https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/Recent content in Banjo on Teddy Rook Bookhttps://teddyrookbook.com/img/share.jpghttps://teddyrookbook.com/img/share.jpgHugoenhttps://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/meet-the-banjo/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/meet-the-banjo/The parts of a 5-string banjo, open-back and resonator banjos, how the strings are numbered, and the short 5th string that gives the banjo its sound.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/where-the-banjo-comes-from/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/where-the-banjo-comes-from/A short, plain history of the banjo: its West African roots, the instruments made by enslaved Africans in the Americas, the minstrel stage, old-time string bands and bluegrass.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/holding-the-banjo/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/holding-the-banjo/How to sit with a banjo, use a strap, place the fretting hand, and set up the picking hand for three-finger style (with picks) and for clawhammer (without).https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/tuning-open-g/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/tuning-open-g/Open G tuning (g D G B D), tuning with the microphone tuner or by ear, the 5th-fret method that checks each string against the next, and tips that keep a banjo in tune.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/reading-banjo-tab/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/reading-banjo-tab/How banjo tablature works: five lines for five strings, fret numbers, the 5th string’s numbers, rhythm under the tab, the picking letters T I M and S D T, and the marks for hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/first-chords/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/first-chords/Reading a banjo chord diagram, the open G chord, and the C, D7 and D shapes that go with it, with an exercise for changing between them.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/three-finger-picking/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/three-finger-picking/The picking hand for bluegrass banjo: thumb pick and finger picks, which finger plays which string, anchoring, single notes and pinches, slowly and evenly.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/forward-roll/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/forward-roll/The most important pattern in bluegrass banjo: thumb, index, middle over and over, eight notes to a bar, on G, C and D7.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/more-rolls/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/more-rolls/Three more rolls every bluegrass banjo player uses: the backward roll, the alternating-thumb roll and the forward-reverse roll, with a practice piece that mixes them.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/melody-in-the-roll/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/melody-in-the-roll/How Scruggs-style banjo carries a tune: the melody notes sit inside the rolls, and the other notes ring around them. Your first full tune with rolls, Boil Them Cabbage Down.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/clawhammer-basics/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/clawhammer-basics/The old-time downstroke style: hand shape, the strike with the back of the fingernail, the brush, the thumb on the 5th string, and the bum-ditty rhythm on G, C and D7.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/clawhammer-melody/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/clawhammer-melody/Aiming the clawhammer strike at the melody note, letting the brush carry the next beat, and Boil Them Cabbage Down in clawhammer from start to finish.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/hammer-ons-pull-offs-slides/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/hammer-ons-pull-offs-slides/Notes made by the fretting hand alone: the hammer-on, the pull-off and the slide, how they are written in tab, and how they sound in three-finger and clawhammer playing.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/licks-and-fill-ins/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/licks-and-fill-ins/Short ready-made phrases for three-finger banjo: the slide lick, hammer-on and pull-off licks, a low-string lick, fill-ins for long melody notes and a lick to end a tune.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/hymns-and-slow-tunes/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/hymns-and-slow-tunes/Putting rolls, chords and melody together in slow Southern hymn tunes: How Firm a Foundation with the melody on the thumb, and Amazing Grace in 3/4 time.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/drop-thumb/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/drop-thumb/Intermediate clawhammer: double thumbing (the thumb after every strike) and drop-thumb (the thumb dropping onto the inside strings to play melody notes between the beats).https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/other-tunings/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/other-tunings/Why banjo players retune: double C (g C G C D) for tunes in C and D, open D (f♯ D F♯ A D) for tunes in D, how to get there from open G, and the main chords in each.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/capo-and-fifth-string/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/capo-and-fifth-string/Playing in other keys with a capo: which fret for which key, what to do with the short 5th string (retuning, spikes, a 5th-string capo), and how tab and chord names are counted from the capo.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/more-chords/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/more-chords/Em, Am, A, E7, F and Bm in open G tuning, then the three moveable chord shapes (barre, F shape and D shape) that let you play any major chord anywhere on the neck.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/scales-and-the-fretboard/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/scales-and-the-fretboard/The G major scale in first position on the banjo, the notes on each string, the G major pentatonic scale that so many Southern tunes use, and the D major scale for fiddle tunes in D.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/up-the-neck/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/up-the-neck/Leaving first position: the D shape at the 7th fret, finding melody notes higher on the neck, and playing the B part of Fisher’s Hornpipe there.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/fiddle-tunes/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/fiddle-tunes/How old-time and bluegrass fiddle tunes are built (A and B parts, each played twice), the keys fiddlers use and which banjo tuning or capo fits each, and how to learn a tune by ear.https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/backup-and-jamming/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/music/banjo/backup-and-jamming/Playing behind a singer or another instrument: bluegrass vamping with closed chords, rolls as backup, clawhammer backup, how a jam works, and a simple practice plan.