The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Greetings Banjo Friends! Election Day in the United States may have been last week, but that doesn't mean you're done voting. I know it's been a while since our last post, as other responsibilities have been eating up my brain space. I have a couple articles in the works, but it may be a couple weeks yet before I can get to those. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to see your top clawhammer banjo players. Below you will find a poll with a bunch of clawhammer players, but certainly not ALL the clawhammer players out there. Pick from the list or choose "Other" at the bottom and write in your candidate. Next week, I'll tabulate the answers and share the results. So, what are you waiting for? Get voting! Favorite Clawhammer Banjo Player Clarence Ashley Riley Baugus Hilarie Burhans Fred Cockerham Tom Collins Kyle Creed Dwight Diller Allison de Groot Dan Gellert Rhiannon Giddens Adam Hurt John Herrmann Mark Olitsk...

"You can learn a lot about America through folk music. It is not the music of any one group. You don't have to be a farmer or mountaineer to play it or like it." — John Burke In the world of clawhammer banjo instructional books, there are a few that have reached the level of collectors' item. There's the first edition of Pete Seeger's How to Play the 5-String Banjo and Art Rosenbaum's original Old-Time Mountain Banjo , but none are quite as sought after as the one written by John Burke. First published in 1968 by Amsco Music Publishing Co., John Burke's Book of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo has become something of a legend among old-time pickers. It was one of the first banjo instructional books to focus on the styles of specific players, in particular Wade Ward, Hobart Smith and Kyle Creed. Burke wrote the book while still in college. Banjo tablature had not yet become standardized. The notation is handwritten and leans toward the melodic ...

Clawhammer picks are a useful tool for increasing volume or to overcome fingernail challenges, such as broken, too short or weak nails. There are all sorts of commercial and homemade solutions available for banjo players, but it can be difficult to decide which options to choose. Thankfully, I've already done some of the work for you. Just to be clear, I prefer my natural fingernail for frailing. However, there was a time when I experimented with regularly using a pick, and there are instances now where I find that a pick is necessary. Today, I'll take you through the five options I've tried. These are all available online at prices ranging from about $1 to $13. Reversed/Reshaped Dunlop Pick ($0.75) This was the most common suggestion before other companies started addressing the gap in the clawhammer pick market. Take a bluegrass pick, flatten it out and wear it backwards. The problem is that it's hard to get the fit right. While Dunlop picks are cheap and r...

My decision was made during the winter, when all good thinking gets done in Northeast Ohio. I wanted something to take up the slack in my life, and the banjo was my choice. After the IRS sent me my tax refund in March 2008, I bought a Recoding King Songster from Cliff Fitch, a luthier from Texas who also was a Recording King dealer. He promised a professional set-up before shipping the instrument and included a hardshell case for $500. Seemed like a good deal to me. My first banjo with a homemade strap. The Songster was a "bluegrass" banjo, which just means it had a resonator -- never mind that plenty of old-time musicians have used resonated banjos. The neck was thin and easy to play, but the finish was a bit tacky, which caused my palm to stick to it occasionally. Regardless, the Songster was a solid instrument and Fitch's adjustments (most notably, a good bridge) made it sound good to my ears. I started to learn Scruggs' three-finger style and was pretty...

One of the fascinating things about the banjo is the many ways the instrument is played. For every player, there is seemingly a different method. Some styles have distinct names with many practitioners, whereas other styles are distinctly unique to one musician. When I first started, I didn't really know another style existed beyond how Earl Scruggs plays, which is a three-finger picking style that involves syncopated "rolls," alternating the thumb, index and middle fingers. Scruggs elevated this style to point that it now bears his name, Scruggs style. However, Scruggs was not the first to pick the banjo with three fingers, nor was he the first to use metal finger picks, but he was the most popular. Now, his style is emulated by the majority of Bluegrass banjo players.  Aside from Scruggs style, there were many other finger-picking styles. Old-Time banjoists like Dock Boggs , Charlie Poole , and sometimes  Uncle Dave Macon (who played any way he wanted) used ...