Zojo - Posted - 05/30/2026:  09:48:40

I am getting back into playing clawhammer banjo. I have a son who plays fiddle and a son who plays bass. Both are professional level jazz musicians, but they have played a wide variety of folk and blues too. They can also switch to guitar and mandolin. I would like to put together a set list of interesting tunes that we could play together. I don't want to play Cripple Creek and Old Joe Clark again. I would like to explore a variety of tunings and modes in a variety of tempos and rhythms that will not be too difficult for me to learn. Blues, folk, Celtic, Scandinavian, etc.

Edited by - Zojo on 05/30/2026 10:24:47

mrphysics55 - Posted - 05/30/2026:  10:05:50

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KirbyInKentucky - Posted - 05/30/2026:  11:18:35

Even though they're played often, my favorite clawhammer old-time songs are Cluck Old Hen, Shady Grove, and Railroad Bill. Ken Perlman's "Melodic Clawhammer Banjo" has old-time and celtic arrangements in it. The song list is in the link under table of contents.
all-sheetmusic.com/Guitar-Elec...d-CD.html

For jazz and blues my favorite artists are Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker, but it may be difficult to find something nicer for clawhammer. I think Muskrat Ramble would be neat to learn in a clawhammer style, it was originally Louis Armstrong jazz song and Chet Adkins covered it with his acoustic guitar in the next link. ( youtube.com/watch?v=5I8JwHimDBo ) After doing more research, Kid Ory composed that song, which he played banjo in his youth (late 1890s to 1910) and later switched to trombone and developed a lot more with jazz. His music might have some neat inspiration for melody I think.

Learning from that might be more difficult than seeing what you find on youtube and being able to mimic that. Bopjo has a youtube account posting jazz banjo at youtube.com/@David-Crisler

Hope this helps.

Zojo - Posted - 05/30/2026:  11:40:44

Thanks.

I think we will be skipping jazz though.

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 05/31/2026:  07:42:11

I am somewhat familiar with your situation. I took up the banjo about 4 or 5 years ago while my fiddle playing friend has been playing since childhood. If you take a look/listen at our youtube channel you can hear some of the tunes we chose to fit the accomplished fiddle vs. newby banjo conundrum.

One of our first tunes together was Spotted Pony.  The version on our youtube page is very basic, but still fun to play.

Christmas Eve is another tune that (in its basic version) is pretty simple for banjo while allowing the fiddle to shine with embellishments and stuff.

I hope you'll post some of your playing.  I would love to hear what you come up with!

Zojo - Posted - 05/31/2026:  08:43:20

Well, you may be a newby but your playing is solid. Nothing cringey.

Thanks for sharing those videos!