed WAY down and played softly and relaxed as possible. Playing stupid simple tunes like Mt Dew as slow as I could possibly play them in time. Concentrating on getting that 1st note, the bum, clean, clear, and precise. After a day or two Im starting to get it now. Melody notes, hammers and pulls, are are starting to happen with thinking too much. Its starting to sound like music. Im pretty sure in a week or two I'll be dropping my thumb. Whichever way you approach it, my advice is to relax, go slow, play stupid simple, tap your foot, and SING ALONG. It wont take that long to make significant progress.
Hélio Solar thanks! I’m still trying to make using both techniques second nature especially when jamming and improvising with other musicians. Gives you more ways to fit into the mix. 😊
Hi Steve,I’ve noticed your basic bumdity stroke always sounded different to what I’m doing as though it has an extra in beat in it,is it because your doing what you mention here the bum pa dity?do you teach that in any of your vids? Thanks
Robert Shears you can use hammer-ons (and pull-offs) to break any quarter-note in half. So for bump-a-dit-ty, you could hammer the "a" or "ty". Mostly, with frailing, you're breaking the 1st and 3rd notes in half with the hammer, because the thumb breaks the 2nd and 4th note in half with the 5th string.
I want to lean my 5-string so bad. I know this all comes down to repetitive learning, but I've got a dachshund who FREAKS at the first note of my banjo. I know it would be easier just to get rid of her, but DAMN! Just can't do that. ...yet.
So what your saying is basically translating melodic style tunes into a clawhammer, eliminating the fillers. I can put on my picks and and do the same with Scruggs style. I appreciate that you are suggesting a broader attack, but getting away from the "bump dit-te" strum is just putting a Bill Keith spin on frailing.
Hi Steve, I notice your strumming is not always hitting all the strings (when playing dum ditty dum rhythm), but sometimes only the first string, like from 5'37" onwards.. It sounds great and more transparent then when you would hit all the strings on beat 2 & 4.. Am I thinking right here?
Bart Vervaeck yep! I like to keep my strumming subdued. I may strum all the strings lightly or I may only strum a couple of strings. It adds to the dynamics allowing the primary melody to sit above the rhythm. When I do it right, anyway. 😁
Christine Weatherford I’m fundamentally a “frailing” banjo player, but I’m a big fan of Tom Collins RU-vid channel in which he breaks down the melodic style really well. He’s got a Patreon where he publishes additional material, as well.
Christine Weatherford I don’t think there’s a formally different name, but the approaches are different. Some call it melodic clawhammer. Tom Collins emphasizes the thumb technique as the foundation. I’m still trying to mix it into my style. He treats the brush as something you add in for flourish. I love Clifton’s playing, as well. He’s really great at blending styles.
I would suggest you first learn to play the 5th string on every backbeat before drop-thumbing. There's one gesture to learn : play the 5th string on the A and TY bum-A-diTY... when you're comfortable with that, try drop-thumbing....
Yeah, in that sense, the basic frailing strum is a welcome alternative. I always go back to that familiar “bum-ditty” when things get too complicated. 😊
@@StevePlaysBanjo last night I finally started to get the feel for it! Your videos explain things much more in depth. It took a minute to comprehend the rhythm
