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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| BUM FORUM please read | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17th, 2006 07:39 pm |
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1st Post |
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TIBBS Approved
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well not impressed with this site at all had 1 reply,and 32 veiws ,how come nobody else has bothered to reply,anybody no of any better forums for a beginner?
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17th, 2006 08:09 pm |
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2nd Post |
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Preston Approved 
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Tibbs, Sorry you have not had more help. People on this site are usually very helplful.. The site has not been very active recently and I am sure that you will have other replies. I did not reply because I am a Uke player and know very little about the banjo. I coudlbe the reason you have had dso so many views and only 1 response. There are a lot of artists here who do not play banjo. Richard Hefner's tutorials on this site are helpful and there are other videos here. Banjo Brad has a good introduction video to clawhammer and is very knowledgable on the banjo.. Post your questions on the Banjo part of the site and maybe you'll get a better response. Patrick Costello has a video instruction site that he is currently doing. Scroll down the posts and you will see his post from about a week ago with a link. By the way his book on clawhammer banjo is availabe- just do a google. It's touted as one of the best books for learning the banjo.I believe it's called the "How and Tao of Banjo" or something similar. You can even download it for free if you want to use your printer to print several hundreds of pages. As far as the difference between clawhammer and bluegrass banjo; clawhammer is an older and more traditional stye where the strings are plucked on the downstroke with either the index or pointer finger using the fingernail, followed by a thumb strum usually on the top string for a sort of drone or accentand cool rythm. See Richard's tutorial for clawhammer ukulele to get a better idea. Bluegrass is a 3 finger finger picking style that uses thumb and finger picks. Its is a rapid style and more useful in a band setting rather than a solo, although there are solo bluegrass banjo players who can play melodies beautifully. To me it is the more difficult style. Youare probably more familiar with this style,as it is common with bluegrass bands and what you see on television the most. Clawhammer sounds more "Old Timey." Michael fox has some tutorials and videos on this style. He is a master. If you search the music posts on the Charts part of this site you can hear some great banjo music and you will see the wide variety of playing styles possible. Good luck. I am hoping to have a banjo soon and looking forward to learning to play it. If you post specific questions here I am sure will get good answers to them. Preston
____________________ My EzFolk Page: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1072 |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17th, 2006 08:12 pm |
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3rd Post |
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TIBBS Approved
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nice 1 thanks for your reply all the best tibbs
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17th, 2006 08:13 pm |
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4th Post |
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Charlie Approved 
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Hi Tibbs, I am sorry we have not met your request for more information, I knew you had ask what kind of style banjo to begain to play and I believe that Richard had answered that, Have you decided what style that you want to play on the banjo, I tried the 3 finger bluegrass style and never could master that so I switch to clawhammer and can do a little of it and there is quite a lot of that style here on this site and a lot of people here can help you on that more so than on bluegrass. If you ask a question about clawhammer, I believe you can get all kind of help here on this site or where else you can find it. Hope you will stay with us here. Charlie
____________________ Yesterdays Tomorrow is Today http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/charlesculbertson |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17th, 2006 08:21 pm |
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5th Post |
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Richard Hefner Administrator 
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Wow Tibbs, I posted an answer to your question about 5 o'clock in the morning within about 1 hour of when you asked it. I also invited you to ask any other questions you might have. I'm sure anybody else who might have answered thought that it had been taken care of. I wouldn't take it real personal. Most of the people on these forums don't even play the banjo, but those of us who do are happy to help when we can. 
____________________ Richard Hefner MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner Running Blog: http://old-runner.com |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18th, 2006 08:33 pm |
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6th Post |
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banjo brad Super Moderator 
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Sorry, TIBBS! I figured that Richard had pretty much answered your first question, and I really couldn't add any more to it. I tend to be an OldTime banjo player, leaning mostly on clawhammer and digressing some into 2-finger OT style. As you refine your questions, I'll be more than happy to provide any help I can. Welcome to ezFolk, I think you will find that we are pretty friendly here. Brad
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18th, 2006 08:41 pm |
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7th Post |
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Preston Approved
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Fred, when you mention "2 finger old time style" exactly what is that? DO you have some examples or tutorial? Thanks, Preston
____________________ My EzFolk Page: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1072 |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19th, 2006 01:49 am |
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8th Post |
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1four5 Approved 
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>well not impressed with this site at all had 1 reply,and 32 veiws ,how come nobody else has bothered to reply,anybody no of any better forums for a beginner?< Holy Crap Tibbs. I usualy don't do this, but you really chap my hide. I just checked out the thread you're complaining about. Man...it's all there. What more do you need? You know, you gotta do a little work too...like actually search out what you need from the vast pool of information Richard has supplied for us here. You want a serious banjo forum? Check out http://www.banjohangout.org/forum/ but those guys will eat you for lunch if you go in there with an attitude.
____________________ These are the good times! |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19th, 2006 02:15 am |
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9th Post |
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banjo brad Super Moderator
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Preston- 2-finger OT banjo is basically the thumb and index finger (finger uppicks as opposed to down picking in clawhammer). There are 2 general ways to 2-finger, thumb lead, where the thumb plays the melody notes and the index finger does the fillin and visa versa with the index finger doing the melody. It is a lot like guitar picking. I am just starting to get into it some, so I really can't give you much help. I would suggest Art Rosenbaum's "Art of the Mountain Banjo" as a resource to learn about several types of OT banjo styles, including up-picking, clawhammer (down-picking), 2-finger and 2-finger old time methods. It comes with a CD and tabs for a goodly number of tunes in several tunings. Will Keys is probably one of the bestknown 2-finger pickers. You can find information about him and listen to some of his music on his web site: http://www.willkeys.com/index.html Chip Arnold, who hangs around the Banjo Hangout, has done some work with the Keys family and had started trying to tab some of Will's stuff. I don't know where he is with that, but maybe I'll try to find some more info. Brad Last edited on Tue Sep 19th, 2006 02:47 am by banjo brad ____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19th, 2006 05:08 am |
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10th Post |
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Preston Approved
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Brad, Thanks for the information. I listened to Will Keys music. It is wonderful. Before I found this ezFolk, I had no idea of the variety of banjo styles.. I really like this 2 finger style. Hope to hear some from you soon. Thanks Preston
____________________ My EzFolk Page: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1072 |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19th, 2006 07:03 am |
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11th Post |
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TIBBS Approved
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THANKS TO EVERYBODY THAT REPLYED TO MY THREAD
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21st, 2006 02:41 pm |
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12th Post |
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Philj200 Approved 
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"2 finger old time style" exactly what is that?" --Isn't that just plain old double thumbing (as Seeger calls it). You can do it with just the first finger and thumb. And alternate the thumb hitting the 5th string and a melody/harmony string. Or use two fingers and thumb (that's pretty much what I did on Scotland the Brave. The advantage it that is it very fast and lets you play a lot of melody and grace notes. It is an adjunct to both BG and frailing as well. In BG, especially up the neck, it gives you a precision hard to achieve during a three-finger roll. In frailing, the thumb going to a string other the 5th gives you all sorts of color and melody options.
____________________ My MP3 Section: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1143/ My Myspace area: http://myspace.com/philj200 |
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21st, 2006 04:41 pm |
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13th Post |
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vrteach Approved 
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One form of 2-finger picking is a thumb-lead rather than the index-lead that (as I remember it) Seeger describes. As I remember his double-thumbing was played from the "basic strum" method, and even when he talked about just double-thumbing as in "Darling Cory" he was playing I-T-I-T. I do a little bit of 2-finger thumb-lead. http://vrteach.freepgs.com/banjo/index.php?Style=2FTL I learned it from Rosenbaum's book.
____________________ Erich -- http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/bands/956/ http://vrteach.org |
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21st, 2006 05:49 pm |
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14th Post |
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Philj200 Approved
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I-T-I-T is exactly what I'm talking about. One form of 2-finger picking is a thumb-lead rather than the index-lead that (as I remember it) Seeger describes. --I believe he did. He also mentions that you can vary the lead finger within a piece to cope with the needs of melody. Double-thumbing lets you do that facilily (is that a word) by simply playing the same finger twice in a grow, which changes the lead automatically. As I remember his double-thumbing was played from the "basic strum" method, --Again, my memory agrees. Either we have the same senility or the same edition of his book. Actually, I have two, yellow cover second edition and red cover third. I do a little bit of 2-finger thumb-lead. http://vrteach.freepgs.com/banjo/index.php?Style=2FTL --You have a much more active cadence than my style. Almost as if each bar had a quarter-note rest. Very traditional sound. I admire it. gCGCD tuning? I learned it from Rosenbaum's book. --I've seen his book but never got into it. In the Early 60's, I believe he was in a short-lived purist group called the Triad Singers. They wanted to bring a level of musicial sophistication and technical accomplishment to what was emerging as a very ragged hodge-podge of emerging styles. Two men and a women. I knew the women. She worked for Pete Seeger doing some clerical chores for him, sang great and played guitar quite well. Art R. was in the group. The third guy, whose name is lost in a weedy patch of memory, was a superb mandolin picker (even if he had a tendency to Bach it up), could sing but suffered from painful shyness and had the curse of perfect pitch. The other two had really fine ears, but his was up there with Rin Tin Tin. He drove everyone crazy constantly tuning, retuning and stopping to tune. Don't think the group lastest too long. Have a friend now who constantly argues with my clip on tuner. He says it's always an 1/8th tone flat. Nooooooo..... It's exactly the same as a back up tuner, all my harps and my piano (which is basically a big tuning machine). Any mention that it might be his ear leads to a non-productive argument.
____________________ My MP3 Section: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1143/ My Myspace area: http://myspace.com/philj200 |
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21st, 2006 07:32 pm |
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15th Post |
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vrteach Approved
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Philj200 wrote:
I never use that tuning with 2-finger thumb-lead. I use open-g, g-modal, or some oddball Dock Boggs tuning. The general pattern tends to use the first string as a second drone, not part of the melody. Here is the basic set of patterns from Rosenbaum's book:  Brad Leftwitch gave a workshop in this technique at the midwest banjo camp and at that time I learned his version of "Ida Red" but have since lost it (probably within the half hour after the workshop). He said that it was fairly common in the carolinas where it was sometimes refered to as "seconding". Perhaps because it was the second way of playing after clawhammer/frailing. I think he said that sometimes Fred Cockerman would go through a tune in 2FTL and then open it up in clawhammer. It's kind of limited, at least as I do it, because it is easiest to play the melody on the 4, 3, and 2nd strings, leaving the 1st & 5th as drones. Still, it adds something different.
____________________ Erich -- http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/bands/956/ http://vrteach.org |
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| Posted: Fri Dec 22nd, 2006 01:52 pm |
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16th Post |
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Philj200 Approved
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This morning, waiting for the coffee to brew, I picked up a banjo to see how I actually do the double-thimbing technique. It's been so long that since I broke it down, that my hands are pretty much on autopilot. I seem to do the double thumbing with a thumb lead a good part of the time as well as the index lead. But both are seconded to a looser technique reaching for whatever note/string I need. And I instinctively use index and gesture finger and thumb, it comes out more musically complex, less old-timey snychopated.
____________________ My MP3 Section: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1143/ My Myspace area: http://myspace.com/philj200 |
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