I like to hear these wise words ... I come from Slovakia, and Slovak mountaineering music in the places where I live has a surprisingly much in common with American mountaineering music. So I happily play the banjo with Slovak folk music ...
@@Akael01 no problem, even though I'm learning to play the banjo for about 10 months (covid challenge), I can send you 2 recordings of Slovak folk songs in my submission ... give me an address or FB and I'll deliver ....
Josh, great discussion. I just started taking up Banjo just before Covid hit (which ended up driving me to find you) and the instructor I started with said two things that ring with me. 1) When you are making music, you are never wasting your time and 2) You should be able to play whatever you want on the Banjo. The second statement is very similar to what Butch Ross told me at music festival and falls right in line with your discussion here. So thank you for this discussion, as I agree that the instrument is a tool to express ourselves and have fun and should not limit us to a specific genre of music just because it "has always been that way." Cheers!
I always looked at music as alternately taking form as an art versus a science. Those who play music strictly from the sheet music approach it as a science. When you play with your heart and soul, it is an art. I used to think that the only way to play a song was the same way "they" played it on the record album. ...until I heard the same performer play the song differently in various recordings. And especially today where - thanks to the Internet - so many various artists play the same song so differently.
Thanks Josh, I am almost finished your insightful book and have been watching your videos for a few years. I even quoted you in my book about grief and loss “ We are never to old to learn an instrument (banjo)” I thank you for affirming my own belief ... I love playing everything from U2 to the Carter Family to my own singer songwriting. You are a gift to the community that keeps giving exponentially! BTW Im from the east coast of Canada - in my five years of playing I have only heard very few clawhammer players!
Josh, this is awesome! You hit it out of the park as usual! I am applying your teaching to playing on our church worship team! What I see in that is that I need 4-5 “styles” with and without picks to blend, sometimes on the same song! Thanks. Very helpful! R
When I first started out, about 20 odd years ago, I went to Banjo Camp North to learn the basics. I had never even heard a banjo played live, so I was a total novice. Since I didn't know what kind of music I wanted to pursue, I sat in on all kinds of sessions, old time sessions, classic sessions, blues sessions, and bluegrass sessions. I looked at all of it. I took my new Goodtime openback banjo to all of them, including the bluegrass session,..... and the very first comment I heard was "You have the wrong kind of banjo". That session went downhill from there. LOL Now that I am older and wiser, I don't listen to that junk anymore. Nice presentation of the facts about originality in banjo playing.
I play clawhamer banjo and I will admit that I do enjoy playing old-time music with that style but I think you can play it any way. Love the chanel thanks .
Thanks enjoyable video. From the title I did not know the arc of the content, it was a pleasant surprise. I am enjoying the many songs you have recorded and have started with you basic lessons
Man, you're so right, esp. about the regional origin part! As a Greek national, and possibly one of an extremely exclusive circle of banjo players in my country, have always felt like something less than a 'true' banjoist, precisely because I don't come from or live in the US, let alone the 'Blue' State (I play Bluegrass). What you said in that respect made me feel very welcome and a part of the international banjo community :-) The more videos of yours I watch, the more I'm loving your channel! Keep it up :-)
That’s really great to hear this made you feel more welcome and less like an outsider. It was folks like you I had in mind when creating this video. You’re just as vital a part of the banjo community as anyone else!
Nice first 'bite,' Josh. I was asked once who my favorite 'old-time' musician was. I replied, "Why, Ralph Blizard of the New Southern Ramblers." A Kentucky fiddler, Ralph (now deceased) had grown up listening to the old radio barn dances in the 20's and 30's, teaching himself how to play mostly. His style was definitely influenced by the 'Texas swing' he heard on the radio super stations of that era. Eventually, he played on the radio himself. He gave up fiddling for a long time, for religious reasons, I believe. He took up the fiddle again, later in life, playing and recording with the Ramblers till his death. Despite this, my questioner replied, "But he isn't really old-time, is he?" Sheesh! (A good modern example of a banjoist unfettered in his approach and material is Marc Nurenberg.)
I love the banjo and it's my main instrument, although I have four types of setups: Deering Goodtime, a Gold Tone with a skin head and nylon strings, a 1960something Vega Long neck, and most recently a fretless gourd "minstrel" banjo. They each offer me their unique spirit. When I talked with a banjo maker, he said, "we are all chasing a sound." And I've come to realize each and every song and tune I play is unique to me at that time and in that place, be it originally written by someone else... it becomes mine. Thanks for your thoughts-- I enjoy checking in with your RUclips videos from time to time.
Thank you for addressing this topic. I would not even use the word authentic for describing a traditional technique. I would save that word “authentic” for the transformation of a multitude of techniques into a unique way or voice that is particular to an individual. For example I learned clawhammer technique from John Grimm (Dahlonega, GA) many years ago and I unconsciously have modified my style over the years to include Ukulele and guitar style strumming patterns within the clawhammering. It just feels more authentic to include one’s self in the playing. Your message helps people not get caught up in someone else’s expectations, which ultimately would prevent them from making their banjo voice be their own. Thank you!
Well stated. I've introduced a bunch of people who were unaware of the 2 finger drop thumb and clawhammer styles. Some were familiar with Grandpaw Jones frailing, but had no idea of the melodic tones that could be played. I think that's the unfortunate consequence of what I call Scruggs Style, or 3 finger Bluegrass. How that got called Bluegrass style is rather perplexing, especially spending 5 years in Asheville NC. Seems to me Bluegrass (or traditional music) was all 2 finger or clawhammer until finger picks became widely available. Some would argue they are just extensions of fingernails, but we know working men (or women) can't keep long nails and that traditional bluegrass was played by the working man. As far as "the right way", it has always irked me. The beauty of being a musician is the ability to form one's own interpretation by necessity (beginner), convenience (intermediate) or artistic venture (professional).
I am Italian, but in practice I can only say that I was born and raised with such music, that is "American (Appalachian) traditional country/folk music" (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Bill Monroe etc.)... It has always been the music I lived with, researched and felt mine... and I am more familiar with it than Italian folk music (which I am just learning only now with the advent of Internet)... I like this as well, but I would say I cannot move away from my musical "roots"...
Music gatekeeping really does effect all instruments and genres. Why hobble an art form? Let it breath grow and evolve! I'm at the beginning of my journey with the banjo, I live in the mountains of West Virginia, and want to learn clawhammer to play old time, but it's just a jumping off point! Ultimately I want to learn how to improvise and write folk songs 😊
This topic reminds me of the "Give yourself permission" concept I was told about by a wise man. Basically means someone (maybe yourself) , somewhere told you that you could not be defined as a... Could never do... To help overcome this condition you can simply give yourself permission and begin.
Reminds me of the true believer kerfluffle of the 1960s regarding gen-u-wine folk music vs. Kingston Trio, etc etc. Very tedious and self-righteous discussions ensued. Nowadays the only true demand of a clawhammer player is that he or she must wear a somewhat battered fedora. IT'S THE LAW!
Couldn’t agree more, sir! I play my own arrangements of delta and piedmont blues on my Irish tenor banjo - and a bit on a five-string open-back (with the fifth removed), as well as some mandolin and lap-style slide. To make matters worse, I’m a middle class Canadian. I have no right to be doing any of this weirdness! :)
Very nice topic! And very concise approach. I only think that one important addition could have enhanced it: the banjo is one of the most recent instruments we got (especially in the Bluegrass family of instruments). And somehow it's associated by some with an "old fashion" or "lost in time". However, while the guitar already existed in the Middle Ages, the violin in the early Modern period and the piano for at least 300 years, the banjo as we know it only came to be in the late 1800s. Before that time it was very different from the beast that haunts porches and neighbors nowadays. Otherwise, "traditional banjo" would be what? 3 strings? I'm sure some would be pleased to say "I only play a banjo with 2 strings on a stick attached to a gourd; *that's* a true banjo!".
the only thing i think that isnt authentic is when people say "yea i play banjo" and they pull out a 6 string and strum it like a guitar. im just like 🙄, um no you play a guitar that looks like a banjo dude.
Does the banjo community tend to be more hung up on "authenticity" than the ukulele community? I ask because it's hard for me to imagine the need for a video like this in the uke world. Nobody ever seems to complain about "un-Hawaiian" phoniness because James Hill is from Canada, or because Jake Shimabukuro plays the Beatles. Is the banjo world different that way?
What a breath of fresh air this is Josh! Play that thing however you like, been saying it for years. God bless you. -Mandy
I'm learning how to play banjo and i'm from Argentina!! Your videos are really helping me, thank you for sharing
Excellent! I was hoping someone from Argentina would respond! :)
How encouraging for an amateur who loves my new friend the banjo so much. So needed to hear that said. It’s liberating!
I like to hear these wise words ... I come from Slovakia, and Slovak mountaineering music in the places where I live has a surprisingly much in common with American mountaineering music. So I happily play the banjo with Slovak folk music ...
That’s great, Jaroslov. We need many more people like you in the banjo world!
I would love to hear some of this
@@Akael01 no problem, even though I'm learning to play the banjo for about 10 months (covid challenge), I can send you 2 recordings of Slovak folk songs in my submission ... give me an address or FB and I'll deliver ....
Josh, great discussion. I just started taking up Banjo just before Covid hit (which ended up driving me to find you) and the instructor I started with said two things that ring with me. 1) When you are making music, you are never wasting your time and 2) You should be able to play whatever you want on the Banjo. The second statement is very similar to what Butch Ross told me at music festival and falls right in line with your discussion here. So thank you for this discussion, as I agree that the instrument is a tool to express ourselves and have fun and should not limit us to a specific genre of music just because it "has always been that way." Cheers!
You have the amazing capacity of making me fall in love for an instrument I already love. Thank you!
I always looked at music as alternately taking form as an art versus a science. Those who play music strictly from the sheet music approach it as a science. When you play with your heart and soul, it is an art. I used to think that the only way to play a song was the same way "they" played it on the record album. ...until I heard the same performer play the song differently in various recordings. And especially today where - thanks to the Internet - so many various artists play the same song so differently.
I'm. always fascinated when someone mentions rugby and banjo in the same sentence!
This subject has been on my mind a lot lately. Your video was very thoughtful, good job!
Great pep talk for a total beginner thank you
Thanks Josh, I am almost finished your insightful book and have been watching your videos for a few years. I even quoted you in my book about grief and loss “ We are never to old to learn an instrument (banjo)”
I thank you for affirming my own belief ... I love playing everything from U2 to the Carter Family to my own singer songwriting. You are a gift to the community that keeps giving exponentially! BTW Im from the east coast of Canada - in my five years of playing I have only heard very few clawhammer players!
What a great video and a strong argument to relax rules around playing this versatile instrument.
Right on! To each his or her own! Let banjo grow and develop!
Amen!
Your performance of Elkhorn Ridge should be taught in every banjo class around the world. Its a masterful performance and recording.
Thanks so much, Dan. Of course I had an unfair advantage playing such a great song with such a great banjo. :)
Josh, this is awesome! You hit it out of the park as usual! I am applying your teaching to playing on our church worship team! What I see in that is that I need 4-5 “styles” with and without picks to blend, sometimes on the same song! Thanks. Very helpful! R
Thank you, Josh! Looking forward to more of these!
Thanks!!
Thanks for your encouraging words. Very helpful
You bet!
When I first started out, about 20 odd years ago, I went to Banjo Camp North to learn the basics. I had never even heard a banjo played live, so I was a total novice. Since I didn't know what kind of music I wanted to pursue, I sat in on all kinds of sessions, old time sessions, classic sessions, blues sessions, and bluegrass sessions. I looked at all of it.
I took my new Goodtime openback banjo to all of them, including the bluegrass session,..... and the very first comment I heard was "You have the wrong kind of banjo".
That session went downhill from there. LOL
Now that I am older and wiser, I don't listen to that junk anymore.
Nice presentation of the facts about originality in banjo playing.
Creativity, invention, and not taking yourself too seriously are good places to start. Do you!
I play clawhamer banjo and I will admit that I do enjoy playing old-time music with that style but I think you can play it any way. Love the chanel thanks .
Thanks enjoyable video. From the title I did not know the arc of the content, it was a pleasant surprise. I am enjoying the many songs you have recorded and have started with you basic lessons
That’s great to hear, Bill.
Well said, Josh. I don’t think my two finger style is going to be quite “correct “ but I like it.
Says who?!! :)
Man, you're so right, esp. about the regional origin part! As a Greek national, and possibly one of an extremely exclusive circle of banjo players in my country, have always felt like something less than a 'true' banjoist, precisely because I don't come from or live in the US, let alone the 'Blue' State (I play Bluegrass). What you said in that respect made me feel very welcome and a part of the international banjo community :-) The more videos of yours I watch, the more I'm loving your channel!
Keep it up :-)
That’s really great to hear this made you feel more welcome and less like an outsider. It was folks like you I had in mind when creating this video.
You’re just as vital a part of the banjo community as anyone else!
@@ClawhammerBanjo You can't imagine how much this made my day!! Positive vibes from Athens, Greece :-) Keep on pickin'!
Nice first 'bite,' Josh. I was asked once who my favorite 'old-time' musician was. I replied, "Why, Ralph Blizard of the New Southern Ramblers." A Kentucky fiddler, Ralph (now deceased) had grown up listening to the old radio barn dances in the 20's and 30's, teaching himself how to play mostly. His style was definitely influenced by the 'Texas swing' he heard on the radio super stations of that era. Eventually, he played on the radio himself. He gave up fiddling for a long time, for religious reasons, I believe. He took up the fiddle again, later in life, playing and recording with the Ramblers till his death. Despite this, my questioner replied, "But he isn't really old-time, is he?" Sheesh! (A good modern example of a banjoist unfettered in his approach and material is Marc Nurenberg.)
Yeah, the old time police can be awfully narrow minded. Glad you escaped incarceration!
Those at the top of their fields blur the line the most. I've noticed this in many other disciplines.
I liked the video. It reinforces my approach exactly, Thanx
Thanks!
I love the banjo and it's my main instrument, although I have four types of setups: Deering Goodtime, a Gold Tone with a skin head and nylon strings, a 1960something Vega Long neck, and most recently a fretless gourd "minstrel" banjo. They each offer me their unique spirit. When I talked with a banjo maker, he said, "we are all chasing a sound." And I've come to realize each and every song and tune I play is unique to me at that time and in that place, be it originally written by someone else... it becomes mine. Thanks for your thoughts-- I enjoy checking in with your RUclips videos from time to time.
Thank you for addressing this topic. I would not even use the word authentic for describing a traditional technique. I would save that word “authentic” for the transformation of a multitude of techniques into a unique way or voice that is particular to an individual. For example I learned clawhammer technique from John Grimm (Dahlonega, GA) many years ago and I unconsciously have modified my style over the years to include Ukulele and guitar style strumming patterns within the clawhammering. It just feels more authentic to include one’s self in the playing. Your message helps people not get caught up in someone else’s expectations, which ultimately would prevent them from making their banjo voice be their own. Thank you!
Great video with an inspiring message. I’ve run into this closed mindedness in the past.
Nicely said.
thanks!
Well stated. I've introduced a bunch of people who were unaware of the 2 finger drop thumb and clawhammer styles. Some were familiar with Grandpaw Jones frailing, but had no idea of the melodic tones that could be played. I think that's the unfortunate consequence of what I call Scruggs Style, or 3 finger Bluegrass. How that got called Bluegrass style is rather perplexing, especially spending 5 years in Asheville NC. Seems to me Bluegrass (or traditional music) was all 2 finger or clawhammer until finger picks became widely available. Some would argue they are just extensions of fingernails, but we know working men (or women) can't keep long nails and that traditional bluegrass was played by the working man.
As far as "the right way", it has always irked me. The beauty of being a musician is the ability to form one's own interpretation by necessity (beginner), convenience (intermediate) or artistic venture (professional).
I am Italian, but in practice I can only say that I was born and raised with such music, that is "American (Appalachian) traditional country/folk music" (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Bill Monroe etc.)... It has always been the music I lived with, researched and felt mine... and I am more familiar with it than Italian folk music (which I am just learning only now with the advent of Internet)... I like this as well, but I would say I cannot move away from my musical "roots"...
Music gatekeeping really does effect all instruments and genres. Why hobble an art form? Let it breath grow and evolve!
I'm at the beginning of my journey with the banjo, I live in the mountains of West Virginia, and want to learn clawhammer to play old time, but it's just a jumping off point! Ultimately I want to learn how to improvise and write folk songs 😊
Cheers Josh very articulate.
Love It! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
My pleasure, Mike!
This should be a required subject in every high school across the planet.
Very well said!
Thanks, John!
Love this common sense
I like what you are saying.
Excellent!
This topic reminds me of the "Give yourself permission" concept I was told about by a wise man. Basically means someone (maybe yourself) , somewhere told you that you could not be defined as a... Could never do... To help overcome this condition you can simply give yourself permission and begin.
If I thought that the banjo had to be played a certain way I would never had taken it up. The guitar would serve me better. Brian from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Awesome video. 👍
Reminds me of the true believer kerfluffle of the 1960s regarding gen-u-wine folk music vs. Kingston Trio, etc etc. Very tedious and self-righteous discussions ensued. Nowadays the only true demand of a clawhammer player is that he or she must wear a somewhat battered fedora. IT'S THE LAW!
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You can log in and manage your account directly at brainjo.academy
I could not agree with you more!
Wow......fantastic thanks Josh.....looking forward to the next one already......
P.s. how did you discover “Rugby” ? 😆😆
Television.
Lol i played for decades - you discover rugby with bruises and beers
Another rugby playing banjo player here! This is a great video. To innovate is to play “correctly.”
Ironically Van Gogh was first trained in a formal mold, here he learnt his skills, before exploring his art and becoming a legend.
Couldn’t agree more, sir! I play my own arrangements of delta and piedmont blues on my Irish tenor banjo - and a bit on a five-string open-back (with the fifth removed), as well as some mandolin and lap-style slide. To make matters worse, I’m a middle class Canadian. I have no right to be doing any of this weirdness! :)
How is it possible that nobody has seized your banjo yet?!
Very nice topic! And very concise approach. I only think that one important addition could have enhanced it: the banjo is one of the most recent instruments we got (especially in the Bluegrass family of instruments).
And somehow it's associated by some with an "old fashion" or "lost in time". However, while the guitar already existed in the Middle Ages, the violin in the early Modern period and the piano for at least 300 years, the banjo as we know it only came to be in the late 1800s. Before that time it was very different from the beast that haunts porches and neighbors nowadays. Otherwise, "traditional banjo" would be what? 3 strings? I'm sure some would be pleased to say "I only play a banjo with 2 strings on a stick attached to a gourd; *that's* a true banjo!".
Thanks! And yes, there are a great many ways to highlight the absurdity of the idea that there’s one correct, or traditional, way of doing things...
My mental picture of the 'true banjo' has me in fits of laughter. thanks for that
👍🏻
♥️
("Branjo" --> "Brainjo")
Check is in the mail.
the only thing i think that isnt authentic is when people say "yea i play banjo" and they pull out a 6 string and strum it like a guitar. im just like 🙄, um no you play a guitar that looks like a banjo dude.
Does the banjo community tend to be more hung up on "authenticity" than the ukulele community? I ask because it's hard for me to imagine the need for a video like this in the uke world. Nobody ever seems to complain about "un-Hawaiian" phoniness because James Hill is from Canada, or because Jake Shimabukuro plays the Beatles. Is the banjo world different that way?