Mickhammer - Posted - 10/31/2025:  02:02:17

There's an old thread under this title (banjohangout.org/archive/244103) but it's archived and doesn't cover my question ;-)



I just came across a video of Abigail Washburn explaining her clawhammer style. She calls it round peak but also clawhammer and frailing.



What surprises me is that she uses both index and middle fingers on her right hand. Is this common? Is it specific to round peak style? I've always played 'normal' clawhammer with a single finger (index in my case), but if this is the secret to AW's playing, I'm interested in learning more about how it's done.



For example, she indicates that she uses the middle finger for the first string and the index for the second string. What about the other strings? Are the fingers meant to alternate on strings 3 and 4? 



Here's the link:

youtube.com/watch?v=RzPxMq56qzQ

Bob Buckingham - Posted - 10/31/2025:  05:10:32

That may be how she started and her demonstrations of the style are succinct and clear. I play with two fingers and thumb have for many decades. You can't get all of those sounds without doing it and if you play melodically it allows you to get more notes by hitting notes with index or middle much like an upside down three finger style.
Ms Washburn in a monster musician having taken JAM kids to a rehearsal that she and her husband, Bela Fleck, did with the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra, where we saw them in action. In cool command of the situation with the director and orchestra.

Mickhammer - Posted - 10/31/2025:  06:39:15

She was the inspiration for me picking up the banjo. I'm impressed that she can play over the fretboard like that without a scoop - either my fingernails aren't long enough or I'm just too clumsy.

tonygo - Posted - 10/31/2025:  07:25:59

I use my middle finger on the first string, always have since I started in the 70's. For me the downside is that finger sounds different than the index so I regularly practice using the index all the time but...old habits.

banjered - Posted - 10/31/2025:  08:19:09

What aspiring OT players need to realize is that we are all uniquely nerve and anatomically different. We have different shaped hands. Some of us have only 1 or 2 nerves enervating a muscle while others may have 4 or 5. This way of using the middle finger for the first string and the index for the the inner three is just the way a minority of banjo players end up playing. Neither wrong or right, it is just what works for them. Some hardly flex their wrist at all while some like me flail madly at the strings (depending also on the sound I want), Just middle or index finger is another decision. Gotta find out what works for YOU. 2 cents banjered

Barnacle Joe - Posted - 10/31/2025:  08:45:25

Wayne Erbsen said that's how he does it (middle on the first, index on 2-3-4) in his first Ignoramous book from 1973. It's not a secret magic bullet to sound like AW. The two tend to make slightly different sounds, just as playing 2 cm further up/down is slightly different. Incorporating the alternate-string-pull-off (around 1:10 in the video) is probably a more fruitful bit to learn.