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Petary791 - Posted - 04/29/2007: 21:46:04
So maybe i'm just really messed up when it comes to playing banjo, but, does anyone else here fingerpick an open back? I use a thumb pick and 2 metal fingerpicks and fingerpick as one would on guitar, only on the banjo. I mostly do it for the sound (loudness) and clarity. I'm in a folksy band, so i'm wondering if I should learn how to play clawhammer.
Also, is it messed up that my openback is a bluegrass banjo with the resonator taken off?
Edited by - Petary791 on 04/29/2007 21:46:29
pastorharry - Posted - 04/29/2007: 22:08:42
[quote]Originally posted by Petary791
So maybe i'm just really messed up when it comes to playing banjo, but, does anyone else here fingerpick an open back? I mostly do it for the sound (loudness) and clarity.
I play 3 different styles on an openback Bart Reiter ,and I do use thumb and fingerpicks for 2 and 3 finger.
I'm in a folksy band, so i'm wondering if I should learn how to play clawhammer.
Yes, you should definatly at least learn the rudiments of frailing or clawhammer,which will not only allow you to be more versitile, but to take those picks off on occasion for a softer tone, a more mountain sound to your playing, and solo vocal accompanyment.
Also, is it messed up that my openback is a bluegrass banjo with the resonator taken off?
Not at all..many folks have converted their resonator banjos to openbacks. In fact ,I can't think of anything nicer to do for your banjo than that! 
Many bluegrass style resonator banjos make lovely openback folk banjos, and you'll notice that many of the reviered old time players did this with their cheaper resonator style banjos (Roscoe Holcomb immediatly comes to mind), as they liked 'em better that way. So, you on the right track son!! Keep pickin' and Grinnin', and happy frails to you! God bless, PH
Isaiah 38:20 -played on banjo,guitar,dulcimer
http://www.kidspot.org/pastorharry/
mrhapy - Posted - 04/30/2007: 00:21:44
nah i do the same, do play clawhammer but i use my little openback for practise and travelling and stuff.
and yeas it is a bluegrass banjo with the resonator taken off and slightly modified.
got pics of it on me profile page
The Beast - Posted - 04/30/2007: 10:18:30
I routinely fingerpick (both Scruggs and melodic) on my open back long neck. I don't see anything weird about it. Sometimes I want the sound one banjo produces and sometimes I want the one the other produces .
- The Beast
Gibson ES Golden Deluxe
Gold Tone MM-150 Long neck
Gibson Gangsta - Posted - 04/30/2007: 11:44:11
I do, I pick on my openback ALL THE TIME! its not as loud and I get a nice warm tone outta it.....plus haulin a thirteen pound bohemouth everywere, frankly, sucks and I'd rather beat up the openback than my nice shiny resonator ya dig?
pickin' aint easy.......
Petary791 - Posted - 04/30/2007: 13:16:06
It's good to see i'm not crazy then! Thanks for all the kind words.
chip arnold - Posted - 04/30/2007: 14:29:13
But you don't understand. You qualify as crazy for being a banjo picker in the first place. Doesn't matter how you play, you're still crazy.
Play with a plan
Chip
twelvefret - Posted - 04/30/2007: 21:15:50
quote:
So maybe i'm just really messed up when it comes to playing banjo
Not crazy at all. I have a WL Recording King that I pick with and without picks and with and without a sock. I am have a fretless built this Summer that I also plan to finger pick.
chuck
Twelvefret <><
"Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple." Pete Seeger
" I 'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park" from the movie, "Cars"
pastorharry - Posted - 05/01/2007: 00:28:31
quote:
Originally posted by chip arnold
But you don't understand. You qualify as crazy for being a banjo picker in the first place. Doesn't matter how you play, you're still crazy.
Play with a plan
Chip
Ah, Dr. Arnold,as usual, I agree 100% with your prognosis...there is little hope for the poor soul!!
Isaiah 38:20 -played on banjo,guitar,dulcimer
http://www.kidspot.org/pastorharry/
banjogud - Posted - 05/01/2007: 03:49:02
No way !!! I do it myself! ...So you can`t be crazy,....(OK,..bad example ! ;^)
There are certain "strict" styles, ie bluegrass, clawhammer, and even these have their variations. Folk music is a very broad term,..and basically , anything goes,..if it is a "folk style" it is because the "folk" (ie you) made it that way.
Folk music is so broad, it encompasses bluegrass, and of course (the more ancient) clawhammer styles. Earlier banjos were gut strung, and either playes "stroke style (similar to clawhammer) or fingerpicked withourt the picks as parlour music in the "guitar style". Part of the "modern folk movement" was the up picking or false frailing style that Pete Seeger and Dave Guard of the kingston trio made popular (dosen`t mean you have to do it that way either,..whatever sounds good and works for you.
It`s good that you wear fingerpicks, you have found the reason is volume and tonal quaility. I started out playing along mostly to folk type music,..tried Seeger style picking and didn`t like it. Found that just some simple picking patterns worked well , like alternating thumb roll, and "forward-backward roll" mostly. Later I found that the forward roll, and it`s "syncopation" is really essential for the bluegrass sound. Openback, resonated,...whatever "floats your boat" . If you read up about it, Docc Boggs,..and others have used resonated banjos for "folk type" (in this case...non-bluegrass) music.
So then,,,just continue what you enjoy doing,...to quote the great Dan Levenson..."It is all good ! "
Life is like a banjo,..ya never know whatcha gonna get. 
chip arnold - Posted - 05/01/2007: 09:59:12
To add to the mix.......What we call "Seeger Style" up-picking was around for years before Seeger put it in his book. Pete certainly popularised it but it was a style in use in areas of the south before he picked it up. I know a few old people around here who still do it. Also, many two and three finger styles (fingers braced on the head) were used in string bands for half a century before bluegrass came along.
I say if you just want to make music, do what you want! If you want to find and follow a tradition and you're inclined toward finger picking, then there's a huge bunch of fingerpicking history including the parlour styles nentioned by banjogud to look at.
Play with a plan
Chip
dhergert - Posted - 05/02/2007: 16:58:37
Here's a crazier one. I routinely fingerpick my nylon-strung 1889 SS Stewart openback, with fingerpics, for jazz performances (among other genres), except I've put an old 1900s spin-on hubcap resonator on it so my audiences can hear it better. It is actually pretty loud, even among the loud jazz instruments, and its nylon string tone blends very well with the hollow body electric guitars.
Who wudah thought???
Best,
-- Don
http://mysite.verizon.net/don.hergert
"If you must use your banjo as a snow shovel, do so:
only don't wonder if it sounds dull afterwards."
-- S.S. Stewart catalog, 1896.
Edited by - dhergert on 05/02/2007 17:01:26
Michael Stafford - Posted - 05/02/2007: 17:32:07
[quote]Originally posted by Petary791
So maybe i'm just really messed up when it comes to playing banjo, but, does anyone else here fingerpick an open back?
I've been fingerpicking an back for forty years, two finger style for the first ten years..........two and three finger for the next thirty. Only problem with a bluegrass with the resonator off is the flang is uncomfortable if you are sitting. I sit to play with a gosepel group and use a strap to keep it out of my lap
jon - Posted - 05/03/2007: 23:25:02
I often pick my openback. the resonator is for the purpose of directing more sound to the audience in a band setting, remember the resonator was added in the days that banjo backed up horn bands and for the 5-string to add the volume needed for the fingerpicked ragtime banjo. When I play on the streets, it's nice to have the "surround sound" of an open back.
BConk - Posted - 05/04/2007: 07:57:21
If fingerpicking an open back is crazy - I must be totally demented. I fingerpick an open back 17 fret tenor...strung with Nylgut strings. CrazY?? That's what they said about Ted Kaczynski!
Brian
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists...4644&alid=-1
Wander - Posted - 05/04/2007: 08:25:00
On Mike Seeger's CD "Southern Banjo Sounds" are a lot of different banjostyles to be heard. In the booklet are the styles and tunings very clearly explained. Up-picking, down-picking, two- and three-finger picking, pick-up-brush-down,....
Emiel - Posted - 05/04/2007: 10:18:38
Mike Seeger on "Southern Banjo Sounds" seems to like oldtime three-finger picking on openback banjos with a Whyte Laydie/Electric tonering. He also uses a Bacon openback banjo, a hollow-rim openback, a Weyman 12" with the resonator off, and a Supertone openback. Several openback banjos are used for two-finger picking. He only uses resonator banjos (Mastertones) for one example of two-finger picking (archtop) and two examples of three-finger picking (flatheads for oldtime three-finger style and Scruggs-style). [For all examples of clawhammer-style, openbacks are being used on this CD.]
Emiel
http://www.nowhereradio.com/emiel
http://www.bluerounders.com
Edited by - Emiel on 05/04/2007 10:21:30
twelvefret - Posted - 05/06/2007: 19:00:07
"So maybe i'm just really messed up when it comes to playing banjo, but, does anyone else here fingerpick an open back?"
I just downloaded Red Haired Boy on my home page using fingerpicks on a Recording King openback and a stuffed head.
chuck
Twelvefret <><
"Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple." Pete Seeger
" I 'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park" from the movie, "Cars"
Devon Wells - Posted - 05/06/2007: 19:58:01
quote:
Originally posted by Emiel
Fingerpicking on the openback has always been done. Both in regional American folk styles as in "classic banjo" both in the US and in England (19th century mostly).
Emiel
http://www.nowhereradio.com/emiel
http://www.bluerounders.com
It's true; fingerstyle on openback goes way back. Yeah, if you want to sound like Crowe it's probably best to use a resonator but it's fun to see what other tones you can get.
Really, playing a slighly different style of 5-string with the 'wrong' type of banjo is not that significant of a thing. Especially compared to something like classical keyboard music where all of the old hapsichord/ clavichord pieces are now performed 99% of the time on piano.
Devon.
Emiel - Posted - 05/07/2007: 02:42:38
The big misunderstanding is thinking that "openback banjo" and "clawhammer banjo" are synonyms. Fingerpicking banjos was already done before resonator banjos existed.
An openback banjo is a banjo with an open back, a no-brainer. It's not so easy however to define what a clawhammer banjo is. It's a very modern development. Most classical examples of banjos used for clawhammer, e.g. Whyte Laydies, Tubaphones, were not designed with clawhammer in mind. They were thought for finger-picking, and outside the folk music realm.
I think a real clawhammer banjo is a banjo designed to sound nice especially for the clawhammer player, a relatively modern thing. The Goldtone BC-350 comes to mind. But nothing speaks against finger-picking those instruments.
Emiel
http://www.nowhereradio.com/emiel
http://www.bluerounders.com
Edited by - Emiel on 05/07/2007 02:44:21
gailg64 - Posted - 05/07/2007: 10:32:37
quote:
Originally posted by Emiel
The big misunderstanding is thinking that "openback banjo" and "clawhammer banjo" are synonyms. Fingerpicking banjos was already done before resonator banjos existed.
An openback banjo is a banjo with an open back, a no-brainer. It's not so easy however to define what a clawhammer banjo is. It's a very modern development. Most classical examples of banjos used for clawhammer, e.g. Whyte Laydies, Tubaphones, were not designed with clawhammer in mind. They were thought for finger-picking, and outside the folk music realm.
I think a real clawhammer banjo is a banjo designed to sound nice especially for the clawhammer player, a relatively modern thing. The Goldtone BC-350 comes to mind. But nothing speaks against finger-picking those instruments.
Emiel
Hi everyone,
Yes, many great fingerpickers, indeed some of the best that ever were, used openback banjos. They weren't called "openback" then, they were simply "banjos." :-)
The one time I heard a Goldtone Bob Carlin up close, it was in a band session & being played 2-finger style by a very good old-time fingerpicker. The tone was very nice & fat & the volume good with bare fingers. Though he was below the 5th fret at the time, for some fingerpicking styles, I would imagine that the scoop would interfere with the G chord in the high D (14th fret) position.
G
http://www.nowhereradio.com/emiel
http://www.bluerounders.com
chip arnold - Posted - 05/07/2007: 10:50:48
Gail said: "I would imagine that the scoop would interfere with the G chord in the high D (14th fret) position."
A scoop does take several frets away from the banjo. I like the sound of picking out at the edge of the pot and I place my hand so that my index is picking just inside the tension hoop and my thumb is just outside. I had a Bart Reiter on which I made a little brass shelf on the side of the neck to rest my middle, ring and little fingers on so I could play over the "sweert spot" but as Gail said about the scoop, it got in the way of using those frets.
Play with a plan
Chip
