The Glory-Beaming Banjo

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 ...