More Realistic Banjo Practice Are you practicing your songs at home, and no matter how much you practice you’re still falling apart when the heat is on at your local jam? One reason you MIGHT make more mistakes at the jam session than at home…
Banjo vs Guitar Difficulty This question keeps coming up in my live streams; so, I thought I’d do a blog post giving my thoughts on the subject of banjo vs. guitar. Here is my answer to the question, Is the banjo harder than the guitar?…
Slow Banjo lessons Here is a compilation of free banjo videos on how to play banjo on SLOW SONGS. So many bluegrass songs are fast; likewise, the instructional material tends to focus on this material; yet, what happens when the singer wants to sing on…
Melodic Style Banjo So, you’ve got some rolls and songs under your belt and are now looking for how to play your Banjo scales? One of the main styles of banjo playing is called MELODIC STYLE. This was made famous by players such as Bill…
Banjo Pull-offs and Bends Do you find your left-hand technique isn’t quite up to par? Do your pull-offs not sound like JD Crowe’s? Do your bends not sound QUITE like Earl Scruggs’ on “Foggy Mountain Breakdown?” At least your in good company, because most people’s…
This past month I spent time revamping an old beginner banjo course. The course is now available on: Teachable Skillshare Udemy: Banjo Course: Beginner Banjo: Roll your way into songs! SUMMARY OF CONTENTS: How to wear your banjo picks My recommendations on finger picks &…
Banjo Scales in Melodic Style Here is a MAJOR scale WORKOUT done in the melodic style. I group the scales in 3-4-5’s so you can gradually become more flexible with them. These exercises are a good next step for someone that already knows their basic…
A beginner banjo arrangement of Beautiful Dreamer for banjo, using the 1st to 12th frets of the instrument. I know many are looking for SLOWER banjo music to play, this is a good one that isn’t too hard. It is in the key of C;…
Classical Banjo Arrangements Classical Banjo music isn’t exactly the easiest thing to find. I’ve written up a few tabs for these baroque/classical selections below. MINUET IN G by BACH In my opinion, Bach works great on the banjo. This was an era where the same…
5-string banjo TAB to “Sweet Georgia Brown” Here is a beginner-intermediate TAB of this jazz banjo favorite “Sweet GA Brown”. The Tablature can be found here in pdf format: Sweet Georgia Brown banjo TAB This arrangement uses mostly a roll based style mixed with some…
I recently began a youtube teaching tutorial on slow song backup. Here are the first two parts. I begin with just the basic pattern of alternating your thumb and plucking. In the second video, I move on to triplets. THE TABS are available to my…
Here are the chords to Maiden’s Prayer, notice near the end the G/C which is 2 beats of G to 2 beats of C, etc G | G | G | G D | D | D | G G | G | G…
Backup Banjo Connectors Many people get hung up sounding like they are only rolling through chord shapes. How do you add interesting sounds between the chord shapes. Today, I’ll teach you how to take it one step further. I call these things banjo CONNECTORS,…
Banjo Licks: D to G One of the most common Chord Changes in Bluegrass music is D to G. So, we need lots of vocabulary to use over these chord changes if we are to improvise. One way to get some new words into…