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Banjo23055 View Teacher Profile You must sign into your myHangout account in order to contact Banjo23055.

I learned 3 chords on a ukulele when I was about 8 years old. I started with the guitar when I was 12 or 13. The man who taught me was Randolph Snead. He was an excellent bluegrass rhythm guitar player. After I had learned some things, he invited me to his home one night when he had his band playing. I sat over in the corner just trying to stay in time. This went on for several sessions throughout the months and finally I noticed the guy playing the banjo. He was a tall, thin man named Ron Stokes who lived in Virginia Beach. I was fascinated by what he was doing. It happened that Randolph had an old, cheap 5 string banjo with no resonator. He let me borrow it to see if I could play it. I must have been 15 or 16 years old. Ron helped me with some chords and basic rolls. When I left for college at William and Mary, my father bought me a pretty Alvarez banjo to take with me. When I wasn’t studying, I was playing that banjo. Whenever they would have me, I would go to visit Ron and Gladys Stokes in Virginia Beach for some good food and banjo practice. When I graduated from college, daddy had made a deal with Carl Stacy (Stacy’s Music in Charlottesville, VA) to trade my Alvarez in on a used Mastertone RB-250 that he had in the shop. It was a 1958, bow-tie inlay model. I played with Randolph for several years in a band called “The Virginia Gentlemen”. It was a great learning opportunity, I am grateful for the experience it gave me, and I met a lot of nice people. Health problems caused me to drop out of music for a few years. When I got back into it, I became interested in the piano as well. To make a long story short, I now play keyboard at my church in a praise and worship band. It was a big stretch from bluegrass into this style of music. But it has helped me tremendously on the banjo. Ron helped me with the keyboard as well, as he was a good piano player. He would play swing and music from the early 1900’s. I have enjoyed learning this as well, and it greatly contributed to my banjo ability on such songs as “Anybody Seen My Gal?”, “Hello, my baby”, etc. I am playing a Stelling now that Ron gave me. I look forward to expanding my knowledge and ability and learning some of the things I hear you folks doing at Banjo Hangout. I am working on the details of my life story with the banjo and music in general that I will put on my blog. I will also mention more people that I have known along the way.