Learn Clawhammer Banjo

Banjo Lessons for the Adult Beginner

  • About
    • Getting Started With Clawhammer Banjo – What You Need To Know
    • What is the Brainjo Method?
    • How To Play Clawhammer Banjo in 8 Essential Steps (free course)
  • Tabs
    • THE VAULT: The Ultimate Clawhammer TAB LIBRARY
      • The Vault Login
    • Clawhammer Tune and Tab of the Week
    • This Week’s SONG and TAB
    • The Clawhammer TOP 10 tunes
    • This Week’s TUNE and TAB
    • 9 Ways to Practice Smarter (FREE book)
  • Banjos!
    • The “BANJO PLAYER’S BANJO”
    • Brainjo SHIRTS!
  • Breakthrough Banjo
    • Login to Course
    • Breakthrough Banjo Course Tour
    • About the Course
    • SIGN UP
    • Course Home

Clawhammer Song of the Week: “Johnson Boys”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


In the last installment with the song “Coming Round the Mountain,” I talked about 7 ways can transform a tune you know with some simple alterations.

Like viewing a statue from another angle, doing so can sometimes completely alter your perception of it.

Like Jeff Buckley’s sweeter re-imagining of Leonard Cohen’s dirge-like “Hallelulah,” or Hendrix’s cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” a different take on a song can make it resonate with ears that previously hadn’t taken notice of it.

This has happened to me on numerous occasions over the years, where a new spin on a traditional tune I’d heard dozens of times a certain way caused it to suddenly strike my attention.

Interestingly, that new perspective usually changes, and enhances, your appreciation of the original. Yet more evidence that our perceptions say more about us than they do about the thing being perceived.

For years, “Johnson Boys” had been one of those tunes I’d play occasionally in a jam, but would rarely make it into my personal playing rotation.

That changed when I came across a version of it by Josh Ellis and Eddie Bond off their wonderful album “John Brown’s Dream.” Slowed and tuned down for that recorded, I heard a side of it I’d missed before, transforming it from forgettable to favorite.

Not surprisingly, I borrowed liberally for the version you hear today!

Johnson Boys

gDGBD tuning (tuned low on the gourd banjo), Brainjo level 3

 

Notes on the Tab

In this arrangement, I’ve tabbed out the part I play in the banjo “solo,” as well as the vocal backup I play on the banjo while singing.

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes – to learn more about skips and syncopated skips, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

PRIOR SONG OF THE WEEK EPISODES

  • Episode 1: “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow”
  • Episode 2: “Gumtree Canoe”
  • Episode 3: “Crawdad Hole”
  • Episode 4: “Oh Susanna”
  • Episode 5: “Freight Train”
  • Episode 6: “Grandfather’s Clock”
  • Episode 7: “Hop High Lulu”
  • Episode 8: “Been All Around This World”
  • Episode 9: “I’ll Fly Away”
  • Episode 10: “Leaving Home”
  • Episode 11: “Poor Orphan Child”
  • Episode 12: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
  • Episode 13: “Swanee River”
  • Episode 14: “Big Sciota”
  • Episode 15: “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
  • Episode 16: “Darling Corey”
  • Episode 17: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
  • Episode 18: “America the Beautiful”
  • Episode 19: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
  • Episode 20: “Way Out There”
  • Episode 21: “New Slang”
  • Episode 22: “I Saw the Light”
  • Episode 23: “Amazing Grace”
  • Episode 24: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
  • Episode 25: “Yankee Doodle”
  • Episode 26: “Budapest”
  • Episode 27: “Wildwood Flower”
  • Episode 28: “Paradise”
  • Episode 29: “Mountain Dew”
  • Episode 30: “Blue Tail Fly”
  • Episode 31: “Otto Wood”
  • Episode 32: “Down on the Corner”
  • Episode 33: “City of New Orleans”
  • Episode 34: “Big Rock Candy Mountains”
  • Episode 35: “Come to the Bower”
  • Episode 36: “Old Kentucky Home”
  • Episode 37: “Long Journey Home”
  • Episode 38: “Dixie”
  • Episode 39: “Hard Times”
  • Episode 40: “Corrina Corrina”
  • Episode 41: “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”

Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

brainjo larger musical mind

2 finger thumb lead banjo – a video demonstration

One of the reasons I love the banjo is because there are so many incredible ways to make music on it. When you take all the many variations on the banjo form, from the deep sounding gourd to the tone rung modern banjos, and combine that with all the various playing styles, learning the banjo is like getting 50 instruments for the price of 1.

I recently created the above ​​demonstration video of 2 finger thumb lead style for students of the Breakthrough Banjo course for fingerstyle banjo. I teach all styles of up-picking as part of the course, using the Brainjo Method, and that includes 2-finger thumb lead, which is considered one of the “old time” styles of picking.

It’s one of my favorite ways to pick a banjo. A perfect example of beautiful simplicity, and it’s also ideally suited for playing behind the voice. Perfect for accompanying yourself or someone else.

If you’re interested in learning the style (if you have any clawhammer experience, you’ll pick it up quickly!), you can click here to learn more about the course for fingerstyle banjo. ​​

Clawhammer Tune of the Week: “Golden Slippers”

Click on the button below to get the PDF download for this tab delivered to you, and get 2 new tunes and tabs sent to you every week!

Click Here To Get The Tab


“There’s no money above the fifth fret”

-Tommy Tedesco

The above, while originally uttered by a bassist, has become a favorite of other stringed instrument enthusiasts, banjoists included.

The basic idea being that there are plenty of pleasing sounds to be made within the first 5 frets of an instrument. Oftentimes, that’s also the place where an instrument really shines.

FREE LIVE WORKSHOP: On June 22, 2017, I’ll be hosting an online workshop on “9 Ways To Practice Smarter,” diving into the ins and outs of getting the most bang for your practicing buck.

Click here to learn more and to register.

And it’s a good reminder to keep things simple. To maintain focus primarily on what sounds best, not what’s most complicated or technically advanced.

Clawhammer banjoists in particular seldom venture much past the 5th fret. And while, for the reasons mentioned, there’s good reason to keep this as home base, I also think it’s worth moving out of that comfort zone from time to time.

I think part of the reluctance to explore the up the neck regions of the fretboard comes from a misconception that playing the banjo there is HARDER. But it’s only harder because it’s less familiar.

The space between the first 5 frets feels easier because it’s what you’re used to. It’s easier because you’ve already learned it.

All this to preface the fact that in my second run through this week’s tune, the minstrel-era spawned folk classic “Golden Slippers,” I stay well above the 5th fret for both the A and B parts of the melody.

G tunes, and standard G (gDGBD) tuning, are particularly well suited for these up the neck adventures, as it’s tailor made for playing out of chord positions (the only “hard” part about it then, is in learning where those positions are. Until you learn them, that is, and then it’s easy 🙂 ).

[RELATED: I cover a number of simple tricks for navigating all around the fretboard in any key in the Essentials of Music Theory for the Clawhammer Banjoist module inside the Breakthrough Banjo course.]

 

Golden Slippers

gDGBD tuning, Brainjo level 3 (4 if you venture “up the neck”)

 

golden slippers clawhammer banjo tab part 2

golden slippers clawhammer banjo tab part 2

golden slippers clawhammer banjo tab part 2

Notes on the Tab

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes. To learn more about these, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

[RELATED: Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

 

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

 

9 Reasons Why The Banjo Is The Best

by Josh Turknett

Let me start by saying I love music in all forms. And I love all music making devices.

But I also have a special affinity for the banjo. In popular culture, however, misconceptions and mis-characterizations of our beloved 5-string abound.

So, in the interest of Banjo Public Relations, I thought it might be time to make the case for why I love the banjo, and why it is clearly the world’s greatest instrument.

 

Reason #1: THE SOUND

Any discussion of the 5 string banjo must begin with the sound.

Because there is nothing else like it.

And yet, while the joyful twang of a modern steel strung fingerpicked banjo is probably the first sound that comes to mind for most, the banjo is capable of so much more.

The ability to vary head tension, hand position, string type, head materials, bridge, tailpiece, playing techniques, nail length, neck woods, rim construction, and so on leads to a mind boggling number of potential sounds a banjo can make – even out of a single banjo. From sprightly and humorous to dark and melancholy, and everything in between.

(RELATED: Learn how to play the banjo clawhammer or fingerstyle with the Brainjo Method, the only system of instruction designed specifically for the adult brain. Click here for the Breakthrough Banjo course for clawhammer, or here to learn more about the Breakthrough Banjo course for fingerstyle.)

 

Reason #2: IT IS UNCONVENTIONAL

“When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”

– Mark Twain

Following the herd is tempting. It’s a survival instinct that, in our hunting and gathering days on the savannah, served us well.

In today’s world, where the consequences of zigging where others zag is almost never life threatening, the default strategy to do what everyone else is doing doesn’t always lead us where we want to go.

Almost without exception, the best decisions of my own life have been the unconventional ones – those times when I resisted the herd’s gravitational pull and set off in another direction.

And making one unconventional decision, like picking up the banjo over something more ordinary, helps to grease the wheels for more unconventional decisions to come. Until you’re crafting a life that may not fit the cookie cutter mold, but that fits you perfectly.

What this also means is that banjo players become banjo players just because they like the banjo.

Not because it’s what everyone else was doing (the guitar). Not because it’s what their parents wanted them to play (piano, violin). And certainly not to impress the ladies (the guitar again).

Plain, simple, and true.

 

Reason #3: IT DOESN’T CARE MUCH FOR ATTENTION.

There was the time – the “minstrel era” to be precise – when the banjo was all the rage. A time when the banjo player was the equivalent of the modern day electric-guitar-smashing rock star.

Times have changed.

In these times, the banjo is no longer in the spotlight. Its role is usually supportive, and we banjo players don’t mind that arrangement one bit.

It may be called on for the occasional solo, but that’s the exception that proves the rule. In most bands nowadays, the banjo’s main objective is to serve, to help everyone and everything sound a little bit better.

A banjo player can’t just mindlessly shred licks with the expectation her bandmates will keep up. No, to do his job well, a banjo player must focus on others just as much as he focuses on himself.

Even in the classic fiddle and banjo pairing the relationship is egalitarian. The object of the game is synergy, not a thinly veiled competition of one-upmanship.

 

Reason #4: YOU CAN TINKER WITH IT.

Tool making is hard wired into every human. We’re all born tinkerers.

We like to take stuff apart, mess around with it, figure out how it works, change things up and see what happens.

It’s how we learn about our world, and it’s how we ever came up with awesome ideas like a banjo in the first place.

Unlike most of its fragile cousins in the stringed instrument family, where doing anything more than a string change requires a certified professional, the banjo rewards the tinkering spirit. It’s infinitely customizable, resilient, and hard to screw up beyond repair.

Which also means that, as the tinkering continues, as people continue dreaming up novel modifications, the palette of potential sounds you can make on it will only continue to expand.

Reason #5: THERE’S NO FAME OR FORTUNE TO COME FROM IT.

First of all, playing music for a living is not the path to riches.

But for those who still decide to pursue a life of music for fame and fortune, or for attention from the opposite gender, the banjo is an ill-advised choice.

Which means that banjo players are pure of heart.

With no money to be made, no public adoration to be won, no girls to be wooed, all that’s left is just a desire to make good banjo sounds.

 

Reason #6: IT COMES FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS.

The banjo’s ancestors grew up in Africa.

Early forms consisted of a hollowed out gourd with animal skin stretched atop the strings, strung with animal gut, attached to a chunk of wood.

It’s been modified and transformed in many ways since, a tradition that continues to this day.

And there are essentially no rules about how to play it. Sure, some techniques work better than others, and have been passed along.

But there’s seemingly no end to the number of ways you can make great music on a banjo. And figuring out your own way of doing it is PART of the tradition.

Contrast this with an instrument like the violin, where the form of the instrument is precisely defined, and where the dominant pedagogy – arising from the dogmatic world of classical music, where uniformity is necessary to the style – says there’s one way of doing things.

Not surprisingly, this humble instrument tends to attract humble people.

Reason #7: IT IS MISUNDERSTOOD (like we all are)

“Frankly, there isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you’ve heard their story.”

– Fred Rogers (aka “Mister Rogers”)

There are more things misunderstood about the banjo than there are jokes about dentitionally challenged banjo players.

The banjo has deep roots in America. Especially in the South, where the history of the region and the banjo are intertwixed and intertwined. Over that long history, the banjo has come to mean different things to different people.

In popular culture, the banjo has been typecast. Most often, it’s used in the service of cheap jokes about ignorance and intolerance.

But that says more about us than it does about the banjo. After all, the banjo is just a thing. Whatever thoughts, emotions, and stories we map onto it exist in our imaginations. It’d be unfair to hold the banjo accountable for all that.

What’s more, those willing to take the time to dig deeper and truly understand the full story of the banjo are rewarded with one that’s far more interesting than the caricature presented in pop culture, and nearly its polar opposite.

Taking the time to get to know someone or something may seem anachronistic in our attentionally challenged culture of sound bytes, snapchats, and 160 character tweets, but it’s always worth the effort.

 

Reason #8: IT’S A COMPLETE MUSICAL SYSTEM

Melody and rhythm.

Like corned beef and cabbage, you can’t have one without the other. They’re the twin pillars of music.

Play the mandolin without a rhythm section and the absence is stark. Or play the drums without an instrument adding melody and the ears soon tire.

But listen to clawhammer banjo or old-time fingerpicking, and it’s all there. Melody and rhythm all wrapped into one captivating, gorgeous symbiotic unit. It’s a complete musical system.

It is a drum attached to a fretboard after all.

 

Reason #9:  IT CONNECTS YOU TO A [VERY] LONG TRADITION.

Within America alone, the banjo has been a central member of many musical traditions, most of which predate the era of commercial music.

And while we don’t know when the first African tied strings across a skin-covered gourd, it’s likely that the traditions that included the banjo’s ancestors extend many centuries beyond that.

Needless to say, the banjo tradition spans continents and cultures. And almost universally, the banjo was played in celebratory rituals of song and dance. Back in times when we all made music, and didn’t divide ourselves into the performers and the audience, or the professionals and the amateurs.

For centuries, perhaps millennia, the banjo tradition has been handed down generation to generation, changing shape and sound along the way.

Playing the banjo connects you to all of that. You become one more link in a very long chain, a humbling reminder that you’re yet another traveler on this blue speck, with countless travelers who’ve come before, and many more still to come.

Sometimes it’s just nice to feel small.

To learn more about the Breakthrough Banjo courses for clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo, click the relevant link below:

— Breakthrough Banjo for CLAWHAMMER Banjo —

— Breakthrough Banjo for FINGERSTYLE Banjo —


— The Laws of Brainjo Table of Contents —

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

brainjo 1

 

Game of Thrones – solo version

Ask and ye shall receive!

For the last Tune of the Week I presented a video of the duet version of the theme to Game of Thrones on gourd and modern banjo.

Several of you said you would like a recorded rendition of the song on solo banjo, so here it is. Just click on the sound file below to give it a listen (tab also reposted below):

Game of Thrones (solo banjo version)

gCGCD tuning, Brainjo level 3-4

game of thrones clawhammer banjo tab part 1

game of thrones clawhammer banjo tab part 2

game of thrones clawhammer banjo tab part 3

Notes on the Tab

Notes in parentheses are “skip” notes. To learn more about these, check out my video lesson on the subject.

For more on reading tabs in general, check out this complete guide to reading banjo tabs.

[RELATED: Level 2 arrangements and video demos for the Tune (and Song!) of the Week tunes are now available as part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. Learn more about it here.]

Click here for a current list of all the clawhammer songs and tunes currently available inside of The Vault

Learn More About Breakthrough Banjo

 

About the Author
Josh Turknett is founder and lead brain hacker at Brainjo Productions
 

View the Brainjo Course Catalog

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • …
  • 71
  • Next Page »

Copyright 2024 - Brainjo LLC, Owner of clawhammerbanjo.net   Privacy Policy - Terms of Purchase - Terms & Conditions