I have so much respect for the man who writes the song ( non disrespectful ) about the animal that he killed to make his banjo head... It's kind of like paying it forward or saying you know you didn't die for nothing you died for my music hahahaha ahhhhhh.....nice
Wow Clifton, Golly. Haha, sorry a little blown away here, thank you so much for making this, everything kind of makes sense now, you answered everything and more, thank you. I'll get to trying it out as soon as possible. Thank you again, that's very nice of you!
This is a very valuable post. Also has one of the funniest lines for banjo player, “Your string won’t break. If it does it needed replacing anyway.” That should be a T-shirt. I do this tuning up and down a “step” or fourths or fifths. Like people, some banjos ‘’sing’ better in different keys. But what about playing with other folks? Gotta retune anyway?
I find that most of the better guitarists I know (folks like Matt Kinman, Dave Wood, Jerron Paxton, Eli Smith, Walker Shepard etc.) can play along with me no matter how I tune. Violin players are more troublesome! It seems _many_ have a very regulated approach to the music and will only tune a few ways and ALL too high for me to sing or play along with. Banjoists should _not_ be required (or even expected) to brutalize their instrument with capos, railroad spikes and absurdly high string tensions...
@@CliftonHicksbanjo I saw a bunch of old men and women playing in a circle in a kind of round robin, front porch style on a Thursday evening the last time I was in Berea, Kentucky. There were about twenty or so of them, they had one fiddle player and it was the first time I'd ever seen that kind of musical performance, but I realized immediately what a pain in the ass it must be to play with any kind of violinist. Such a loud, opinionated and fragile little instrument demanding a similar frame of mind from the player, in a lot of cases
I love the sound of your low-tuned banjos on your videos. Is there a loss in volume or tone “in person” when you tune down, just because there’s less pressure pushing the bridge down onto the head? Do you need to have an adjustable tailpiece to increase the break angle to compensate for the lower string tension? Or use heavier strings?
I have a long neck banjo, which is great for me cos I can't sing high and on ther guitar I often have to take G songs down to Eb with capo C on 3. So the long neck in E is great for me.
Love this stuff. So informative and really fun to just sit and listen to. Anybody have a problem having their strings get a little floppy when tuning down, as far as playability goes)? Maybe that's not even a problem. The low stuff seems to sound great!
The strings do get more pliable--I personally prefer the feel of looser strings down in F and E as opposed to G or (God forbid) in A which I find much less comfortable.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo ok. So all by ear. Thought there was a process, where strings matched fretted strings and worked their way down from that. Thanks for the reply.... And we'll be in touch about your Irish visit 🙂
Hi there. Really dig the channel man. Bought “From the Hills...” a few weeks ago and have been playing it on loop, great tunes, especially Little Bird. Got myself into banjo in January after playing guitar for 25 years. Now I’m fully immersed in old time music and clawhammer. I play a Goodtime but look forward to graduating up. Question: If you could snap your fingers and have any banjo, what would you get and why?
Hey Lindsay. I played guitar on and off for years. Last couple years fingerstyle mostly and spent some time playing open D stuff. When I picked up a banjo I found it to be easier than I thought. Only 4 strings and mostly open chord type tunings. I've got a Goodtime Americana that has been great. Got a Pisgah dobson Rambler coming in a couple weeks. Can't wait. I may never go back to guitar. Banjo is just more fun.
I think if you move from a G to a G which is a whole octave, you could break a string moving up or go limp noodle moving down. some confusion there between a step and an octave. A step should not be a problem.
I tune my banjo to e B E G# b, because i find it easier to sing with, though my voice is actually in the range of the low strings of a guitar. I sing an octave lower than i play.
Cackling hen tuning sounds very cool, and rustic. How to go about finding chords in these tunings without looking them up? Just play notes or find the root notes ?
Thanks so much for this video. I love the tone of these notes as that is about as low as I enjoy singing also and when I play the gDGBD I always find I am running out of lower notes.... You say you use this for your double C tuning. Does that mean that the cord shapes and positions stay the same or does this carry with it the need to learn new positions and cords?
@@CliftonHicksbanjo Thanks a ton for the reply. I can totally hear as I use the cord shapes that they are right. Is there a trick to how you tune down lower as far as making sure you go X steps at a time? I know when I was in open G tuning I would try going down a full step or 2 full steps on each string and it just felt wrong when I would play certain songs. I am probably just confusing myself in my practice by moving tunings too often but while I find open g great for keeping me planted on one area of the fretboard I am always always always running out of string on the low end. The double C and your version here I really like having access to lower notes but I am moving a lot more up and down the neck to make everything happen. Just a side question as I don't remember seeing any video of yours covering it... Do you know how to read music and transcribe from higher or lower and if that changes the key of a song? I have no idea when looking at music how to pick a spot that works better range wise for myself and then make it work in that minus total trial and error. At times I get halfway through a song and hit one note and realize there is no way for me to make it work then needing to go back and restart at another note to try and make it happen.
Hey Clifton, man I l absolutely love these videos. They've really helped me go farther with banjo. I'm encountering a pretty frustrating problem though, I'm trying to sing with my playing. My voice is deep, but to get to the right key, I either have to capo my banjo up to around B or C, or tune down to B or C. Both sound pretty bad, and capoing limits my playing and really puts stress on my 5th string. Do you have any ideas on how to go about solving this? I'd really appreciate anything you might know.
You have a DEEP voice! Try some HEAVY strings, like the heaviest you can find. A longneck Pete Seeger banjo with heavy gauge strings might be the ticket for you.
Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely look into the strings, but as for a new banjo, I don't have the money to spare for that right now haha. I've been playing songs tuned down a few steps in tunings other than standard, like double C and G modal, relatively tuned, and that's seemed to help quite a but. But for songs in G I'll try heavy gauge strings. Thank you so much!
We sing in the key of C mostly. Should I keep my banjo in open G or should I tune it to open C? I just got a vintage ornate Frames Contessa made in West Germany. So I'm still learning my rolls.
I like your idea about tuning the low string to the lowest pitch you can sing, except the lowest I can comfortably sing is much lower than the banjo can play well(I'm a bass/low baritone). Do you have any suggestions for that situation?
Yes. For some songs I need to drop down to E in order to sing it properly. If you pull up the two-finger video I did of Hills Of Mexico, that one is dropped to E.
Hands down my favorite RUclips banjo teacher👍🏼I’ve watched many others, but you’re my go-to. Thanks much brother!
instaBlaster...
I agree. Clifton doesn’t talk about a lot of stuff before he gets right to it. Also I love the riff in that intro.
I have so much respect for the man who writes the song ( non disrespectful ) about the animal that he killed to make his banjo head... It's kind of like paying it forward or saying you know you didn't die for nothing you died for my music hahahaha ahhhhhh.....nice
Man. I’ve been playing banjo (poorly) for a decade now. This really expanded my horizons. Thank you.
love love love this man
Wow Clifton, Golly. Haha, sorry a little blown away here, thank you so much for making this, everything kind of makes sense now, you answered everything and more, thank you. I'll get to trying it out as soon as possible.
Thank you again, that's very nice of you!
This is a very valuable post. Also has one of the funniest lines for banjo player, “Your string won’t break. If it does it needed replacing anyway.” That should be a T-shirt.
I do this tuning up and down a “step” or fourths or fifths. Like people, some banjos ‘’sing’ better in different keys. But what about playing with other folks? Gotta retune anyway?
I find that most of the better guitarists I know (folks like Matt Kinman, Dave Wood, Jerron Paxton, Eli Smith, Walker Shepard etc.) can play along with me no matter how I tune. Violin players are more troublesome! It seems _many_ have a very regulated approach to the music and will only tune a few ways and ALL too high for me to sing or play along with. Banjoists should _not_ be required (or even expected) to brutalize their instrument with capos, railroad spikes and absurdly high string tensions...
@@CliftonHicksbanjo I saw a bunch of old men and women playing in a circle in a kind of round robin, front porch style on a Thursday evening the last time I was in Berea, Kentucky. There were about twenty or so of them, they had one fiddle player and it was the first time I'd ever seen that kind of musical performance, but I realized immediately what a pain in the ass it must be to play with any kind of violinist. Such a loud, opinionated and fragile little instrument demanding a similar frame of mind from the player, in a lot of cases
Gets my foot stomping every time.👍🏻😆
I have been picking for five years now
Very informative video. I've been trying to figure this out for 2 days.
Thats a huge muskrat!
Awesomeness
I love the sound of your low-tuned banjos on your videos. Is there a loss in volume or tone “in person” when you tune down, just because there’s less pressure pushing the bridge down onto the head? Do you need to have an adjustable tailpiece to increase the break angle to compensate for the lower string tension? Or use heavier strings?
Or you can spring for a Vega (Deering) long neck and take off your capo. Instantly you’ve dropped down from (for example) G to E.
I have a long neck banjo, which is great for me cos I can't sing high and on ther guitar I often have to take G songs down to Eb with capo C on 3. So the long neck in E is great for me.
Get it brother love the stye
Great lesson ! Thanks ! keep up the GOOD work ! martin
Love this stuff. So informative and really fun to just sit and listen to.
Anybody have a problem having their strings get a little floppy when tuning down, as far as playability goes)?
Maybe that's not even a problem. The low stuff seems to sound great!
The strings do get more pliable--I personally prefer the feel of looser strings down in F and E as opposed to G or (God forbid) in A which I find much less comfortable.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo Thanks for the reply Clifton. I'm going to experiment a little more with tuning down a step! Probably suit my voice better too.
This was a nice little talk tha kyoun
Video begins, I hit the like button😃
So, how did the old timers tune down , when they didn't have tuners? New to this so excuse my ignorance.
They tuned to where the strings felt comfortable and/or to their singing voice, as I do.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo ok. So all by ear. Thought there was a process, where strings matched fretted strings and worked their way down from that. Thanks for the reply.... And we'll be in touch about your Irish visit 🙂
Hi there. Really dig the channel man. Bought “From the Hills...” a few weeks ago and have been playing it on loop, great tunes, especially Little Bird. Got myself into banjo in January after playing guitar for 25 years. Now I’m fully immersed in old time music and clawhammer. I play a Goodtime but look forward to graduating up. Question: If you could snap your fingers and have any banjo, what would you get and why?
Hey Lindsay. I played guitar on and off for years. Last couple years fingerstyle mostly and spent some time playing open D stuff.
When I picked up a banjo I found it to be easier than I thought. Only 4 strings and mostly open chord type tunings.
I've got a Goodtime Americana that has been great. Got a Pisgah dobson Rambler coming in a couple weeks. Can't wait.
I may never go back to guitar. Banjo is just more fun.
I think if you move from a G to a G which is a whole octave, you could break a string moving up or go limp noodle moving down. some confusion there between a step and an octave. A step should not be a problem.
I tune my banjo to e B E G# b, because i find it easier to sing with, though my voice is actually in the range of the low strings of a guitar. I sing an octave lower than i play.
Same here Michael!
Cackling hen tuning sounds very cool, and rustic. How to go about finding chords in these tunings without looking them up? Just play notes or find the root notes ?
Yes, just find what sounds good. Most tradotional banjoists use multiple open tunings and few cjord shapes.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo Thank you Clifton. I will try this tuning tomorrow. Love it.
Thanks so much for this video. I love the tone of these notes as that is about as low as I enjoy singing also and when I play the gDGBD I always find I am running out of lower notes....
You say you use this for your double C tuning. Does that mean that the cord shapes and positions stay the same or does this carry with it the need to learn new positions and cords?
Yes, the cord shapes are all the same!
@@CliftonHicksbanjo Thanks a ton for the reply. I can totally hear as I use the cord shapes that they are right.
Is there a trick to how you tune down lower as far as making sure you go X steps at a time? I know when I was in open G tuning I would try going down a full step or 2 full steps on each string and it just felt wrong when I would play certain songs.
I am probably just confusing myself in my practice by moving tunings too often but while I find open g great for keeping me planted on one area of the fretboard I am always always always running out of string on the low end. The double C and your version here I really like having access to lower notes but I am moving a lot more up and down the neck to make everything happen.
Just a side question as I don't remember seeing any video of yours covering it... Do you know how to read music and transcribe from higher or lower and if that changes the key of a song?
I have no idea when looking at music how to pick a spot that works better range wise for myself and then make it work in that minus total trial and error. At times I get halfway through a song and hit one note and realize there is no way for me to make it work then needing to go back and restart at another note to try and make it happen.
Hey Clifton, man I l absolutely love these videos. They've really helped me go farther with banjo. I'm encountering a pretty frustrating problem though, I'm trying to sing with my playing. My voice is deep, but to get to the right key, I either have to capo my banjo up to around B or C, or tune down to B or C. Both sound pretty bad, and capoing limits my playing and really puts stress on my 5th string. Do you have any ideas on how to go about solving this? I'd really appreciate anything you might know.
You have a DEEP voice! Try some HEAVY strings, like the heaviest you can find. A longneck Pete Seeger banjo with heavy gauge strings might be the ticket for you.
Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely look into the strings, but as for a new banjo, I don't have the money to spare for that right now haha. I've been playing songs tuned down a few steps in tunings other than standard, like double C and G modal, relatively tuned, and that's seemed to help quite a but. But for songs in G I'll try heavy gauge strings. Thank you so much!
We sing in the key of C mostly. Should I keep my banjo in open G or should I tune it to open C? I just got a vintage ornate Frames Contessa made in West Germany. So I'm still learning my rolls.
Do you ever move the bridge up or down to compensate,or is that a recommended practice,I know it can cause the strings to buzz,and affect tonality
I like your idea about tuning the low string to the lowest pitch you can sing, except the lowest I can comfortably sing is much lower than the banjo can play well(I'm a bass/low baritone). Do you have any suggestions for that situation?
You might look into long neck banjos or perhaps a "cello banjo." Will probably need to order individual heavy gauge strings from juststrings.com
I've met one or two other people with your type of voice and they play long necks. I know one guy who uses a wound 3rd string as well!
Thank you for the advice.
Thanks for the video. What string gauges do you use to tune down like that?
I only use medium gauge strings on my two banjos. The older 1888 Luscomb stays strung with nylon while the circa 1910 Weymann has metal.
Have you ever tuned your banjo lower Mr.Hicks Such as ebeg#b
Yes. For some songs I need to drop down to E in order to sing it properly. If you pull up the two-finger video I did of Hills Of Mexico, that one is dropped to E.
what tuner do you use in this video?
I think that's a KORG. More accurate than the little clippy ones.