Breakin' Up Christmas: Fretless Banjo

[yelloworangered]

This is great. The sound is wonderful, so soft, but pungent -- do you know anywhere that I can find the lyrics?

[BeornLS]

Awesome playing.

[Guinnie]

nice

[Plinkerton]

Damn that was a helluva song.

My new one to learn.

Thanks. :)

[kpinenut]

By God, your round peak playing sets the standard. Thank you and please keep your video material available for as long as you breathe air.

[CommunityMusic]

Well done!

[Labrabob]

Excellently done.

[Fishmonger1966]

AWESOME!

[mistertaterbug]

FF,

That's about as good as it gets, boy. Thanks for making my day.

[prismpie]

Wow!

[owltotem]

That's no lie. Music comes outta you and your friend.

[dbadagna]

Wow, I didn't know this tune had words. Where did you learn them?

[thebetterhalf37]

tommy and fred do a version with words.

[banjobob0313]

tom.. what banjo is that there..??? is that a reiter or possibly another fielding???thanx for that man... you the shit man!!!

[katvanbus]

Nicely played! Love the singing too!

[mikkey18]

wow beautiful really its beautiful!!

[printfellow]

Awesome. Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing that great feel!!

[XxdieformetalxX]

Why does the Banjo have that string halfway down the neck? Why can't it be on the head? Also, why is it a high string, next to a really low one?

[envika]

i'm not much of an expert but i think it's a drone string, not meant to be fretted

[joejedlicka]

It's good for harmonics. The main tuning of a banjo is g major, which from top to bottom string is gdgbd. So the top g string is one octave above the middle g string. So you can pick the high string while playing a song, and you get very interesting variations. Check out "frailing banjo" videos. You can see how the technique works the easiest in those kind of videos, in my opinion.

[mikeburrell]

it is a drone string, yes. the main reason it is there not on the head means that the player can punctuaute the melody with those piercing notes. the sound people associate with the banjo is caused by that extra string.

[PeaceAndLoveCowboys]

Whoa there papa... you're gonna set that thing on fire!

[jedmarum]

I love it; that banjo sings!

[agnostoatomo]

give us more of that great fretless music

[mafre029]

this guy makes the word hillbilly a complimang

[GeoffBowers]

That's really fine playing and singing - the business! Would you mind telling us the strings and gauges you use on fretless please? You have just the right balance of Volume and "Plunk!"

I'm a fan... Geoff. :O)

[Wizzad75]

Do you live with Brad Leftwich?

[buckdances]

good one

[russellsanderson]

wow!

[21centuryShaman]

Man!!! You can play that banjer and hucker out a song... GOOD JOB!!!

[bobdwilliams]

HA! Awesome...I keep this up on the screen! Nice pickin'

[perryboy73]

yehaa!

[chisao221]

Good lord man,Ring that banjar!

[Artcarnie]

Great tune, singing and banjo

[mikeBend]

Now that was good.

Any chance of moving here to Maine? ;]

[mitsou70031]

verry good man a wech to se more

[TomSmithMusic]

Bravo!

-Tom

[hustonwest]

hot damn, boy, that was hot off the griddle!

[PrinceAbigor]

That main riff sounds almost middle eastern with the fretless sliding. Nice work man!

[mydogjo]

wow

[PeterDoughty]

I was watching "Sally Ann" and my 4 yr old daughter pointed to this link wanting to hear it. (She saw it once before, months ago.) "That's Breaking up Christmas," she said and then started singing, "Breakin' up Christmas all along...all along."

When I played the video for her, she said, "That man's hat is weird...but his banjo is cool"!!!

[giggleblaggle]

I didn't know this song had lyrics. I always thought it was just an instrumental. Wow, that fretless stuff looks hard. I play banjo myself, and I don't know if I could even do it without the frets. By the way, what is that instrument behind you? Is it a Banjo-Bass?

[DeafJake]

nice...makes me want to pull out my Brad Leftwich fiddle video and work up this song....

[locustvalleystring]

Nice rhythm you got there. Enjoyed that. Aspiring to go fretless,  Larry

[topflight90]

Thats some of the best I've ever heard

[sparkyfiddle]

Fabulous playing - thanks

[FiddleDoctor]

Dang! that's some great clawin'. Please post more!

[shallowcoat]

This is terribly good. Now I want a fretless for my birthday. Simon

[sevenmileford]

what tuning are you in? Also, do you have any instructional videos/tabs?

[UncleMacJug]

Thou art the man! Is that an Enoch you're playing? that Dobson headstock looks Enochy.

[Stev187]

Great job! Sounds great with the bridge right in the middle of the head!

[rainphil]

Great playing and great sound from this as well as other uploads. Thanks!

What's this instrument strung with? I have been thinking about stringing a whyte ladie I have with an extra set of gut from my grain measure. Wondering how that would sound??

[FretlessFury]

Glad you enjoyed the clip, rainphil.

The banjo is strung with light/medium steel strings (Bill Keith's).

You might want to compare the scale lengths of your banjos to make sure the gut strings will work on your whyte ladie. Otherwise, try it out! It might sound very good.

[BanjoBoog]

Some of the best clawhammer I've heard ... very well played!

[meister31]

Awesome banjo playing

[janitorbri]

Very well done! Now you've got me thinking about buying a fretless again!

[Coriolan92]

Awesome! Thanks for posting!

[Wishuey]

Brilliantly done!

[Banjer]

It's about time!!! I am waiting for your new video!

Great I like it.

[Jorsh123]

Well played man. For the life of me, I can't sing this song while I play it. I concentrate to hard on the B section. Awesomely played, nice set up of banjo's you got there too.

[meritcooper]

first fretless I have seen. That was outstanding.