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Banjo PlayingThoughts on clawhammer & old-time 3-finger banjo playing & instructional videos lessons.(These are exactly that, thoughts. Not intended as truth - do not construe.)First, some videos. These vary in production quality (with hopefully the more recent being vastly improved!). Random thoughts below. A clawhammer banjo lesson on Bonaparte's Retreat, as William H. Stepp played it in 1937 for Alan Lomax. Listen to Stepp's recording on Youtube.The banjo is tuned gCGCD. The "fret" positions (as the banjo is fretless) used are: 4th string - 0, 2, 4, 5, 7. 3rd string - 0, 2. 2nd string - 0. 1st string - 0, 2, 3, 5.Not very clear in the video, the opening notes for the A part are: 1) Strike the open 3rd string, hammer-on to the second fret. 2) Strike the open 2nd string, then strike the 2nd string again. 3) Without restriking the 3rd string, hammer-on to it and then pull-off, rapidly. 4) Strike the 2nd string one last time. (All strikes with the index or middle finger.)If you want to play it out of gCGCC, play the C part like the B part, but on the 1st string.Stepp's recording was the basis for a section of Copeland's 'Rodeo'. See Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion for more information on the tune. A clawhammer banjo lesson/demonstration on the tune Tater Patch. Tuning: gDGBD (tune or capo up to A to play with a fiddler). Played on my fretless Harmony ResoTone.From a recording of Charlie Lowe available on County Sales' Clawhammer Banjo Vol. 3. The tune seems to originate with Ike Leonard - see Andrew Kuntz's The Fiddlers Companion for more background information.This isn't exactly how Lowe played it, but not too far off. There is a tab avaliable in Brad Leftwich's book "Round Peak Style Clawhammer Banjo".This tune as well as some of the others here are available on my recordings, see "Music". Sugar Baby, 3-finger picking. Someone asked for some tips on playing this, so I made a short video to demonstrate. I got it from Dock Boggs and although I aim to have it sound close to his, I didn't try to replicate it exactly. I play it through a few times slowly and then up to speed. Banjo's tuned gDGCD. Pretty Polly, 3-finger picking. Someone asked for some tips on how to play this, so I made a short video. I play it a few times through slowly and then up to speed. Banjo's in gDGCD. The melody is based mainly on Hobart Smith's fiddling.And here are the random thoughts:Clawhammer, Frailing, Bum-Titty, Drop Thumb, Double Thumb etc.I see all kinds of dogma concerning these and other aspects of banjo playing. And people repeating what others have said, without seeming to have verified it themselves. "Thou shalt always bring thy puffel to rest on the 3rd quarter of the descent of the snaggle ratchet", "The banjo shall be held at 12 degrees from the right angle of the hoffenfrogge". Index finger/middle finger, neck up/neck down, lap/leg... There are a lot of theories about playing and they're as useful as they help someone play. Watch what people who are teaching are DOING as well as saying. Examine things for yourself. Find someone good and learn from them (that is, copy them to begin with). Even if what you're doing doesn't fit the canonical definition of clawhammer (The Council Of The Elders of Old-Time having formally prohibited any upstrokes in the performance of the clawhammer maneuver in 1968). Buell Kazee was known to catch strings on the upswing with the back of his thumb - luckily he had gone on to a better home before he could be burnt at the stake for his crimes of unorthodoxy. Ralph Stanley too, a Virginian, has been known to perform said perversions of clawhammer and is currently under investigation by The Council Of The Elders of Old-Time.BanjosTo hear some, you would think you need at least a 4 figure price tag on a banjo before it'll do you any good. And an openback, if you please (assuming it's a clawhammer advocate talking). A beginning banjo needs to play decently (action not too high, frets not too worn, nut at a decent height etc.) and it needs to sound good enough to the person playing (and to their wife or husband, they have to put up with your learning on it!) that they'll keep going. A hundred bucks for a used Kay or Harmony might do it (though probably best to have someone who knows something about instruments check it out. Sometimes a little set-up will do wonders, sometimes they're fine as is. Sometimes they'll be a frustrating waste of time). Or, maybe a little more for a lower-end Deering or whatever (and watch out too for new instruments in shops that don't deal much with banjos. I've seen some potentially decent instruments in shops that were unplayable, heads too slack, bridges in the wrong place...). Does it have to be an openback for clawhammer? Nope. Two words, Wade Ward.Tunes and "Basic" TunesTake versions of Old Joe Clark from Hobart Smith, Wade Ward, Marcus Martin and Luther Strong. There's an underlying structure that can be recognized as a basic Old Joe Clark, but that's not the tune - it never existed in nature. It's what an individual does that makes it the tune and a work of art. A human being is made up of a skeleton, flesh, élan vital and so on. Skeletons are found in classrooms, and have their place there, but you don't mistake them for human beings. Any tune worth its salt is a cohesive melody, not a series of chord changes and not a series of riffs or licks. Avoid clichés. Keep an ear out for what makes a tune sound great to YOU and do THAT. Physics has explanations for why certain notes work with others to sound harmonious, but if a bunch of random frequencies get played in the woods and there's no one there to hear (and even less to create it), is it a tune?Electronic Tuners and TuningTuning when you're starting out can be a nightmare. I got an electronic tuner after years of playing and was very happy to have it. Especially when you're playing with a band, they're a godsend. However, unless you get a fancy one that you can change the temperament on (temperaments are a study in themselves: link) it'll put you in even temperament, which isn't what old fiddlers and fretless banjo players (and singers, flute players, pipers etc.) tuned to and played in. This is not the most important part of playing, so don't get hung up on it, but a fine point that makes a difference. If you're playing by yourself or just with a fiddler, and especially if you've got a fretless, ditch the tuner. Listen to lots of old recordings and use your ear. I usually start by tuning the 3rd string to whatever pitch (by ear to match a recording, or a fiddler, or to a tuner if I want the banjo at standard pitch), then tune the 4th string to it. Then I tune the 2nd to the 4th by playing the two of them open, then the 1st to the 4th or 3rd, again open. Then the 5th to the open 1st or 3rd. Then I check them against each other (the 5th to the 3rd, the 1st to the 3rd and so on). On a fretted banjo I find a compromise between the open and fretted strings, for example in gDGBD, check the open 2nd against the 3rd open and at the fourth fret. In gCGCD, check the open 1st against the open 3rd, then check the 1st fretted at the second fret against the open 3rd - adjust to taste.©2002-2009 Hunter Robertson - www.hunterrobertson.com</p>
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