BANJO MUSIC | SKILLS | ARTISTS
TOTAL PRACTICE FOR 2022: 343 HOURS So close. The goal was 365 hours of banjo practice for 2022. 343 hours isn’t bad right? Wrong. I’ll get there shortly. The purpose was to level up my playing,...
In this lesson, John lays out the key things you need to know to play banjo in a bluegrass jam. He covers things like "How to find the key of the song", "the importance of chord inversions", "using...
FOR YOUR BANJO INSPIRATION:ALLISON DE GROOT & TATIANA HARGREAVES Allison and Tatiana recorded Hurricane Clarice in 2021 in Portland, Oregon. It grabs you quickly, feeling both rooted in the past...
Whether you are sitting down for a 15 minute or 1-hour banjo practice session, calibrating the picking hand as a warmup will make a big difference (video below)! What do I mean when I say...
In my four decades teaching banjo, one of the most common stumbling blocks for students seems to be finding and identifying chords. Learning your banjo chord inversions will be the building blocks...
In my years teaching clawhammer banjo, I’ve found that once students have mastered some of the more basic mechanics (i.e. bum-ditty, pull-offs, slides, hammer-ons, simple chords, drop-thumb, rhythm...
Since I began teaching banjo some three-plus decades ago, I’ve had the pleasure of helping hundreds of banjo students become great banjo players. Along the way, I’ve noticed a common issue...
If you're reading this you are probably wondering "Which finger should I use for the clawhammer strum? The index or middle finger? Poring over online clawhammer forums this morning, I was struck by...
Thinking back to the days when I was beginning my clawhammer journey, I remember picking up a copy of Ken Perlman’s “Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo” at my local library. That...
How do you get your picks to stop scraping against the drum head while playing? As a banjo teacher with years of experience helping beginning banjo students find their sea legs as bluegrass players,...
What is a fretless banjo? Let's start with frets. Frets are the metal strips inserted into the fingerboard of a stringed instrument and a fretless banjo does not have any. Why? Let’s back up for a...
So, you’ve got your hands on your first 5-string banjo and now (naturally) you want to learn how to play the darn thing. And that’s when you make the discovery: there’s actually two styles of...
While reading tablature is an essential component in learning to play banjo, there is always the danger that students can develop too much dependence on banjo tab. If this dependence continues over...
So, you’ve just got your first banjo and you’re super stoked to play it. You bring it home, take it out of its hard shell case, put your picks on and start making some noise. And then it happens....
When playing banjo, should your right hand be “anchored” to the banjo head with your pinky and ring finger, or just your pinky? Do you need to anchor your right hand to the banjo, at all? When I was...