Intro to Clawhammer Banjo

Im studying both.
Did about 2 months of bluegrass to learn
FMB, dueling banjos and a few other
easy scruggs style - most folks like to hear em.
Most of the songs I like though are old timey
clawhammer - shady grove , barlow knife
AMERICAN basically.
Openback banjos with wood tone rings are the best for that old backwood mountain sound.
Bluegrass with that tin can sound is just not my thingy, played too fast and sounds hillbilly for my tastes

Great instructional video! It's interesting how each clawhammer player has their own style of "clawhammering"!

2:26... i got sooo scared, good thing lvl 2 came. great video keep em coming

Okay that's great, thanks! One last thing; do you "bum" with your index or middle finger? I can't tell from the video, and I've heard you can use both, but I'm not sure which one, if any, would be better.

I use my middle finger but a lot of people find they get better control and more volume with the index finger. Try both and see what works best for you.

I want to learn clawhammer first and exclusively, but would it be a bad idea to learn both clawhammer and bluegrass styles at the same time? People tell me not to, but I love all types of music and I'd like to cover all facets of the banjo. Thanks

I learned both at the same time myself. It's fine. You will possibly gravitate more towards one or the other over time depending on which style suits you best but it's good to be able to play both (clawhammer and bluegrass) if you'd like to. The left hand works virtually the same way for both styles (for chords and single notes) so the biggest difference is in the style of picking.

i dont know if you can use clawhammer to play bluegrass, but you could learn both seperately of course. why couldnt you?