Category: Banjo

By Wayne Erbsen

You’re determined to save electricity and I’ll bet many of you have always wanted to play the banjo. You can do both! All you have to do is turn off your TV and fire up your banjo. Despite what you may have heard, playing the banjo is easy, especially when you start out learning in the right way that I’m about to show you. This article was written for total beginners on the banjo.  It’ll show you, in the most simplified terms possible, how to make music (and friends) with that cantankerous banjo of yours. Trust me.

If you’re gonna play bluegrass music, your banjo will be tuned in G Tuning. The strings in G Tuning are

1  2  3  4  5

D  B  G  D  G

The vast majority of all bluegrass songs use only three chords, G, C and D or D7. Some, in fact, only use two chords, G and D or D7.

When you’re in G tuning, your banjo is tuned to a G chord.

So in G tuning your G chord is just to pick or strum the banjo stings “Open,” or unfretted. What could be easier?

A D7

By Wayne Erbsen

So you want to play the banjo. That’s handy, because in one short lesson, I’m gonna teach you to play one.

Contrary to what you might think, it’s way easy.

The first thing is to tune your banjo. Check out my article “How to Tune a Banjo.”

I’m going to teach you to play banjo in what is called “Bluegrass Style.” The first song you’re gonna play is I’ll Fly Away. It’s easy. As you hold the banjo on your lap, the 1st string is the one closest to the floor, and

By George R. Gibson

Uncle Dave Macon, the first star of the Grand Old Opry, was an extraordinary banjo player and entertainer. It is likely that black musicians as well as minstrel entertainers influenced his music. Earl Scruggs, who originated a unique style of bluegrass banjo playing, came from a mountain area where banjos and banjo songs had long been a part of the culture. Many mountain banjo songs became popular with early radio string bands, and later became bluegrass standards. When the banjo and banjo songs entered the mountains is a question that has not been definitively addressed.

Various

By Wayne Erbsen

Here are the basic steps to learning old-time clawhammer banjo:

1. With your right hand over the strings of your banjo, curl your fingers up as if they were holding a baseball bat.

2. Strike down on the 1st string with the nail of your middle finger. (This is your melody note). With your hand still in motion, let your right thumb come to rest on the 5th string.

3. Then lift up you right hand and quickly brush down on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings with the nails of your middle and ring fingers. Again,

By Wayne Erbsen

Come into the closet. As you nestle yourself in amongst the overcoats and umbrellas, you may be wondering why I called you here. A lot of people think that the only real banjo playing goes on at the Opry or at some far away stage with lights glittering from above. Not so. Some of the best banjo picking comes from inside of a well-stuffed closet. Of course, the sound does tend to get a little muffled in there, but the feeling is right, and the motives are pure. What closet picker could ever be accused of being