Two Finger Oldtime Banjo Styles Darling Corey

Hello Banjo folks!!.....Some of my students have asked me to post a few of my playing techniques. The last time I posted anything here on Youtube I got a lot of hits. Unfortunately, they were all to the face and now I must avoid showing anything above the shoulders. Not pretty folks....Really, it's just that I'm so low tech I can never get the darn camera set up right. I hope to get better.......Here, I demonstrate a few right hand techniques that you all might like to try. I'm not trying to show how to play the song just show how the techniques can be used. I sometimes refer to these techniques as melody driven where the thumb and or index finger follows the melody while the other strings (notes) are kinda like fillers or support sounds. Similar to what a dulcimer player does where the melody is played on one string and the other strings act as harmonic drones but have little to do with the basic melody. I hope you'll see what I mean. Of course, some of these techniques, can be used to play more advanced melody lines, like note for note stuff. I hope to show this in a subsequent video where an index lead style can be used instead of clawhammer to play a melodic claw-hammer tune. Most tabs in frailing, or melodic style, can be played with index lead. ....This is for folks who already have some experience on the banjo. The tuning here is GCGCC (5, 4 3, 2, 1)
I teach here in Arlington Virginia since 1968, Been playing since 1961. If you wish to contact me I can be reached at: banjodaddy@hotmail.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• cllawhammer
• Banjo
• Old-time
• string
• folk
• index
• lead
• thumb
• bluegrass

[sfdgardner]

Um, sorry but that looks like three fingers to me!

[RusnakBanjo]

@sfdgardner Yeah, I do through in a third finger sometimes but I could have just done two finger all the way through. Guess I got carried away...

[bison851]

A great , full sounding style of tw0-finger picking. May I ask as well, what brand of banjo are you playing? A Tubaphone?

[RusnakBanjo]

@bison851 Im playing a A.C. Fairbanks "Electric" circa 1898...The tone ring is very similar to the Whyte Laydie

[rpeek]

Interesting.. 

[RusnakBanjo]

@rpeek Thanks for your interest...

[joeshea1010]

firstly thanks very much, very nice jump with it. with the double thumbing; is it T-I, T-I simple as that? joe

[willsoflo]

Very nice. A friend of mine won 3rd place in a banjo contest in Florida this year. He played 2 tunes. I was very surprised that he chose to play one of them 2 finger style. He was very surprised to win a banjo with the tune! Thanks for posting. I'm a 65 year old beginner claw hammer and I'm fascinated with 2 finger because I play guitar finger style. I'm not ready to learn it though. Got too much clawhammer to work on.

[RusnakBanjo]

Find Hedy West on Youtube. She does Death of a Cowboy using the index lead without dropping her thumb. I first saw that performance in the early 60's and it was the first time I had seen anyone do it. Pete Seeger mentioned it in his instruction book, but seeing her do that blew my mind. I try to keep these techniques alive and I demonstrate the many varied ways one can play oldtime 5 string banjo. With the great popularity of clawhammer/ fiddle styles, these other styles need to be still taught