Joel Hooks - Posted - 11/17/2025:  05:45:31

"The first edition said "Copyright 1948". This, we fear, was a falsehood. The necessary four bucks were never shelled out. Furthermore, upon reflection, and with the good example of J. Frank Dobie of Texas, it is not copyright in 1954. Permission is hereby given to reprint, whenever needed."

Let me write that again:

"IT IS NOT IN COPYRIGHT... PERMISSION IS HEREBY GIVEN TO REPRINT, WHENEVER NEEDED."

It is needed to reprint this digitally so here is How to Play the 5 String Banjo by Pete Seeger.

Do what Pete Seeger wanted you to do and reprint this, per his permission.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 11/17/2025:  05:49:57

See below, paragraph 4, page 2, these are Seeger's own words.

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 11/17/2025:  09:55:45

 That was a pretty nice gesture and neat attitude wasn't it.  And Seeger did love the banjo - all styles.  & I have always been so impressed the many ways Pete played it in that book! Said he thought Scruggs took it to a new and better level. 

ken

Edited by - From Greylock to Bean Blossom on 11/17/2025 10:01:01

davidppp - Posted - 11/17/2025:  10:16:12

It's nice to be reminded why I call it "frailing."

I started with the 3rd edition Revised (1962), which I bought in 1965. $2 for 72 pages. It includes an 8-page section on bluegrass, crediting help from brother Mike, with TAB for Foggy Mt. Breakdown, Molly & Tenbrooks, and the Stanley Brothers' Hard Times. If not beaten to the punch, I'll post a pdf the next time I can get to a scanner.

I can't recall the timing or casual connection, but, between that book and an appendix in the Scruggs TAB book, I set out to build my own at age 15 -- a long-neck, of course. I still have it. It plays fine. A major improvement a decade ago was the installation of a hanger bolt in addition to the single co-rod.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 11/17/2025:  10:43:06

Notice that he calls three finger picking "Clawhammer style".

As a teenager, this confused me when I heard stroke style called "clawhammer". I thought, from Seeger, that "Clawhammer" meant the same as Scruggs style.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 11/17/2025:  11:51:22

Same here. It was a while before I was disabused of Seeger’s terminology. He got it right in the red edition—by having his brother Mike do the Scruggs-style section.

@Joel Hooks

OK-4 - Posted - 11/17/2025:  15:19:55

I learned on the third edition long, long ago. I took a look at it more recently, after several decades, and was surprised to see that Seeger had included just about everything in that book. The styles are not all categorized the way people have come to chop up the universe, but you can find it all somewhere in the book.

And I still say "frailing."

In the 3rd edition, Seeger calls Scruggs Style "a syncopated variation on the old 'clawhammer' fingerpicking style." (p.38), so he did not change the clawhammer reference from earlier editions. I am curious about something:

Is there evidence that people were saying "clawhammer," meaning frailing, before Seeger wrote his book? Seeger could only be "wrong" if, in his travels, he misunderstood what the "folk" who used the term were talking about. Is it possible Seeger met a lot of people who were frailing, rapping, knocking, etc., but he only ever heard "clawhammer" in reference to something else?

banjonz - Posted - 11/17/2025:  15:26:25

As I buy up old banjos for renovations and on-selling, sometimes they come with the red Seeger book and occasionally the blue edition book.

Ira Gitlin - Posted - 11/18/2025:  06:45:01

quote:

---

Originally posted by Joel Hooks

Notice that he calls three finger picking "Clawhammer style".



As a teenager, this confused me when I heard stroke style called "clawhammer". I thought, from Seeger, that "Clawhammer" meant the same as Scruggs style.

---

From what I've seen, he was not alone in that. It took a while for the vocabulary to crystallize into the modern standard. In the vernacular/folk/traditional banjo world of the mid-20th century, terminology was pretty variable and sometimes downright idiosyncratic. (It still is, to some extent.)



IIRC, I've seen quotes from older players (people probably born in the very early 20th century)  use "clawhammer" to mean any  type of playing where the musician's hand is curled into a clawlike shape--and that can include three-finger picking. Maybe Tony Thomas has seen such usages.

mikehalloran - Posted - 11/18/2025:  08:16:42

I’ve acquired all the versions of this book that I know of including the short version packaged with the 10” LP from Folkways. I used it to make an interactive CD-I. Remember those? Yeah, no one else does, either. Apparently, I was the only person interested and it died the death such projects deserve.

Pete claimed the first use of the terms “hammer-on” and “pull-off” in his book. Where would banjo instruction be without that?

davidppp - Posted - 11/18/2025:  09:48:49

In an interview late in his life, speaking about the book and about terminology, Pete mimicked the high-pitched voice of his step-mom: "That's left-hand pizzicato!"

Edited by - davidppp on 11/18/2025 09:49:16

davidppp - Posted - 11/18/2025:  11:48:17

My IT capabilities are stuck in the previous millennium. As promised, here is the 1962 section on Scruggs picking.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 11/18/2025:  12:10:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by mikehalloran

I’ve acquired all the versions of this book that I know of.....

---

Mike, does that include the original mimeographed version?

@mikehalloran

Joel Hooks - Posted - 11/18/2025:  12:12:17

I have the red cover book but it is low priority as far as scanning.

In all honesty, the only reason I scanned this one was because Pete gave “me” permission.

There is a publisher currently claiming copyright. I suppose it is possible that they just decided to reprint as needed, then slapped their own copyright on it.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 11/18/2025:  12:27:52

I take back what I just wrote.

After reviewing two recent printings (on the Archive), both were distributed by Music Sales America. This was added to the back cover. One had a logo of "Homespun Music Instruction" and the other had a sticker over this logo with Hal Leonard.

Neither had any additional copyright claims added (which would not matter anyway unless the current publishers made "substantial editorial changes and additions").

Both current editions include the same "reprint as needed" statement by Seeger.

I suppose if one wanted a hard copy of this it would be best to shell out the $14 bucks for a hard copy. It might cost more to print it at home.

mikehalloran - Posted - 11/18/2025:  12:51:07

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bill Rogers

quote:

---

Originally posted by mikehalloran

I’ve acquired all the versions of this book that I know of.....

---

Mike, does that include the original mimeographed version?

@mikehalloran

---

Yep — in a box in my garage that still hasn't been unpacked since our move shortly before my stroke (sore subject at the Halloran house).

Ira Gitlin - Posted - 11/18/2025:  13:29:15

I'd be interested to see the 1954 version. Years ago, for some article I was researching, I went to the Library of Congress and saw the 1948 mimeograph there. But although the 1954 edition was in the catalogue, they couldn't find the copy in the stacks.

uhoh7 - Posted - 11/23/2025:  11:44:13

Though not qualified to run with this crowd, I will pass on Pete's recommendation for a Banjo book: The five-string Banjo American folk styles.....by Peggy Seeger. 1960. I had to look hard to find one. While I'm just a learner on Banjo, over the years I've used many instruction books for quite a few instruments. To my taste, Peggy wrote an outstanding book. Jeez what a family, I've always loved Pete, lately I listen alot to Mike. Peggy is still going at 93, and I heard a pretty recent (last few years) interview with her.....she is really something. At one point she was talking about how hard it was to get Elizabeth Cotten (Her nanny--you know the story) OFF the stage ;) She was quite frank about all her associates, mentioning both positive and negative.

Her book is alot less folksy than Pete's style, very dense in it's way, with a complex organization of chapters and subjects. Her choice of songs and arrangements, only 23, I use with other instruments as well, as they are simple at sight but rich in sound. Like you guys...well some of you, I have alot of sheet music of many genres. For folk and just learning to play I'm always pulling out Irwin's Hootenanny SongBook, though I have a bunch of other collections too, Sandberg, Ives, Lomax etc. Peggy uses the term "frailing" basically in the current sense, she covers Scruggs and many other styles and variations. Like Pete she starts with I pluck up long, and two shorts: brush down, pluck 5. A book worth owning.

Best to all, forgive the interruption, and many thanks to the OP for the link.