from two of my favorite players
Old Dog, by Chris Coole
and a nice version of Old Dog from the gentle soul of Cathy Cress(check out her videos, some excellent playing/instruction abide
October, by Mike Iverson
delve into Mikes website with plenty of free tabs, music, instruction
Awesome. I had never heard of Chris Coole, but I'll certainly be taking a look at the rest of his work.
I'll second what keithb said and add a wow just for good measure!
Thanks! New to me too. Found a great version of Wild Bill Jones by him on YouTube as well.
Great!!! As a new banjo picker, I'm very interested in clawhammer style!! Thanks!!
a really well made, easy to understand and apply method, is Zen Banjo by Steve Baughman. There should be some samples from the video on http://www.zenbanjo.com/Originally Posted by CletusTPossum
the way Steve presents and explains, helps to make it quick to pick up the movement of the right hand, and very easy to follow his simple instruction. some methods just make it too hard to understand. check out some youtube samples as well.
Thanks for sharing these videos. That's some very evocative banjo picking.
Steve
Thanks so much for this! One question though - is it required to have a scalloped fingerboard to play old-time/clawhammer style or does it just facilitate that style?
It just facilitates a particular tonal response. Lots of folks play Old-Time clawhammer style with a full fretboard. They usually just play over the head, since there's not much clearance over the neck when it has frets all the way up. You'll almost always hear the thump-thump-thump sound when they do, and you'll see the dirty spots on the head from all the hand contact. And even with a scooped neck, some people will play over the head for a livelier, brighter tone.
Playing over the scooped area of the neck gets rid of the thumpy sound of fingers/thumbs hitting the head. It also makes the tone more mellow, being frailed closer to the mid-point of the string. And there's a sweet spot at the 19th fret area where a harmonic response happens. As most scooped necks only have 17 frets, it allows a player to frail right over that 19th fret area for a really neat plucky sound.
But no, clawhammer can be played either way. The scooped neck just allows more variety in tone, at the expense of otherwise usable frets.
Rob
Tobin gave you spot on info.
I will say that for me, my right hand feels less tense and naturally falls over the head due to how my right arm fits over my banjo. I seem to prefer 11" pot size these days and it all just works out that way. My Reiter A-flat scale has a scoop, but my 28 Vega doesn't. I can play just about as easy and clean over the Vega as I can the Reiter with the scoop-but I rarely go there.
I do seem to lean towards no scoop these days as I like the extra frets/notes for myself. And what I find of more use than a full on scoop is a simple bevel on the 5th string side of the fretboard, it allows good room for your thumb to miss the fretboard but still keeps all or some of the frets all the way up-Chris Coole did that modification to his Vega(he has a teaching DVD that is excellent and he goes into his setup and shows this). I did have a picture he sent if I can find it I will post it here-showing his fretboard edge and the bevel). I've done the modification to a few banjos and it turned out nice.
Work on playing with as little stress/tension in your body, arms, hands. Try out the different positions, in time you will figure out what works and suits you best for your body style and playing style.
And ever the enabler, I might suggest getting one of each(scoop and no scoop) and give'm both a whirl for some time. That's a good excuse to use to acquire another one................
d
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