Banjo Playing Tips

With so many clawhammer tutorials out there, we wanted to create one with our own spin. Deering Sales Manager Barry Hunn has been teaching newcomers to the banjo for over 30 years and in this video you will start as a beginner and end with a firm foundation on basic clawhammer technique. 

Once you have mastered this section, part two is just a click away. 

So grab your banjo and enjoy.  

Part 2: An Introduction to Clawhammer. 

Welcome to the Clawhammer Method Part 2!

The first lesson is the most successful video we have posted to date and is presented by Deering Sales Manager, Barry Hunn.

In part two, Barry will allow you to use the clawhammer technique learned in the previous video, through to playing a full song with advanced techniques. 

Enjoy!

Part 2: This Land Is Your Land/Incorporating advanced techniques.

 

Practice Videos

Below is a playlist of videos to allow you to play along with the various steps of each video to perfect your technique. 

Many banjo players learn songs and rolls from tablature, but never really learn what notes they are playing on the banjo. This series of articles is going to take you through this process.

This first exercise is going to teach you the chords on a banjo all the way up the neck. By learning all of the chord inversions, the fingerboard will open up to you and those notes up the fretboard won't be so intimidating. It will also open up your playing to a whole new world of ideas.

Learning to play the banjo can be an overwhelming task. Practice is one of the major keys to success. But, how can we find more time to practice. Here are a couple of tips.

1.  Find Time To Practice:

When my mother retired she used to tell me she was busier than ever! As a lifelong volunteer, I remember being told that if you wanted to get a project done, look for a busy person. Both of these statements seem at odds with one another, right? But, what  do both of these statements have in common? The “busy” person has learned how to prioritize their time to get things done. They have looked at their “finite” time and carved out specific “moments” to help them complete their “to do” list.

The hardest part for all of us in this busy world is finding the time to practice. It’s not wanting, needing, or learning how to practice so much as it is carving out some time in our very busy lives to practice, right?

What do other people do to overcome this very common thread among those of us who want to learn to play the banjo? Because “practice”, my friends, really is one of the most important keys to learning to play the banjo. And you know what? It is fun!

How much time is needed? If you can only practice 5 minutes, then do so. If you can get in more time, say 15-20 minutes, then more is better. But remember, if you only practiced at 5 minute intervals, several times a day...you would be at 30 minutes in no time, right?

2.  Put the banjo somewhere convenient so you can reach for it more easily.

You might have to leave it on a stand near a comfortable chair in the living room. There are some folks who keep one by their desk in their office at work. I know of a busy truck driver who keeps it in the cab with him as he drives across country. You have to be able to pick up your banjo to practice! So if you can easily reach for it, then you are one step closer to your practice session. If you are walking through the living room on the way to the kitchen, take a 5 minute break and pick up your banjo. If you get a 15 minute break at work, pick up your banjo and walk outside and practice for 5 minutes (please wear a strap for safety!). If you are on a long distance trip and stop for a bathroom and beverage break, take out the banjo and include 5 minutes to play. Your brain will enjoy the break and your picking hand will get just that much MORE muscle memory. Get creative! Look at your day and see where you might be able to carve out just 5 minutes to play your banjo.

3.  Use a mute. 

Sounds counter productive, right? Nope. You can still hear your banjo and be close to your family, friends, neighbors, or people in the hotel room next to you. Mutes make banjos very “user friendly” in close quarters.  For the openback banjo player this can be something as simple as a towel sandwiched between your coordinator rod and the banjo head, a foam wedge can do the same thing, or you can buy a commercial mute (http://www.deeringbanjos.com/products/deering-banjo-mute)  if you have a resonator model to make life easier...and still get in that practice time. You can be with your family watching TV and still play the banjo. Think of how many commercials we are bombarded with when watching television? Now that is surely more than 5 minutes of practice time, right?

 

I’ve read and heard musician’s refer to playing a musical instrument as athletics on a smaller scale.  

This is actually a pretty accurate appraisal and one that is worthwhile evaluating.  

Playing the banjo is more than just using your fingers.  No matter what style of banjo playing, there are physical considerations that can be helpful in fostering a healthy approach to your banjo.   Because no two people are alike in the way they walk, talk, dance, sing, run, stand, sit, swim, play tennis etc, we must allow for a huge range of tolerance to allow individuals to find their own personal comfort zone.   The suggestions here are not meant as “absolute” or “iron clad” or “cast in stone.” 

These are mere guidelines that might aid in facilitating greater comfort while playing.

By nature, the tuning of the tenor banjo in fifths inherently has a major advantage in that chord voicings and scale patterns are symmetrical. The intervallic relationship between an adjacent string is the same.  This means that if you make a triad on the fourth, third, and second strings with the root in the bass, a triad shape would be the same if you moved it up one set of strings to the third, second, and first strings.

Admired and feared, improvising has sometimes been shrouded by mystery and misunderstanding.   New banjo students are often baffled by top players who pick beautiful streams of notes but never the same way twice on a given song.

These days we all have limited time to do the things we like. We always have to make the most out of our time. If you are reading this, one of the things you like to do is to play the banjo, with one of your goals to always be a better player.

We often hear of players who tell us that they are practicing all of the time, but they don't seem to be getting any better. 

OK, so you are saying to yourself that “banjo” and “subtle” are an oxymoron, right? How can a banjo in any way be connected with that word? Well, folks, just as “still waters run deep” so it is with our beloved banjo. If you aren’t paying attention to those subtle little details of playing the banjo, you may just be working too hard!

BODY PLAYING POSITION:
One of the most critical factors to playing the banjo is playing position. 

“Will I ever get better?” is the perennial cry of the pre-beginner (folks say there is no such thing as a pre-beginner but I have been one for 10 years…) or beginner player. We always feel just a tad bit “lacking” in improvement despite all of our best efforts. The truth is that we have more than likely made more progress than we know.