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....

Boil 'em Cabbage Down (drop thumbing)

Been working hard on my drop thumbing technique, which is a tricky but great way of breaking the monotony of the 'bump ditty' frailing rhythm. It's hard to get the thumb to drop down and pluck an eighth note before the fifth string pluck, but its getting automatic now and gives a useful variation to throw into a tune.

Here's my version of Boil 'em Cabbage Down using drop thumbing.

It's what your right hand's for... frailing

You do what?? At first 'frailing' seems like the most perverse way to play a musical instrument you can imagine. Down picking all the notes with the back of your middle or index finger(I go for middle). The strumming action also feels bizarre as well, as instead of flicking across the strings you kind of curl and uncurl you hand and the movement draws you finger across the strings.

As you've probably heard in my earlier post, this action isn't one that comes immediately as an involuntary response, especially from me,or if you've watched guitarists or someone like Earl Scruggs picking away furiously in the bluegrass style. Which is probably what comes to mind when most people think of banjo playing.

There's also something called the 'bump-ditty' which is analogous to the sounds made during the frailing technique! The 'bump' is the sound made on striking the string and the 'ditty' bit is the combination of the subsequent strum and the plucking of the 5th string with your thumb. This process entails making a claw shape with you hand and then rocking it over the strings to strike the strings(bump), strum(dit) and pluck(y). The thing I like most about the frailing technique is it's rhythmic quality, you're not focusing on melody exclusively and originally it was meant as an accompaniment to singing.

Sounds really complicated? Patrick Costello's online video workshops are the best teaching resources I've found on the web. He doesn't expect any level of prior knowledge and doesn't wrap it all up in jargon. Here's Patrick on the basic frailing technique.