Installment #4 in my series of left-hand exercises for 5-string banjo. Visit exercise #3 if you haven’t already seen it. This banjo exercise really develops the dexterity of your pinky finger . You’ll begin with your 1st finger and then the 3rd finger. Next, you’ll…
Today I want to cover your basic clawhammer banjo technique. Some people call this the Bum-Ditty technique. This is because if you say this word, it tells you the correct rhythm of the right-hand stroke. In TAB form, it looks as follows: Bum-Ditty has the…
I think it’s good for beginners to have a good idea of what the most common chord progressions are in the genres they want to learn. Bluegrass has certain ones that occur more than others. If you were learning jazz, these might be different. For…
In this article, I will make the argument that you need to practice both fast and slow. By only playing one way, you are impede your musical progress: What Speed to Practice Music? One of the things I’ve heard the most over the years is,…
For bluegrass banjo playing, the most common banjo tuning is g D G B D, sometimes referred to as “standard tuning.” For clawhammer/old-time banjo playing, the tunings are more variable. However, there are some tunings you’ll find in both styles of playing. I thought I…
Installment #3 in my left-hand exercise series for banjo. Visit exercise one if you missed it. This one will help you change chords on the banjo. It is teaching you coordination and finger independence with two fingers at a time. You don’t even need your…
I recently got a new guitar, the Eastman E2OM-CD. This guitar is an orchestra model, making it smaller than a dreadnought size. It’s super comfy to play on the couch given it’s light weight and size. You can check out all of the specs on…
Have you ever seen a chord in a chord chart that looks like the following? G/B What does this mean? How do you play it? Understanding Slash Chords The good news is you don’t have to do any math! These aren’t chord fractions. These are…
When playing the banjo in different keys, one thing you have to consider is where to capo the 5th string. Why? If you are in say the key of E major and you leave the 5th string tuned to G, your ears will soon cringe…
This is part two in a series of left hand exercises for banjo. The previous video and article covered a method for developing your pull-off technique. Today’s exercise will also help develop your pull-offs for banjo and strengthen your fingers. Strengthen Your Left-Hand Fingers …
Today I’ll show you a left-hand exercise you can do to strengthen up your pull-offs and increase the dexterity of your fingers. You don’t even need to use your right-hand at all to work on this. You can do it while watching TV! Banjo Pull-off…
I often think about my own musical training and how it went from the beginning. As a teacher, I think about the things that could have been improved, that would have allowed me to get “there” faster. By far, one of the things I wish…
Want to spice up your rhythm guitar playing so you aren’t just strumming chords?Adding bass runs in between each chord shift is a great way to do that. The best news is it’s not hard at all. Today I’ll show you some bass runs that…
One of the keys to unlocking the guitar fingerboard are arpeggios. Today I’ll show you some basic arpeggio shapes laid out across the guitar strings. Arpeggio simply means playing the notes of a chord one at a time instead of all at once. The notes…