(Banjo). All it takes is the thumb and index finger! This book allows you to explore this traditional, often easier way of playing the banjo: the original two-finger style. It covers thumb lead, up-picking, frailing/clawhammer (stroke style), and drop-thumb variation techniques and is presented in various tunings with easy to read tablature plus accompanying chord symbols and diagrams with audio tracks online for download or streaming. Includes over 50 songs in the bluegrass, old-time, country, folk and gospel styles. Audio is accessed online using the unique code inside the book and can be streamed or downloaded. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right.

Teaches basic technique for playing the banjo including how to read music and playing bluegrass classics.

An Instruction Method for playing the old-time five-string mountain banjo based on the styles of traditional banjo-pickers.

Cultivated in East Kentucky and North Carolina for over 100 years, the two finger picking style has almost been forgotten. Few "old timer" players have mastered this style but fortunately some committed players like Art Rosenbaum and Mike Seeger have preserved this heritage and kept the style present.And now in three installments, Sebastian Schroeder will introduce you to this interesting style.In this second 2-finger book the focus will be on Thumb Lead Style. Here the melody tones are plucked by the thumb, while the first and fifth string is played by thumb or index finger as drone strings.The tones of the lower strings of the banjo are easier when played in the Thumb Lead Style. So this add a nice contrast when accompanying singing or other instruments. Therefore this is also a good style for ballads.This book includes 48 pages for banjo beginners and advanced players, 48 downloadable audio examples and tablature for all exercises and songs.Songlist:Boil Them Cabbage DownFly Around My Pretty Little MissDrunken SailorWorried Man BluesWill The Circle Be UnbrokenShady GrovePretty PollySpotted PonyJack O ́Diamonds (Drunken Hicups)Darling CoreyReuben ́s Train

Play the 5-string banjo in virtually every musical situation now! Beginning with fundamentals like choosing the best instrument and tuning, this comprehensive book covers basic to advanced techniques in a variety of styles, from classical and bluegrass to reggae and bossa nova. Banjo virtuoso and educator Dick Weissman leads musicians through every topic with easy-to-understand lessons and a CD that demonstrates each example and tune. Every player, from beginner through intermediate and up to professional, will enjoy exploring styles and expanding their repertoire with Banjo A to Z. All music is presented in standard notation and TAB. Special features: Techniques include the Seeger strum, hammer-ons, pull-offs, clawhammer strums, double thumbing, two- and three-finger picking, forward and backward rolls, bending, rasguado, and tremolo. * Styles include traditional, bluegrass, blues, Dixieland, ragtime, waltz, Irish, flamenco, calypso, reggae, South American, Middle Eastern, minstrel, and classical. * Learn effective ways to tune, use the capo, play melodically, and understand basic music theory.

The story of the banjo's journey from Africa to the western hemisphere blends music, history, and a union of cultures. In Banjo Roots and Branches, Robert B. Winans presents cutting-edge scholarship that covers the instrument's West African origins and its adaptations and circulation in the Caribbean and United States. The contributors provide detailed ethnographic and technical research on gourd lutes and ekonting in Africa and the banza in Haiti while also investigating tuning practices and regional playing styles. Other essays place the instrument within the context of slavery, tell the stories of black banjoists, and shed light on the banjo's introduction into the African- and Anglo-American folk milieus. Wide-ranging and illustrated with twenty color images, Banjo Roots and Branches offers a wealth of new information to scholars of African American and folk musics as well as the worldwide community of banjo aficionados. Contributors: Greg C. Adams, Nick Bamber, Jim Dalton, George R. Gibson, Chuck Levy, Shlomo Pestcoe, Pete Ross, Tony Thomas, Saskia Willaert, and Robert B. Winans.

This book is considered the first in-depth method book ever published for learning to play the 5-string banjo. First appearing in 1858, Phil Rice’s 1858 Method for the Banjo was written in standard notation in the tuning (eAEG#B). Kyle Gray Young has meticulously transcribed 64 solos from the original keys and notation to clear, easy-to-read tablature in modern C tuning; 15 of these solos also appear in G tuning. Since the intervals between strings are the same in the C or A tunings, these tablature editions are also playable on replica banjos in the 19th-century tuning. In addition to its 64 solos, this Mel Bay edition features a complete transcription of the original step-by-step method on how to play stroke-style banjo as it was presented in 1858, but again—in modern tablature with online audio. Some of these wonderful melodies haven’t been heard since the Civil War era. It’s time to bring them back to life!