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timtmitm
Apr-17-2016, 7:15pm
Okay, i got a decent entry-level banjo and i've been practicing rolls and a few fiddle tunes. I know some chords and lots of theory. Are there written or video tutorials for getting started playing chords/rolls plus fills/walk-ups to play backup for a vocalist or a soloist? Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Ric in Richmond
Apr-18-2016, 4:06pm
Okay, i got a decent entry-level banjo and i've been practicing rolls and a few fiddle tunes. I know some chords and lots of theory. Are there written or video tutorials for getting started playing chords/rolls plus fills/walk-ups to play backup for a vocalist or a soloist? Any tips are greatly appreciated.

http://www.jsutergraphix.com/LOTW/

Scroll down to Back Up. Great place to start.


You will also hear "Study on Earl" and I'd add "Study on JD Crowe"

DaveM
Apr-28-2016, 5:41pm
timtim,

For the past seven years or so, I have put on a “Basic Bluegrass Banjo Backup” workshop at the Fathers’ Day BG Festival in Grass Valley, CA that has been very well received. I usually have 18 to 22 participants each year, so have had around 140 attendees so far.
One 2015 attendee commented: “I got more out Dave’s free 90-minute workshop than I did from three days at a paid banjo camp.”

It is my belief that good bluegrass banjo backup is much simpler than many people make it out to be.
I teach some essential basic building blocks, and the rest of playing good backup is learning how to tie those basic building blocks together effectively and play them so that you support the band.

In my 90-minute workshop, I provide a one-page handout, and cover what I believe is about 85% of what you need to know to play backup like Earl Scruggs, and about 95% of what you need to know to play backup like Ralph Stanley (whose backup style is simpler than Earl’s, but just as effective).

I have recorded a “virtual” version of my backup workshop in five 10-minute MP3 recordings that I had posted on another online banjo forum (but have since removed them). During the five years that the material was posted there, I received dozens of notes of appreciation from members of that forum.

I teach how to play basic “Rolling” backup in my workshop, along with Earl’s Big Three Backup Licks, and a lot more.
If you want to hear an example of how I play “rolling” backup, check out my recording of “Little Liza Jane” in the Banjo Café’s “MP3 Library” under the “Community” tab.

If you are interested, I can ask the Banjo Café folks if there is a way for me to post this virtual backup workshop on the Banjo Café, because I have not noticed any provision for instructional material here yet.
If that can't be done, feel free to contact me by email, and we can figure out another way to get you this material.

-Dave

Hogans Hero
May-02-2016, 9:00am
DaveM: Great stuff on Little Lizza Jane. Thanks for sharing and please ask if you can share your workshop. I am very interested.

Steve