I've just re-discovered your videos after running across you last year . . . Well, re-discovered AND actually watched a bunch of them. Let me just say your channel is EXACTLY what I've been looking to learn. I'm super stoked to be learning from your clear, simple and detailed explanations of both technique and process. You've got a new fan!
Thank you Steve for this lesson! I love the blues and I love banjo, with this lesson I can mix them both. I'm finding the comment and reply section below, with links to more techniques, really helpful in developing musicality for clawhammer banjo. Thanks for taking the time to explain how you are making this music happen. Thumbs up from the Ozarks of Arkansas!
Thanks for the kind words! I like sharing, because it helps me get better. Patrick Costello had a great blues lesson online a while back, so this my way of paying it forward. :)
Just picked up a banjo crossing over from mandolin really a challenge but one thing my fingers are stronger so I'm hoping to pick up I'm starting at double c tuning but seen your video great 👍😀
Steve I like your explanations on technique and your choice of things to work on. Do you have a website or offer online instruction besides your great RU-vid stuff?
I'm struggling with the "picking part", particulary the fast picking, as I'm learning to play the banjo. So perhaps clawhammer is the way to go for me. I also aim to play blues and slide when I'm good and ready.
I’ve been playing mostly blues on the banjo since I figured similarities with open tuned guitar. I’m looking to your videos for improving my clawhammer. Also - anyone have advice on the best neck width at the nut and tone ring. I have a beat up pawn shop Silvertone, but the neck seems pretty narrow.
Sounds pretty neat and in the groove. Have you ever tried to play last kind word blues by Geeshie Willie? Best blues I’ve heard but hard to cover on the banjo
Love your videos, Steve. Wish I could see your right hand more here as I'm trying to see which strings you're hitting! I've got most of that first part down but it sounds like I'm missing a filler note carrying the whole thing.
Thurston Chesterfield thanks! For this exercise most of my right hand technique is basic frailing (bum-ditty) and I rely heavily on hammer-ons and slides to divide the quarter notes. Sometimes, as a matter of habit (when I don't have anything more interesting to do), I throw in a measure of drop thumbs. Mostly I would emphasize filling in with whatever dynamics you feel inspired to play. Try mixing it up and eventually you'll be able to play improvisationally, expressing the song how you see fit. That'll give you more mileage than straight up memorization. I'll try to record a video on that.
Steve Harrison are you doing any strumming at all in the first run or two? The lack of strumming/"clanging (I hate that part of clawhammer) in your style is so PERFECTLY melodic sounding to me. So, I'm curious if you're just using a lighter touch or omitting it altogether? Next, your thumb tapping the head has a deeper "thud" than mine and I believe we're playing the same banjo (Vega Senator) so I'm assuming it's a technique thing? Finally, speaking of that thumb tap, are you doing Strike/Thump/Thumb in that order? I just can't get the percussive sound you've got because my thump and thumb happen at essentially the same time to my ear so it just sounds like I'm missing something which is why I wanted to see more of your right hand. Again, love your videos. Literally EVERYTHING I've learned about clawhammer is from you and I've accounted for at least 500 views on this video alone. :-)
Yeah, I've been making an effort to cut back on the heavy strumming that I learned with basic frailing. I'll either replace the strum with a single string strike (strike-strike-strum), a light brush of the bottom two strings, or even skip that beat altogether (strike-skip-thumb). Sometimes I'll just do a quarter-note run with no thumb or strum. That way, when I do play a full strum (as with that barred C7) it stands out. As for that thumb slapping the head when I go to pull off the 5th-string, that's a bad habit I can't seem to kick. It's great for train songs, but confusing if other musicians want a down beat.
Revisited this tonight and what do you know... you are strumming in this and that's what I was missing. My sound wasn't as "full" as your's is here. So I tried more of the basic frailing pattern but its back to that terribly clanging noisy sound where yours seems deeper... more bluesy. Not to keep pestering you here, but in that opening series of runs on the G chord (before you go to C) are you just doing a quick rake of the low D and G strings and not hitting the first two strings at all or are you going all the way in the "traditional" frailing style? The blues sound (and especially your sound here) on those G runs is decidedly lower sounding to my ear. Again, sorry to bug. I find I learn best when I can monkey someone else and then do my own thing. Almost there!
My question about the thumb concerned the steady quarter note beat. I'm having trouble breaking the bum diddy habit. I use to be a guitar player until I injured my left hand. So then I started banjo because I found it more manageable. I can play most chords, but the C shape with the pinky is not possible for me.
Generally speaking you don't have to break the bum ditty habit. It's a good habit that helps you keep rhythm. Then eventually you can start omitting notes to leave space. You still think "bum ditty" but only strike what works with the song. Regardless of what sound is coming out of the banjo, you notice my right hand still makes the motion even if it's not hitting a string.
HI Steve, sorry to bother you but thought I would ask a banjo player to help me if he can, I would like to play the banjo part of a song called Owensboro sung by Natalie Merchant on youtube, I have just got a banjo and like the banjo playing in the song. don't know how to get the chords to learn how to play it, would be happy if I could play that as my first song on the Banjo. Thanks Tom.
Congratulations on the new banjo! To learn songs like that, I like to use the Chordify app to get the chords from a recording. From there I just strum along a few dozen times until I feel out some kind of melody that sounds right. And, singing along, the whole time! 😊
