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By Wayne Erbsen
If you’re total novice on the banjo, but want to learn to play, you’ve come to the right place. I’m going to show you how to be up and playing the banjo in no time flat.
First, you want to get your banjo tuned in what is called G Tuning. Check out my article, How to Tune a Banjo.
Now, set your banjo on your lap in playing position. The short string is the 5th string. The string closest to your feet is the 1st string. Pluck the 1st and 5th strings together at the same
By Bob Smakula
First, play the guitar. Is there excessive buzzing? Is it too easy to play or do you need hydraulic-assisted fingers? String height is determined by several factors. Nut height, saddle height, neck curvature and neck angle all make one guitar’s action better or worse than another’s. String height can be changed to suit any playing style. My opinion of ideal string height for a steel string guitar (measured from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string at the 12th fret) is 1/16″ at the high E gradually increasing to 3/32″ at the low
Need a quick lesson on how to read Wayne’s free bluegrass banjo tabs? Read these brief instructions: “A Word About the Free Bluegrass Banjo Tabs.”
Bluegrass music evolved from an earlier type of country music we now call old-time music. As it’s commonly played, old-time music is a mostly instrumental stringband style with a beat that’s designed for square dancing. As such, the music is spirited and upbeat.
The main lead instrument in old-time music is the fiddle. The fiddler normally chooses the tunes, sets the rhythm, begins the tune, and signals to the other musicians when the tune will end. Another key ingredient in old-time music is the banjo, which is played in what is called “clawhammer style.” This is a rhythmic style with
Need a quick lesson on how to read Wayne’s free bluegrass banjo tabs? Read these brief instructions: “A Word About the Free Bluegrass Banjo Tabs.”
Many of you have learned to play the banjo from my book ‘Clawhammer Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus‘… and this year this method is 50 years old! The book has been rewritten a few times over the years, and each time I think it’s gotten even better, but it’s always had the same down home and easy approach.
I thought you might like to know the story of how the ‘Ignoramus’, as we like to call it, came to be.
It was 1973 when I landed a job in Charlotte,
By Wayne Erbsen
It all began with a misunderstanding. It was early June, 1936, and the teenage brother duet of Bill and Earl Bolick had just abruptly ended a three-month stint at radio WGST in Atlanta over a dispute with the sponsor, W.J. Fincher’s Crazy Water Crystals. Within a matter of days the Bolicks traveled to the RCA Victor studio in Charlotte, North Carolina, to fulfill a contract to make their first recordings.
Perhaps out of spite, W.J. Fincher passed on to RCA Victor the erroneous information that the brothers had broken up their act. For this reason, Eli Oberstein
By Charles Wolfe
There are dozens of unsung heroes in the annals of country music; some are instrumentalists, like the legendary Georgia fiddler Joe Lee, who introduced the “long bow” style to greats like Clayton McMichen; some are songwriters, like the gospel singer Grady Cole, who wrote Tramp on the Street; others were promoters and radio personalities like the late Eddie Hill, who helped introduce the music of the Louvin Brothers to a wide audience. But one of the most unsung, and one of the most mysterious, was a remarkable blackface comedian and singer named Emmett Miller. He flourished
By Wayne Erbsen
One of my favorite gospel songs of all time is I Am a Pilgrim. I first heard it back in the early 60s when I was listening closely to Doc Watson, who sang it and picked it on the guitar. Doc freely admitted that he learned it from the great Merle Travis, so I always assumed Travis composed it. Digging a little deeper, I found that it was recorded by 14 African-American singers before it was even a gleam in Travis’ eye.
I’m not surprised that I Am a Pilgrim has roots in African-American music. The
