Topic: Banjo Advice

[Parlor Picker]

By the way, I started playing clawhammer banjo last April and I'm addicted. 

Jeff

Which is worse - heroin or banjo??   

[uncle bud]

By the way, I started playing clawhammer banjo last April and I'm addicted. 

Which is worse - heroin or banjo??   

About time. We'd made it to a full page of posts with not one banjo joke. I was getting concerned about Parlor Picker's health.

(I've said this before but will say it again: the Dan Gellert CD Waitin' On the Break of Day is one of my favorite musical experiences.)

[Parlor Picker]

Andrew - I finally broke.  I have been stopping myself posting facetious comments about ban... banj ... you know those things - for ages.  I just couldn't help it in the end, sorry.

Anyway Happy New Year to Weenies one and all - even banjo players!!!!!!!

[Stuart]

...About time. We'd made it to a full page of posts with not one banjo joke...

Why are banjo jokes all one-liners?

[jeffdelfield]

...About time. We'd made it to a full page of posts with not one banjo joke...

Why are banjo jokes all one-liners?

I suppose it's to keep it simple - that way the banjo player might get it too.

[Stuart]

So the _______ players will understand them.

[blueshome]

I  think that a banjo is too dangerous to be a subject for humour - but a banjo player is!

All the best for 2009.

[lindy]

For all you banjo skinheads, today is the birthday of Danny Barker, a banjo player who was a major participant in the revival of traditional New Orleans jazz in the 1950s and 1960s. Different style of playing than what y'all are talking about, but worth checking out.



Sadly, the YouTube vids of Barker are lacking in lots of ways, including a series of 12 songs from a European concert where he is sitting behind a stack of speakers, all you see is the headstock of his six-string. There's one vid of Barker singing a great version of St. James Infirmary with lots of pointed asides and comments on the way things usually are. But sadly, it's not a live video, just a recording played behind a still picture of Danny.

Several events going on this week in Mr. Barker's name, a good week for traditional NO Jazz in its birthplace.

Lindy

[banjochris]

And if you like the Danny Barker, take a look at this one:

[Dobro33H]

If you want to frail the five string banjo here is literally everything you need to know all free for downloading:

Videos:

Old Time Banjo
http://www.archive.org/details/Old_time_banjo

Frailing Banjo
http://www.archive.org/details/frailing.banjo

Frailing The Blues
http://www.archive.org/details/frailing.the.blues

Audio Workshops:

Virtual Frailing Banjo
http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/virtual-frailing-banjo/

Books:

The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo
http://www.ezfolk.com/banjo/howtao/

A Book of Five Strings
http://tangiersound.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/five-strings.pdf

The Outlaws and Scalawags Songbook
http://www.archive.org/details/SingAlongBanjoVolumeOneOutlawsScalawags

Plain Text:

Basic Frailing Banjo
http://ia331309.us.archive.org/0/items/banjo.stuff/basic-frailing.txt

Easy Bluegrass Banjo
http://ia331309.us.archive.org/0/items/banjo.stuff/bluegrass-banjo.txt

Calloused Ears
http://ia331309.us.archive.org/0/items/banjo.stuff/by-ear.txt

Frailing Banjo Backup
http://ia331309.us.archive.org/0/items/banjo.stuff/frailing-backup.txt

In addition to all of that, there are 207 workshops (mostly 5-string banjo, but there is also stuff for guitar, ukulele, tenor banjo and harmonica) on my Youtube page (my YouTube handle is dobro33H). Here are a couple of blues-ish banjo workshops:

Hammer Blues:
http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/folk-song-of-the-day-7507/

Rests, phantom effects & Charley Patton:
http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/the-daily-frail-6507/

One Kind Favor:
http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/folk-song-of-the-day-10207/

Georgia Black Bottom Blues on a Brian Carver banjo:
http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/georgia-black-bottom-blues/

Bottleneck Banjo:
http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/bottleneck-banjo/

You will also find a lot of student-generated workshops and performances on my blog: http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/.

Hop this helps.
-Patrick Costello

[Parlor Picker]

Words frail me...

[blueshome]

So much effort to so little purpose.

[uncle bud]

Patrick, that's just fabulous. I had forgotten about your youtube channel, which I've enjoyed watching before and I don't even play the banjo. I need to fix that, been meaning to for a long time. I have to buy me 5-string open back.

[Mr.OMuck]

For all you banjo skinheads, today is the birthday of Danny Barker, a banjo player who was a major participant in the revival of traditional New Orleans jazz in the 1950s and 1960s. Different style of playing than what y'all are talking about, but worth checking out.

His exposition "Night People" is like some great Beat Poem...fabulous!

[Roscoe]

pete seeger sez..... bump ditty bump ditty bump ditty bump. im a clawhammer player and when folks ask me how to do it thats what i tell em. also its maybe better for a solo player. AND.... u dont need no stinkin picks.
good luck
roscoe