f#DGAD (relative) AKA "Dock Boggs" or "Southern Texas" tuning.
This is another song I learned from the famous recording of Dock Boggs of Wise County, Virginia. Boggs was a three-finger ...
2019-02-14 18:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
f#DF#AD (relative) AKA "Dock Boggs" or "Southern Texas" tuning.
I learned this tune from the recording of Dock Boggs of Wise County, Virginia. Boggs was a three-finger picker, but as a ...
2019-02-13 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The Gibson Guitar Corporation produced very few banjos of any kind prior to the 2nd World War, making this "Kalamazoo" resonator banjo a fairly rare find. The fingerboard is fine rosewood; the rest...
2019-02-08 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
(Intro music is "Shortening Bread" gDGBD from Lewis 'Big Sweet' Hairston.)
"Clifton, I’ve been trying to figure out the picking pattern for Old Chattanooga, especially the B section of the ...
2019-02-07 10:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post
This little 24" scale banjo was made during the 1880s in Boston, Massachusetts by Fairbanks & Cole. Walnut neck, ebony fingerboard, 10" maple hoop spun-over with sheet metal. The heel cap and p...
2019-02-01 16:01:14 +0000 UTC View Post
"I was thinking a good tutorial would be on the way you hit the drum of the banjo in a particular pattern. I've noticed that in some of your performances (Rocky Island, for example),you don't...
2019-01-31 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
This fine Boucher-style minstrel banjo was made by master musician and luthier Bob Flesher of Peachtree City, Georgia. It is easy to play, light as a feather and LOUD! Purchased in the late 1...
2019-01-29 13:13:56 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGCD (relative) AKA "Double C" or "One-Finger C."
I learned this song from the a field recording of J.M. Mullins available from the Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings website: 2019-01-27 14:30:27 +0000 UTC View Post
gCGCD (relative) AKA "Hook & Line" tuning, "Double C" or (as Eddie Haggard called it) "One-Finger C."
2019-01-24 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
f#DF#AD (relative) AKA "Reuben Tuning" or "Drop D" when playing with a guitarist.
I learned this song from Josh Hayes of Watauga County, North Carolina. Josh knows about a million songs and i...
2019-01-22 23:48:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Detail of banjo player near Petersburg, Virginia, circa 1870 (R. H. Sayers Collection).
eCFGC actual (f[sharp]DGAD relative) aka "Dock Boggs tuning" or "Southern Texas" tuning.
In this video I demonstrate how I play Hustling Gamblers/Country Blues/False-Hearted Lovers Blues usin...
2019-01-07 21:34:15 +0000 UTC View Post
eCFGC actual (f#DGAD relative) aka "Dock Boggs tuning" or "Southern Texas" tuning.
In this video I discuss the song Hustling Gamblers/Country Blues/False-Hearted Lovers Blues which I learned ...
2019-01-07 13:32:54 +0000 UTC View Post
f#DGAD relative (aka "Dock Boggs" or "Southern Texas" Tuning).
I learned this song from two recordings of Dock Boggs of Wise County, Virginia: "Hustling Gamblers/Country Blues" and "False-Hea...
2019-01-03 23:59:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's an elegant c. 1870-1890 banjo with federal eagle brackets and a finely-carved curly maple neck. When "rediscovered" it was just a dusty old pile of parts and, for that reason, was restored t...
2019-01-01 23:25:23 +0000 UTC View Post
1890s Luscomb banjeurine with 13" solid brass rim and hardwood tone ring--all original hooks & shoes--original patent tuners freshly cleaned and in good working order. Mahogany neck, ebony fing...
2018-12-29 18:18:57 +0000 UTC View Post
This was the same model played in later years by world-famous Mississippi banjoist Gus Cannon. Tony Thomas has a great article about Cannon in the new book Banjo Roots and Branches available here: ...
2018-12-28 18:26:44 +0000 UTC View Post
fCFB♭C actual (gDGCD relative) aka "G Modal" or "Pretty Polly Tuning."
In this video I discuss how to play the classic Appalachian dance piece "Cluck Old Hen" using two traditional banjo me...
2018-12-27 15:36:13 +0000 UTC View Post
fCFB♭C
I apologize for the washed-out right hand view in this video (hazards of working with natural light). Please let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a different angle or dif...
2018-12-26 22:27:46 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGCD, relative (fCFB♭C, actual) aka "Pretty Polly" or "G Modal" tuning. I learned this tune from George R. Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky.
This is one of the only pieces that...
2018-12-16 23:59:05 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGCD, relative (fCFB♭C, actual) aka "Pretty Polly" or "G Modal" tuning.
Alternate tunings to experiment with:
fFGCD aka "East Virginia" tuning (from George Gibson)
fDGCD a...
2018-12-15 14:24:50 +0000 UTC View Post
This is one of the coolest banjos I've seen. The wooden, top-tension design and the fact that it was converted from 6- to 5-string suggest the instrument was made in Britain. The label on the back ...
2018-12-13 21:45:29 +0000 UTC View Post
This banjo's neck came from a black walnut tree on Taylor's family land up in Virginia. Since the block he sent me was good and long I decided to make this neck slightly longer than standard (as is of...
2018-12-10 14:48:16 +0000 UTC View Post
fDGCD, relative (aka "East Virginia" or "F" tuning.)
This early banjo song is an oral history record of the mass migration of west African and Scots-Irish people from the Chesapeake Bay ...
2018-12-08 00:04:59 +0000 UTC View Post
A friend mailed me this piece of black walnut, apparently cut down and milled by he and his father on their land in Virginia. It turned out to be a very pretty piece of wood and with a near-p...
2018-12-06 13:53:58 +0000 UTC View Post
gDGBD, relative (fCFAC, actual) aka "standard tuning" or "Cripple Creek tuning."
In this video I demonstrate the chorus and verse parts to Cold Icy Mountain, first using overhand technique and then ...
2018-12-03 16:45:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Banjo is tuned gDGBD, relative (fCFAC, actual) aka "standard" or "Cripple Creek" tuning. Lookout for a close-up of this piece and please comment below with any suggestions.
I wanted to share this video with y'all now as I am about to film close-ups and a lesson/discussion on Cold Icy Mountain. I think this is a very early banjo song, perhaps going back to the 18th centur...
2018-11-29 15:13:01 +0000 UTC View Post
