How about a Doolin Harp Guitar?

Here's a virtual orchestra of them:

So many different styles! I've never seen one before.

My banjo should be arriving today. Again, thank you, Mark.

I've been watching a lot of yootoob vids. There are dozens of "beginning banjo" lessons. Like anything, some are better than others.

One really good one started out by saying that he is teaching the bluegrass three-finger Earl Scruggs style on a five-string banjo. If you have a four-string banjo, you're on the wrong video. And if you want to learn clawhammer style, you are on the wrong video. He included a short clip of a woman playing clawhammer or "frailing" or "old tyme" style.

So, I went looking for clawhammer style vids. I think I want to play more of the old tyme, folk song kind of music. There also seem to be two substyles, "bum-diddy" (one two-and thre four-and) and "bumba-diddy" (one-and two-and three-and four-and). One guy strongly suggests that it's easier to go from bumba-diddy to bum-diddy than the other way.

(By the way, my benevolent employer blocks yootoob, so I can't easily post the links to the vids right now.)

I have noticed that in most of the videos of people playing clawhammer, the banjo heads are very worn... like the finish rubbed off. In a few of the Scruggs style, some had a rub mark next to the bottom string where they rest their non-playing fingers. It doesn't bother me, but I'm just curious about that.

Also, most, but not all, of the clawhammer players are playing open-back banjos.

It also seems that any song can by played in any style, although the Breakdowns like Earl Scruggs played do seem to be more suited to his three-finger style.

The only artist I've seen performing both styles is Steve Martin... but he's exceptionally talented.


I do have a hard time switching styles in most things in life, so I'm thinking I need to pick a style and stick with it, at least for a year or two.

So, I'm leaning toward learning clawhammer, without picks, practicing the "drop-thumb" technique.

Anyone want to steer me a different direction before I commit?

PJ I love that you’re doing your homework, and figuring out what you want. I also love your explanation of how you got there.

Old-timey all the way!

It appears that my Korg tuner has died.

Anyone use a tuner app on their phone? One to recommend?

I use Fender tune. Seems to work well enough and it’s free.

I like the claw hammer style myself, but I really don’t have a dog in the fight. Come down to CA for the Summergrass festival in August. I’ll put you up in my RV and you can spend many a happy hour debating the pros snd cons with some of the best players in the country.

It’ll cost you two steaks. One is for you.

I like headstock clip on tuners; you can tune in a noisy room. My favorite was the IntelliTuner; we had 2 in the house. Lost them somewhere. Bought something else. Lost that. Bought something else. Found all of them.



But still my favorite type!

pj,
A neurologist teaches clawhammer. https://clawhammerbanjo.net/the-brainjo-course/

A banjo forum with more info than you will ever absorb. https://www.banjohangout.org/

The banjo arrived yesterday. Mark packed it well and there was only one inconsequential dent in the box.

It took most of the evening to do the basic setup that the shop would have done if I had bought it in person. I straightened the neck, adjusted the tailpiece, set the bridge, and tuned it. It will probably need more adjustments, but it sounds okay.

I have to say, I am kinda disappointed in the quality. I expected better from Ibanez. The bridge had poorly made cuts. There are chips in the finish where the brackets meet the back (doesn't look like that could have happened in shipping). One of the screws that holds the back on was either cross-threaded or just made poorly. I will try to find a die to clean up the thread or I'll ask the fellow at the store to send me a replacement. It does seem to sound okay.


I went to Guitar Center at lunchtime today. They had only one banjo gig bag and it wasn't quite what I had in mind. They had only one bag of banjo picks. I bought them even though I plan to play clawhammer. Other than the instruments, practically nothing in the store had prices marked. I asked about tuners. The kid handed me the most expensive one they had. I told him I wanted the $15 KORG clip-on one. It turned out the one he grabbed had been returned -- the package was torn and it had greasy fingerprints on it. So, kinda disappointing trip.


I tried the Fender tune app. It seems to only know how to tune a guitar. It seemed to get confused by the banjo. I tried two free banjo tuning apps. One just wouldn't register the notes and the other interrupted several times a minute with video ads. I tried a general chromatic tuning app called Pano Tuner. It seems to work well. Still, I plan to use the KORG clip-on.

Guitar straps don't work unless you put a piece of string on the end. I made a strap out of one from an old laptop bag. I noticed that Earl Scruggs put the strap just over his right shoulder. Several other players were the same; just a few had a strap over the back and the left shoulder. I'll try it Earl's way for now.


I have tried a few frailing strums. A bit awkward, but everything is at this point. I tried one chord. It's going to take some time to get the hang of steel strings.

I found one really great woman on yootoob with the screen name Frailing at Life. She's in Sheffield England. I like her videos, but they all have a high-pitched whine in the audio, so headphones are out.


That's all I can think of to complain about for now. I'm looking forward to experiencing what Steve Martin said: You just can't play a depressing song on the banjo.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I use Fender tune. Seems to work well enough and it’s free.

I like the claw hammer style myself, but I really don’t have a dog in the fight. Come down to CA for the Summergrass festival in August. I’ll put you up in my RV and you can spend many a happy hour debating the pros snd cons with some of the best players in the country.

It’ll cost you two steaks. One is for you.

Im thinking about it.

My preferences:
Deering, OME, and Nechville banjos. There are other good ones.
Snark tuners are cheap and work well. The bracket can be broken too easily.

Well, I’m going to give this six months to a year and if I decide I want to play on, I’ll start looking for a better instrument.

Dusty Strings in Seattle carries good stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
pj,
A neurologist teaches clawhammer. https://clawhammerbanjo.net/the-brainjo-course/

Thank you for that link.

I spent an hour last night looking at his site and watching the first couple videos.

While I like his approach, the home page of the web site was maddening... the rotating images of testimonials are all different sizes so every time the image changed, the rest of the page moved up and down making it nearly impossible to read.

The first video literally made me queasy. He’s wearing a grey shirt, standing in front of a grey background and he keeps moving around, rocking back and forth, bobbing up and down, and his banjo is doing the same. The first minute or so has banjo music playing at almost the same volume as he’s speaking. I was getting physically nauseated trying to watch it. His verbal mannerisms are also distracting.

If you record a couple minutes of video, especially in a studio, then find your mic wasn’t working right, don’t just fix it for the rest of the vid, RE-RECORD THE BAD PART.

Finally, his key point of the up-down “knocking on a door” and the side-to-side strumming movements make a little sense, but I watched the close-up a couple times and I still don’t quite get it. I’ll have to try it on the banjo. I think he leaves out a lot of fundamental info, like how to hold the banjo and where to strum (he’s not consistent and in the comments on yootoob he finally sort of explains it).

I’ll watch the rest of the free vids and try his method, but from just the first taste, that’s not something I would pay money for.

I have dabbled in cognitive psychology for a few decades and have spent a lot of time teaching adults both skills and knowledge. His method is sound and science-based, though not too deep into the science of teaching and learning. But the application is horrible.

IMO this is the best method book. I like it.
https://smile.amazon.com/Clawh...o%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-3

I like what I have seen of Brainjo, but have not spent much time with it.

I use mostly piano-specific apps for tuning, but do have Cleartune, apptuner, strobosoft and instuner on my phone.

I like instuner for the tone generator. Cleartune usually picks up difficult to hear tones. I don't remember how much each costs, but strobosoft was probably the most expensive.

All of these are chromatic tuners, so only really helps if you know your target pitch names - though some may have built-in tunings for different string instruments... I never use that!

Tuning?

Tune a banjo?

I thought they came that way from the factory.