I recorded some banjo practice the other night. Here’s me trying to play Cumberland Gap. I recorded it with an inexpensive point and shoot digital camera with not quite enough light, so there are limitations (besides the obvious ones involving my playing)
Unlike Bluegrass banjo, which is played with metal thumb and finger picks, Old Time clawhammer banjo is most often played without picks. I say most often because there are players, and good players too who do use specialized clawhammer picks, sometimes of their own devising… Read More
A little progress on the salad bowl banjo… I think the neck is still a little clunkier than I’d like so over Christmas I’m going to take it down a bit. I may shorten the end piece some as well. Still to do – drill… Read More
I came across this version of Forked Deer (that’s pronounced fork-kid) tonight surfing around on YouTube. I really like the relaxed pace on this one – a lot of versions of this tune seem to be played at lightning speed. The fiddler here is Joe… Read More
Regular readers of this blog know I attended the Midwest Banjo Camp back in June. I noticed they posted a few videos last week from this year’s camp concerts. There were two faculty concerts, once on the Friday and the other on the Saturday evening.… Read More
The piano may do for love-sick girls who lace themselves to skeletons, and lunch on chalk, pickles and slate pencils. But give me the banjo. Gottschalk compared to Sam Pride or Charley Rhoades, is as a Dashaway cocktail to a hot whisky punch. When you… Read More
Making good progress on the salad bowl banjo. The neck is roughly shaped out. I still have some finer shaping to do, then sanding. Once that is done, I can drill the peg holes, and measure and cut the bowl to enable the neck to… Read More
I glued the fingerboard to the neck blank for the salad bowl banjo this morning, and later glued the heel/dowel stick section to the neck. I hope to find a few hours tomorrow to get going on shaping the neck. I had planned to overlay… Read More
I’ve rough-cut the wood I’ll be using for the banjo neck. Next step is to laminate the pieces and then start the shaping. For the second photo I’ve laid out the pieces pre-shaping but you can imagine from the layout how the banjo will look… Read More
27th Street 