Banjo Primer

Beginning banjo lessons have never been more fun! Written for the absolute beginner, this FUN book is guaranteed to help you learn to play bluegrass banjo (How many books come with a personal guarantee by the author?). · Teaches the plain, naked melody to 23 easy bluegrass favorites without the rolls already incorporated into the tune. · Wayne shows simple ways to embellish each melody using easy rolls. · With Wayne’s unique method, you’ll learn to think for yourself! · Learn how to play a song in different ways, rather than memorizing ONE way. · Includes a link to download 99 instructional audio tracks off our website! You WILL learn to play: Bile ‘Em Cabbage Down, Blue Ridge Mountain Blues, Columbus Stockade Blues, Down the Road, Groundhog, Little Maggie, Long Journey Home, Lynchburg Town, Man of Constant Sorrow, My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains, Nine Pound Hammer, Palms of Victory, Pass Me Not, Poor Ellen Smith, Pretty Polly, Put My Little Shoes Away, Red River Valley, Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, Shall We Gather at the River, Wabash Cannonball, When I Lay My Burden Down, When the Saints Go Marching In.

Banjo Primer Book for Beginners Deluxe Edition (Audio & Video Access) by Geoff Hohwald is the first true beginners book revealing the secrets of good Scruggs style 5 string banjo technique. Clearly illustrated with over 40 photographs, it includes basic rolls, exciting & easy to play song arrangements, and up the neck breaks. It is easy to understand with step by step instruction making this the perfect book for individual or group instruction. A video in 16:9 wide screen format is available that lets you hear all songs at 3 speeds - very slow (for learning), medium tempo (for practicing), and uptempo (performance speed). The Audio Practice Tracks play all of the songs at 5 speeds with an acoustic band. This is the perfect course for the beginning banjo player.

The Clawhammer Banjo Primer Book for Beginners with Video & Audio Access by Brad Laird will teach you everything you need to know about playing clawhammer banjo. Clawhammer or "frailing" is an old-time Appalachian banjo style which predates the more common 3-finger Scruggs style. Experienced bluegrass players and beginners alike will enjoy learning the essential elements of playing the 5-string banjo in this interesting style. This course will teach you basic concepts like reading tab, the G tuning, basic strums, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other essential techniques. Brad will also teach you how to play Cripple Creek, Cumberland Gap, and Old Joe Clark and many other songs. This course also features access to audio jam tracks and video instruction.

Banjo Primer Deluxe Edition Book/DVD/Jam CDs by Geoff Hohwald is the first true beginner's course revealing the secrets of good Scruggs style 5 string banjo technique. Clearly illustrated with over 40 photographs, it includes basic rolls, exciting & easy to play song arrangements, and up the neck breaks. It is easy to understand with step by step instruction making this the perfect book for individual or group instruction. The DVD is presented in 16:9 wide screen format with over 1.5 hours of video instruction. The two audio Practice CDs let you play along with a full bluegrass band at 5 speeds with full length versions of all of the songs.

The banjo has been emblematic of the Southern Appalachian Mountains since the late twentieth century. Making Music: The Banjo in a Southern Appalachian County takes a close look at the instrument and banjo players in Haywood County, North Carolina. Author William C. Allsbrook Jr., MD, presents the oral histories of thirty-two banjo players, all but two of whom were born in Haywood County. These talented musicians recount, in their own words, their earliest memories of music, and of the banjo, as well as the appeal of the banjo. They also discuss learning to play the instrument, including what it “feels like” playing the banjo, many describing occasional “flow states.” In the book, Allsbrook explores an in-home musical folkway that developed along the colonial frontier. By the mid-1800s, frontier expansion had ceased in Haywood County due to geographic barriers, but the in-home musical tradition, including the banjo, survived in largely isolated areas. Vestiges of that tradition remain to this day, although the region has undergone significant changes over the lifetimes of the musicians interviewed. As a result, the survival of the in-home tradition is not guaranteed. Readers are invited into the private lives of the banjo players and asked to consider the future of the banjo in the face of contemporary trends. The future will be shaped by how this remarkable mountain culture continues to adapt to these challenges. Still, this thriving community of banjo players represents the vibrant legacy of the banjo in Haywood County and the persistence of tradition in the twenty-first century.