For those who admire and wish to learn the style of Mark (claw-grass) Johnson

49 Members, Created 11/3/2012 -

Administrators: ronwalker49 (owner)

How I started

From ronwalker49 on 11/18/2012 2:27:06 AM

Last year I took the plunge and ordered Mark Johnson's Claw-grass instructional video and it is changing my approach to playing the Banjo

I have been playing Fiddle & Guitar since the age of 10 or 11 and started Scruggs style Banjo around 1970 about the time I married Donna...Always a very aggressive (loud) finger picker she finally told me she'd had enough banjo, it was in her face all the time...So it stayed under the bed and I played other things.

Then our Son (also a multi-instrumentalist) brought a good-time banjo home from New England and introduced me to claw-hammer.I had never heard anything other than Grand-paw Jones and wasn't interested...But I suddenly realized the possibilities and was hooked...Donna loved it...

Took me a couple of years to learn to Frail because after almost 40 yrs of my thumb supplying the downbeat, all that was changing...

Wishing I had discovered Marks video much sooner, I decided to watch and listen for a very long time...Having learned many things musically in the last 50+yrs I decided to use care in my learning process....

So, I set up my movie camera in front of my computer and filmed the entire Video, and using Windows Movie-maker, made short clips of his instructions on critical techniques--All the songs-even made mp3's for my phone and mp3 player which I set to play all night while sleeping...

The first thing I learned was I should have been trying to incorporate drop-thumb and Marks way of doing Scruggs type rolls into the music (which is now giving me fits), from the very beginning...Don't you hate having to remove a nail that has been hammered in below the surface..?.It always leaves a mark, don't it..?

Anyway, I will not post any part of Marks Video here or anywhere else--I will probably never learn to play like he does because I am 63 yrs old and carrying around too much baggage...But I am doing my level best to learn this and intend to apply it to "other" Bluegrass tunes, and will help anyone who asks for it...

It took me four days to get the 1st Video posted (Little Sadie), and it was very hard to play it that slow...But what I am trying to do is give beginners something they can do very quickly and encourage them...With all my years of experience and the countless hrs I have put into this, I am still not very far along..Most of the time it happens all at once for me ( when I finally get the door pried open)....It would be almost impossible for a true beginner..

So Mark-John, any insights-opinions-or sage wisdom you have to offer will be received as such and greatly appreciated..

I read in a ancient book once that if I seek him first that he will give me the desires of my heart... I'd like to point out that my two favorite banjo pickers of all time are both members of this group and offering to help..How could it be any better than that...

5 Comments
	MarkJohnson says: 11/18/2012 1:47:27 PM Hello Ron, Thanks for writing.... OH! where to start! Whan I teach around the country, I always say that you have to crawl before you can walk and when I teach my banjo style I say: You have to "frail" before you can do the "Note, Brush, Thumb" which leads to the basic drop thumb (clawhammer)exercises and then the roll patterns that I use in my playing. ( I play a kind of three finge clawhammer where I use "economy of movement thinking" where I will catch the melody note by using the (right hand) finger closest to where I find that melody note. The reason for this is that you need to teach your right hand "muscle memory" and placement of the thumb in frailing will ultimately lead to accuracy and precision when you start playing the drop thumb or clawhammer styles. Thumb placement becomes even more important when you begin the roll patterns used in playing backup clawhammer and lead cawhammer banjo playing.....especially when you start creating "clawhammer banjo licks" up and down the neck. A simple frailing technique is to use the right hand thumb and middle finger (not the index) and do a "Brush,Brush Thumb" movement. And when you want to play a tune or melody, play (brush) just the strings in "pairs" - strings 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4. Try playing "wildwood flower" in the frailing style using "Pairs" of strings to bring out the melody and using the Brush, Brush, Thumb method of frailing. Mark
	ronwalker49 says: 11/18/2012 3:45:07 PM OK Mark, I'm on it....Glad to find out I have been on the right track after all..I have done a lot of frailing in the last couple of yrs so I will start with the brushing of string pairs in wild wood flower...One question, do you hit the adjacent string as well as the melody note, or am I getting the cart before the horse...
	ronwalker49 says: 11/18/2012 3:57:55 PM Mark I forgot to ask you what tuning for wild-wood flower..
	MarkJohnson says: 11/18/2012 4:07:38 PM Wildwood flower can be in G,A or Double C / Double D.......WHat ever your ear tells you. On playing the pairs of strings is accompanied by playing partial chords within the chord shape...... Wish I could show you....Mark
	ronwalker49 says: 11/18/2012 4:32:47 PM You are doing a very good job of explaining it...I have a first attempt almost worked out in G and as soon as I can play it even reasonably well I will post it OK got ya on the cord shapes... I don't have to go back in the Hospital until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving so I plan to take it easy for the next ten days and just work on my Banjo...With any luck I will just pick up a couple more stints & be back in business...Thanks for the Tips...
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