mikeyes - Posted - 06/30/2010:  10:58:08

I finally fixed up a Ludwig Kenmore that had been converted to five string in the 1960s and would like to learn some older two finger styles on it. The string spacing is too close for clawhammer (although it can be done) and the tone is bright and bell like much more suited for a picking style.

Are there any resources out there besides "Southern Banjo styles vol 2"?

(I do have Will Keys on my ipod, if that helps and I have some Charley Poole.)

I have this (banjohangout.org/topic/175196/) already, but was looking for DVDs and books that may have come out.

Mike

Edited by - mikeyes on 06/30/2010 11:01:41

un5trung - Posted - 06/30/2010:  11:20:03

As I understand it Chip Arnold is the BHO 2-finger expert. BHO member Jan Olov Sundqvist has some tabs he might share with you. Finally, Art Rosenbaum's =Art of Mountain Banjo= (in print) and =Old Time Mountain Banjo= (out of print but available used) are both helpful.

BobTheGambler - Posted - 06/30/2010:  11:34:11

I've been really into Virgil Anderson's playing lately. His "On The Tennessee Line" album is great. He used a mixture of different picking styles, moving fluidly between thumb and finger lead. Also, a BHO member (sorry for forgetting your name) recently posted links to his blog on 2 finger thumb lead playing, which is great: 2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/

tombriarhopper - Posted - 06/30/2010:  11:49:37

I want to learn how Tom Adams does his bluegrassy two-finger style. I cannot quite get it.

stevel - Posted - 06/30/2010:  12:01:09

I agree Chip would be a great resource for 2 finger index lead.

fellow BHO member Sean (mojo_monk) has started a nice 2 finger thumb lead blog.

2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/

mikeyes - Posted - 06/30/2010:  12:08:50

I started out with Pete Seeger's book and played a lot of double thumbing back in the late 50s and early 60s. I can play a few tunes using double C tuning and I want to expand. I checked out the BHO resources and just bought the Art Rosenbaum "Old Time Banjo" book (even thought I don't like tab) and should be overwhelmed in a few days :grin:

I'll be at the Hiawatha festival in Marquette, MI in two weeks with my banjo. If anyone else is going to be there I 'd appreciate seeing some two finger styling.

Mike

janolov - Posted - 06/30/2010:  13:11:16

I am playing some 2-finger thumb lead style. My inputs have been Art Rosenbaum's two books and Mike Seeger's DVD and I have surfed through youtube and internet. I have used my own imagination and creativity from those sources and made up some tabs 2-finger lead style of songs and fiddle tunes usally played in clawhammer style. Some tabs are straight thumb lead, but usually I mix thumb lead (on the lower parts) and index lead (on the higher parts. Anyone who is interested can send me the email address, and I will send about 50 thumb-lead style tabs. There is no quality assurance but I think the tabs can get some input to anyone interested in thumb lead style.

Edited by - janolov on 06/30/2010 13:16:08

Castania - Posted - 06/30/2010:  13:28:41

Chip is the man to talk to. I heard him play at Clifftop a couple of years ago -- not in contest, just sitting under tent and playing away. The amount of music he gets out of two fingers is amazing.

Ken

mojo_monk - Posted - 06/30/2010:  13:38:14

I've been working on a 2 finger thumb-lead site for a few months which some folks seem to enjoy. I've yet to post mp3s of the arrangements on the site, but there are .pdf tabs and TablEdit files as well. I think there are 18 tabs currently in a few different tunings, and a few more arrangements in the works. There is also an ever so brief introduction to the style that I have intentions of expanding.

Here's the link: 2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com

Enjoy!

-Sean

majikgator - Posted - 06/30/2010:  14:07:40

JanOlov sent me his two finger tabs which are very nice, thank you Jan. i will definitely check yours out Sean and thank you as well. i have a lot of fun with that style although it does wear my thumb out but i guess that's what clawhammer is for.

mojo_monk - Posted - 06/30/2010:  14:14:14

quote:

---

Originally posted by majikgator

JanOlov sent me his two finger tabs which are very nice, thank you Jan. i will definitely check yours out Sean and thank you as well. i have a lot of fun with that style although it does wear my thumb out but i guess that's what clawhammer is for.

---

Edited by - mojo_monk on 06/30/2010 14:14:45

mojo_monk - Posted - 06/30/2010:  14:17:51

quote:

---

Originally posted by stevel

I agree Chip would be a great resource for 2 finger index lead.

fellow BHO member Sean (mojo_monk) has started a nice 2 finger thumb lead blog.

2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/

---

un5trung - Posted - 06/30/2010:  14:35:44

quote:

---

quote:Originally posted by stevel

I agree Chip would be a great resource for 2 finger index lead.

fellow BHO member Sean (mojo_monk) has started a nice 2 finger thumb lead blog.

2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/

Just noticed this . Thanks for the plug Steve.

---

chip arnold - Posted - 06/30/2010:  15:41:18

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Mike, if you like the music on my home page, you can go here: tishandchip.tripod.com/ and find some beginner tab as well as a page of right hand exercises. I play with an index finger lead and use my thumb and finger on all five strings. Also bear in mind that clawhammer is a finger lead, 2-finger style and any c'hammer tab can be easily adapted to 2-finger style. When you play through my right hand exercises, you'll find some stuff that c'hammerers don't do but it's all pretty easy. Please feel free to email me with any questions you have.

majikgator - Posted - 06/30/2010:  17:24:38

Just yesterday i was talking to a friend who is a great Scruggs style player and mentioned two finger thumb lead and how it tired out my thumb. i told him it just wears my thumb out it doesn't build it up, maybe nobody else has experienced this or maybe they have and find me to be wrong and that it really does get stronger - that would be great.
i don't have this problem with three finger and i have been playing three and four finger picking guitar since i was twelve, that wasn't last year. Odd to call it four finger, before i got started on banjo i always referred to "classical" guitar type finger picking as being three finger, didn't count the thumb. So my approach so far on this has been to play a two finger thumb lead and then play clawhammer for a while, since my repertory of thumb lead right now is very small there is plenty of clawhammer to give my thumb a break. Really too bad about this worn out thumb bit because i have a very nice time playing this style and i find it very easy to sing with as well as easier for me to play.

lucydog - Posted - 07/01/2010:  12:51:03

The Homespun DVD "Five String Banjo For Beginners" starts with a few 2-finger, thumb-lead songs. Granted, you already will know the hammer-ons/pull-offs/etc., but there are arrangements for "My Home's Across the Smokey Mountains," "Handsome Molly" and "Cumberland Gap." The arrangements are a bit sparce, but they are quite pretty (and all in gDGBD). It looks like you can download it for $20 (homespuntapes.com/shop/product.aspx?ID=479)

The last quarter of the tape goes into Seeger-style up-picking which is interesting in its own right.

majikgator - Posted - 07/01/2010:  14:28:10

i have the Happy Traum DVD 5 sting Banjo for Beginners and it is that, probably the easiest thing i have seen for a raw beginner to start playing something musical on a banjo. i bought the DVD however for the two finger thumb lead of which there was very little and over simple but at least there is that bit. The more sophisticated (and not much) of the tunes on it are index lead. As a how to for beginners it is a good, very good DVD, as a tool for getting into two finger thumb lead for a clawhammer player it's not worth it IMHO and you can find more information here at the forum with a little search through the archives, if i remember - well let me check - yes the four basic thumb lead picking patterns from Art Rosenbaum's book are also at the link to mojo monk's excellent blog that he gives above. But i like having that DVD around in case i run into somebody wanting to start playing and they don't really care about learning clawhammer because i can't think of an easier one for that sort of person, a kind of banjo for folk singers style a simpler Pete Seeger lesson.

Mirek Patek - Posted - 11/15/2010:  03:18:47

quote:

---

Originally posted by tombriarhopper

I want to learn how Tom Adams does his bluegrassy two-finger style. I cannot quite get it.

---

Banjonbama - Posted - 11/16/2010:  13:51:21

Most, if not all of Lewis Hairston's playing is a 2 finger, index finger lead as far as I can tell. Lots of recordings of him on the DLA. His playing is very syncopated, but at base it is just up-picking the melody notes with the index finger, following each note with the thumb on the 5th string. He uses lots of pull-offs and slides too, and syncopates/rushes some notes too get everything to fit together, but with the metronome-ness of the thumb on the 5th string, it manages to all stay in time. I usually use finger picks and play on my resonator banjo close to the bridge to get the really crisp quality of his notes, but it works fine on an open back too. I know lots of people (including me) who love his playing, and plenty who really hate it, but check it out, it is a very different sound.

If anyone actually knows how he played, I'd love to know, the above is just what I have figured out that sort of approximates his sound.

witty banjo related username - Posted - 11/16/2010:  16:34:47

quote:

---

Originally posted by Banjonbama

Most, if not all of Lewis Hairston's playing is a 2 finger, index finger lead as far as I can tell. Lots of recordings of him on the DLA. His playing is very syncopated, but at base it is just up-picking the melody notes with the index finger, following each note with the thumb on the 5th string. He uses lots of pull-offs and slides too, and syncopates/rushes some notes too get everything to fit together, but with the metronome-ness of the thumb on the 5th string, it manages to all stay in time. I usually use finger picks and play on my resonator banjo close to the bridge to get the really crisp quality of his notes, but it works fine on an open back too. I know lots of people (including me) who love his playing, and plenty who really hate it, but check it out, it is a very different sound.

If anyone actually knows how he played, I'd love to know, the above is just what I have figured out that sort of approximates his sound.

---

mojo_monk - Posted - 11/17/2010:  13:12:58

Here's a .zip file with all of Lewis "Big Sweet" Hairston's stuff from the DLA. Two sessions recorded by Kip Lornell ['76 & '77] at Big Sweet's home in Henry County, VA.

tinyurl.com/2bj3m6u

Enjoy!


-Sean
2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/

Edited by - mojo_monk on 11/17/2010 13:13:59

MountainBanjo - Posted - 11/17/2010:  13:22:39

I downloaded one sound file of his from DLA (cotton eyed joe I believe), but couldnt stand his 5th string "aggression", for lack of a nicer way to put it. Did I just pick the wrong file or does all his playing feature that? If so, I'll have to pass.

mojo_monk - Posted - 11/17/2010:  13:40:36

quote:

---

Originally posted by MountainBanjo

I downloaded one sound file of his from DLA (cotton eyed joe I believe), but couldnt stand his 5th string "aggression", for lack of a nicer way to put it. Did I just pick the wrong file or does all his playing feature that? If so, I'll have to pass.

---

MountainBanjo - Posted - 11/17/2010:  15:27:32

Bummer. As David Holt said in one of his DVDs "No no-you dont want that".

hobogal - Posted - 11/18/2010:  12:54:52

Nick Hornbuckle's second book of Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo is tabbed for two finger.

darryl k. - Posted - 11/18/2010:  16:00:47

That's great to know hobogal. I have his first book and like it a lot although it's mostly 3 finger O.T. Guess what's on my Christmas list now .
Nick also plays all of his BG with two fingers. He's a member here and plays professionally with John Reichman and the Jaybirds.
darryl

hobogal - Posted - 11/21/2010:  07:42:31

It's definitely worth putting on the Xmas list - some great tunes in it like Last Chance and Cold Frosty Morn. You recommended me the first book so thanks for letting me know about Nick's stuff! I always wanted to play OT tunes but could never find any fingerpicking tabs...