We offer online clawhammer banjo lessons for the following styles:
- Traditional Fiddle Tunes
- Celtic Music
- Accompaniment of old-time, popular music, etc.
Virtual Clawhammer Banjo Lessons
If you are looking for lessons in very specific old-time clawhammer styles (Round Peak) or specific old-time players’ arrangements (Wade Ward, Reed Martin, Frank George, etc ) those are not my specialty.
I work from the melody and build up arrangements of tunes, rather than use someone else’s arrangement. This allows you to learn the material at your level, versus what someone else played after they had been playing 20 years :). I actually have a beginner clawhammer banjo songbook I put together that I use a lot with students.
My specialty is traditional American Fiddle tunes plus Celtic Music (Irish, Scottish, and Welsh traditional music). Playing traditional mountain music in the clawhammer style is very rhythmic. Much of the beginning of our lessons will concentrate on getting the right timing into our hands and mind. With this style, you aren’t trying to get every note that the fiddle plays.
As you’ll see below, I also do melodic clawhammer banjo. With melodic banjo, the emphasis is on playing many of the same notes the fiddle plays. This style is quite challenging for the left-hand. Here, the focus is less on a driving sort of rhythm and more on intricate melody patterns. This style is the focus of people like Ken Perlman.
What I teach in my clawhammer banjo lessons:
- Basic Bum Ditty Strum Patterns
- Chord Positions
- Drop Thumb
- Fiddle Tunes
- Celtic Music
- Left-Hand Techniques (pull-offs/slides/more)
- Standard alternate tunings for clawhammer
Examples of my Clawhammer Playing
Temperance Reel- Melodic Clawhammer Style
Use my contact form to contact me and I’ll get back with you ASAP to set up a time for your clawhammer banjo lessons. Please review my rates and policies beforehand.