Progressive Pieces for Clawhammer Banjo

After the Civil War the ?up picking? finger style of playing the 5-string banjo came into vogue ? eventually finding its way into the Victorian parlor and later college glee and music clubs. The original down picking style didn't entirely die out because throughout the reaminder of the 19th Century new methods for the banjo often included a number of songs in the older two-finger banjo style of performance. Perhaps the most intricate set of songs to appear in the ?original? banjo style were these 34 progressive pieces found in Frank B. Converse's Analytical Banjo Method from 1887. Those songs presentedin this book for clawhammer banjo offer a nice mix of banjo characteristic pieces medleys and new compositions from Converse.

Media Type : Book/CD Set Level : Beginning-Intermediate Musical Genre : Old Time Series : Fantasy Number of pages : 96 A complete survey of traditional banjo styles complete with tunings, playing tips, and the author's deft drawings. Progresses from easy tunes for the beginner to more difficult pieces. The styles include up-picking or Pete Seeger's basic strum; two-finger picking; three-finger picking; and what had variously been called frailing, clawhammer, knocking, rapping, overhand, fram-style, flayin' hand, and other Appalachian names, here called down-picking.