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Old-time 3 Fingerpicking Banjo

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For enthusiasts of fingerpicked oldtime banjo: share your favourite music, swap playing tips, post your tunes.

144 Members, Created 4/12/2011 -

Administrators: hobogal (owner)

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From Strangpicker on 8/4/2011 12:57:37 PM

Hello old time finger style players! Most Scruggs style players I know don't have any problem with the way I play, and I certainly have no issue with that style myself, but I have occasionally run into a few who are absolutely aghast at the way I play. That's what clued me into what I was doing was somewhat different. I don't anchor, my picking hand pinky was smashed as a kid and is too short anyway, and I use a lot of movement with each of my fingers and the position of my hand moves a lot over the strings as I play. I kind of picture it as what I call "free pickin" or flying instead of walking or running on the ground.

I have come to the conclusion that my style is old time 3 finger, and I enjoy any kind of banjo tune. I also like trying to play songs on the banjo which aren't normally associated with it, though my favorite is to banjoize old gospel songs. I did build a Stewart MacDonald 3R back in the 70's but traded it off fairly soon for an acoustic guitar which I still have and play. I kind of wish I would have hung onto that SM3R though. I have played finger style guitar for all those years, but to be honest I am having a lot more fun with the banjo. I still occasionally pick up a guitar, but the banjo has quite frankly run away with me and isn't looking back.

(Strangpicker) Dan

2 Comments
	Strangpicker says: 8/5/2011 7:13:05 AM Hi Gazzaj, Thank you, for the welcome! I'd agree that old time 3 finger more than likely represents a real variety in individual styles. I can certainly say that what I do feels very natural to me and it's easy to adjust according to the tune. I switched from the flat pick on the guitar to finger style back in the mid 70's and played with and without finger picks over the years, so it's easy for me to switch between bare fingers and the picks on the banjo as well. I have recently been using a flat pick again on both the Mandolin and Irish Tenor Banjo and love the Irish ballads on those instruments. I don't spend anywhere near the amount of time that I do on those as I do on the 5 string banjo though and I absolutely believe success is in the practicing. I have a couple of old banjos that I play regularly that have the Nylgut strings and I enjoy the old timey sound that they have, a Circa 1900 5 string no name and a 1890 Luscomb Banjeaurine C scale 5 string. I do play Bluegrass on those on occasion as well and I think they sound good, but those older tunes sound really good on those instruments. One of the songs I have out there in front of me that I want to learn is "Gary Owen" so if you have a link to that Drum and Fife site I would be interested in checking it out. Of all the instruments that I have played over the years , that includes piano, clarinet, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, uke and banjo, the one that stands out by far as the one I most enjoy is the 5 string banjo! Dan
	Strangpicker says: 8/9/2011 7:20:58 AM Hi Gazzaj, Thank you for the links, I have them added to my "Banjo" favorites, pretty nice resources! I also downloaded and installed the ABC Explorer, haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I will look forward to it. I have purchased a commercial program to allow me to scan sheet music in and then edit it, play it and reprint it, but I haven't installed it yet, so I need to do that soon too. What I have been using is a freeware program called TABRite, it allows you to type the tab in, in this case for the 5 string banjo and then play it back. It works pretty well although I much prefer reading regular music to tab. The other thing I haven't done is to start recording what I am playing, so that I need to do as well, as I am pretty well setup now to do it. I will let you know how it goes. Dan
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