I'd like to offer that the right hand should float. Anchoring at all imparts tension in the RH. Lots of finger-style acoustic guitarists anchor the pinky. I'll not argue with people who do that well but, for me, things really began to open up when I took classical lessons where the RH floats and the hand is relaxed. The only rule is that there aren't any.
I like your technique. After two years of frustration with my banjo, now with the course I am starting to tidy my head and make music. Thanks for your videos!
i have been trying to play for about a year , both 3 finger and clawhammer. Enjoy clawhammer more cause it comes easier, but this 2 finger style I think will help me quite a bit. I also appreciate the tip about what finger to use when fretting, that makes a lot of sense.
Special thanks for this fantastic content you are putting out there, I have being trying to get to grips with Clawhammer for a couple of months & found your lessons invaluable in how I learn through practice. I tried picking style beforehand without much success but this lesson has encouraged me to give it another go! Please keep up the good work.
Thank you! I have been working thru your clawhammer couse and kinda stalled at drop thumb. I thought this style might teach my thumb to MOVE! This is fun!
Ive been messing with this for a while, just noodling around with it . Love this since were now on week 5 of sheltering in place and most home projects are done. I can devote my time to more important things....BANJO!!!!!
New to banjo and this has been such a helpful resource! Is there a full video of Pretty Polly? I watched videos 1-7 and never heard the song the whole way through. I'm moving on to 7 steps of clawhammer next and can't wait!
I found this on an in-video link of lesson 1. And he is right... the song *is* awesome! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cyyYdzXTCa4.html
Wow, this was so timely! I'm a beginner enrolled in the finger style course and was beginning to have leanings towards the 2 Finger Thumb Lead style after listening to a wide range of tunes and methods. Looking so forward to taking this course!
Yeah you can also mess up the finger tendons if a person tries to anchor both fingers with a hand not suited to it. I only anchor my pinky. Nice video.
Great beginning. I have some limited clawhammer experience. The video is fine on my desktop mac, but degrades and stops when I try it on my iPad , either the app, or a browser. I would prefer to use the iPad, but if it’s not suitable, I understand.
Should work fine from any device - youTube is typically very fast. But usage is up right now since so many people are at home, so it may be slower than usual at certain times of day.
Hi Josh. Great video and I'm looking forward to the rest of the course. I play clawhammer by ear, and I find the timing much easier as there's always something going on and I can fill in any chord with something and never lose timing. It's a first impression, but is Two Finger a little bit trickier in terms of timing? When I think back to learning music years ago, the rest (on the stave) was always my downfall.
Totally up to you really. If you think you’ll want to play in a bluegrass jam sometime, you’ll want to at least learn to play with them on. Otherwise go with what sounds best to you.
If I sign up for your banjo course, does the $21 per month give me access to BOTH the fingerstyle and clawhammer materials, or are they seperate subscriptions?
Hi Josh thank you for another great video! may I ask, if your considerations about anchoring fingers do also apply to bluegrass-style? My pinky finger is also quite a bit shorter (~1inch) than my ringfinger and I find it very unconvenient to anchor both. I always lift one or the other and I regularly damp the 1st string with the side of the pinky.. Thanks. Stay healthy.
Thanks for these videos Josh, I only have one problem this video always stops when using my iPhone. Do you have any answers or fixes for this problem? Thanks
This is the first video I’m watching on this 2 finger style. Is the tuning always the same; is that a standard for two finger? I might be getting ahead of myself but is there a chord chart for this tuning?
Try www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/guitar/index_rb.html and adjust to the G sus 4 tuning used here. Just ignore the 6th string (low E on.guitar). Any chord or scale can easily be shown on the whole fretboard..
You can get that note on other strings. For example, in standard G (gDGBD) tuning, the 5th fret of the 1st string, the 8th fret of the 2nd string and the 12th fret of the 3rd string are all the same not as the 5th string.
There’s a 2 finger style known as index lead, where you’re playing melody notes with the index - so the inverse of 2 finger. While you can certainly make great music with this approach, I recommend moving to 3 finger style after thumb lead (if you want to add more) - this is how the course is set up. The reason being 3 finger allows you to get all the same sounds that you can get with 2 finger index lead, but without the constraints of that style. In other words, if you move on to learning 3 finger, you’ll have the ability to play anything that would be played on 2 finger index lead, plus a whole lot more.
I have been trying to sign up to your web page but there seems to be a problem accepting my email address ?? I,m in Australia but i love bluegrass music, please let me in.
Awesome. Learning 2 finger thumb lead is the best way to build the foundation for Scruggs style (though you might decide 2 finger is equally great :) ).
@@fingerstylebanjolessons Your course appeals to me, but I don't want to learn anything but 3 finger scruggs style. Do you have a course that is dedicated to this. I dont want to have to work around clawhammer, old style, 2 finger, etc. i want to stay with scruggs style 3 finger only. All this other just muddles up the water for me. Im speaking for myself only, not a criticism of the course in general.
jesse james You of course can go about it however you’d like, but the fastest route to learning scruggs is to start with 2 finger. There are no techniques that you learn for 2 finger that you don’t learn for scruggs, so the difference is just semantics. You may just be overthinking it.
