Category: Banjo

Samantha Bumgarner: The Original Banjo Pickin’ Girl

This article was written by Charles K Wolfe.

One of the sillier myths being bandied about these days by the Nashville establishment involves the role of women in the history of country music. It is said, down along Music Row and in the August pages of Country Music Magazine, that before the advent of Kitty Wells in the late 1940’s, women had little to do with country music’s devel­opment: they were cast as only pretty faces along to dress up the act. This, of course, is nonsense, and an account of the significant women artists who contributed to

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A Word About These Free Clawhammer Banjo Tabs

Howdy!

These free clawhammer banjo tabs are written out in the simplest possible way. Like “normal” tab, the five horizontal lines represent the five strings of your banjo. The numbers on the lines represent the fret that you play on that string.

What’s not so “normal,” is that I have not included the rhythmic clawhammer stroke as part of the tab. What you have here is only the naked melody.

If you already have the basic clawhammer banjo rhythm nailed down, you know that it sounds like “bum dit-ty,” or “claw-ham-mer.” The “bum” or “claw” is the melody, the “dit”

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A Word About These Free Bluegrass Banjo Tabs!

Howdy!

If you’re thinking that the free tabs look a little sparse, you’re right! What I’ve provided you is just the bare bones skeleton of the melody.

Why did I do that, and where are the rolls?

As you know, bluegrass banjo plays the melody using rolls, which consist of 4 or 8 note patterns that are repeated over and over.

Virtually every single bluegrass banjo method out there teaches you a tune with the rolls already incorporated into the melody. That is a BIG MISTAKE.

Why?

Because you need to be able to figure out how to add the

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