Three Chord Trick in E

Inspired by Patrick's subway shuffle on the Daily Frail (which I can't do) I've ended up with this, which is a three chord trick in E (E,A,B). I'm finding the B chord a bit tough on the guitar as it the first barre chord that I've tackled.

Help! I need somebody....

Alan writes:

Hi Andrew, I came across your site while trying to find out about two finger picking on the 5string banjo ,I,m in the twilight years so no spring chicken but still would love to play.I have had my open back G banjo over the past year and I,m still struggling just to play some kind of tune. I have tried hard with three picks and several books and dvds know a few chords.then I bought a dvd on ebay by Happy Traum who plays two finger picking ,he calls it mountain music and just maybe I could manage this. So I have contacted you to see if you could point me in the right way of finding more about this style may some place I could get Tabs for two finger picking. I live in sompting sunny sussex down south,any way you know I,ll be very happy with any help so a Happy New Year and all the best
alan

Alan

There are a whole load of different fingerpicking styles out there, about as many as there a different tunings on the banjo. If you've tried for a year to get going with the fingerpicking style and still having problems, maybe a strumming style would be a better place to start. I know I struggled and got disheartned with the bluegrass three finger style and eventually started 'frailing', or pick and strum as it was easier for me to pick up. As someone who hasn't played any other instruments I found the bluegrass finger rolls and left hand techniques hard to learn at the same time.

I got a good book by Tim Jumper called 'How to play: Banjo' it starts by introducing simple pick and strum technique, moves onto 'downpicking' which is picking and struming with with the back of the nail, and finally moves onto three finger picking. I've found that after two years of working through these various techniques I'm ready to go back and try the three finger technique. With the frailing method you can get a song going fairly quick. I think it took me about three-six months of pretty heavy practice to get the action going naturally - check out the earlier posts!

here's a link to amazon for the tim jumper book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Play-Banjo-Tim-Jumper/dp/0825623529

The other place to go is Daily Frail.com Pat and Patrick Costello are a mine of useful hints tips and encouragement and I've found there free online tutorial invaluable. They have all their videos on you tube for free and the series on basic technique is where I would tell anyone to go to see demonstation and techniques explained in a non technical way.
Try these for a start http://www.youtube.com/user/Dobro33H#grid/user/EB220FDB09CFC903
These guys have also pubished some of the best instructional books and DVDs that I've seen so maybe give those a look too.

Hope this helps.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Andy

Anyone else got any suggestions for Alan - contact acwesley@aol.com

back to basics

Paul's been in touch again and has been over to Tangier Sound. He liked the fact that Patrick makes learning to play seem like fun, and it should be, after all if you don't get a kick out of it, why bother?
Learning the basics and practicing can be long hours of frustration if it's not going right but eventually it does -little by little.
I don't know if you got to the frailing lesson one, Paul but if you didn't here it is again, and it's what it's all based on. Work on this and the rest will fall into place, eventually!



Patrick makes it seem easy, but to begin with for many people - me included - the frailing bump-ditty rhythm can sound very mechanical. It's just a matter of practice and time, keep going and it'll eventually become a single unconscious action. The act of down picking with the back of your nail can seem a very awkward method, and to begin with I followed Tim Jumper's suggestion of up-picking with the index finger and strumming with the back of the middle finger, until I'd got a sense of the timing. It does make sense to frail with the back of your finger nail eventually as its easier to really pick up speed in your playing if your hand only has to repeat a single action rather than two. Keep on frailing....

New York Calling - via London!

Wes from New York writes:

Hi

I'm a TangierSound/Daily Frail fan from New York. I've always liked your videos and now I'm in London for a couple of weeks and thought I'd say hello.

I've been playing (or trying to play) for just a few months. It started by accident and has become an obsession. Back in May I emailed Dear Old Dad asking to interview him for an article I was writing. The next thing I knew he was putting a banjo (the S-5 prototype) in the mail to me and signing me up for the retreat that was coming up in Crisfield. After that I couldn't put the thing down.

All best, Wes

Blues on the Banjo

Back on the banjo.
Been working on the Daily Frail blues on the banjo workshop that Patrick Costello re-posted a couple of days ago - A Shady Situation. And here's a bit of audio of the outcome - haven't quite got the bar count right, but whatever.

Ragtime Annie

Been working on Patrick Costello's Daily Frail workshop for Ragtime Annie.

Rosin the Beau

Working on the 3/4 time tune Rosin the Beau from Patrick Costello's How and Tao of Old Time Banjo. Here's the tab and the Daily Frail for Rosin the Beau. The link will take you to Patrick excellent blog which contains loads of great stuff for banjo.
Daily Frail 14/6/2007

oh susanna and 12 bar blues in G

A couple of tunes recorded with my new microphone - need to adjust the settings.

Oh Susanna


12 bars in G


The 12-bar blues has come out of this Daily Frail Workshop which I found quite handy and am still working on.