New player - looking for more information - Two Finger Pickers Group Blog

Premier Sponsors

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue, we will assume that you agree to our privacy policy which includes details of cookie usage. Hide this notice

Two Finger Pickers

Join This Group

For the eclectic banjo player who counts 2-finger styles among their tools of the trade.

515 Members, Created 1/31/2011 -

Administrators: stigandr5 (owner) , Marc Nerenberg , revellfa

< Back to Home

New player - looking for more information

From Bowyer on 5/22/2011 2:11:10 PM

Hi there I'm new to this site and completely new to the banjo! I've been finger picking guitar for 30 years. Having just bought my first banjo. I'm experimenting with different styles to play old time music. Bluegrass doesn't really appeal to me, and whist I'm starting to learn clawhammer it seems a very unnatural way to play. The old time two finger and three finger styles, however, sit very easily on the banjo for a guitar picker.

Two quick questions to you guys:-

1) do you use a thumb pick for this style? (Always had problems with my thumb nail breaking)

2) Where apart from www.2ftlbanjer.com can you find tabs or learn more about this style (or the Dock Boggs 3 finger style?)

Thanks

5 Comments
	Marc Nerenberg says: 5/22/2011 2:19:20 PM Picks are a matter of peresonal preference. Most probably don't use them, but many do - including some of th venerable old time heroes.
	majikgator says: 5/22/2011 3:27:58 PM Picks are ok if you like them. For other sources on old time two and three finger picking try Art Rosenbaum's The Art of the Mountain Banjo, it cover 2 & # finger tunes as well as clawhammer, not exactly the easiest material in the world though, and there is a Dock Boggs tune there in pretty much his style. Then there is MIke Seegers DVDs Southern Banjo Styles vol. 1 - 3 and his Old-Time Banjo Styles DVD, these cover many different old time styles 2 & 3 finger and claw and all sorts of variations of those. Jan-Olov here at BHO also has some two finger tabs and i think a couple three finger as well. Paul Brown doesn't but i sure wish he did.
	majikgator says: 5/22/2011 3:29:51 PM Oh yeah don't forget Chip Arnold here at BHO for some fine examples of two finger index lead, great stuff.
	Ashkettle says: 6/4/2011 9:50:41 AM I probably should have answered this before, but as a beginner I'm not one to give advice until I'm convinced it's good. Happy Traum has a video (even available through BHO) that starts with 2-Finger Thumb Lead and explains it quite well. In addition, he covers some of the Seeger Strum for the second half of the video. This gives you access to two differing 2-finger styles and lets you see what you are interested in. From what I've picked up though, once you know the basic patterns that Sean has on his site, and a couple examples of them in use, it's not too hard to understand and work it out for yourself.
	Jugband says: 6/26/2011 6:34:51 AM Well Bowyer it looks like I could have written nearly the same thing. Fingerstyle guitar player here fairly new to banjo and more comfortable with 2 finger approach. Nice that banjo hangout has a separate thread for us. Going to Clfftop first time this year and hoping I'll run into some 2 finger players:)
Post a Comment
You must be logged in and a member of this group to post a comment.

Tablature: Hills of Mexico Linked by otmichael 8 months ago
Forum Post: (untitled) Linked by brownsdream 1 year ago
Tablature: Frosty the Snowman Linked by otmichael 2 years ago
Forum Post: (untitled) Linked by brownsdream 2 years ago
Forum Post: (untitled) Linked by brownsdream 2 years ago
Tablature: Cacklin' Hen Linked by Frank vink 2 years ago
Forum Post: (untitled) Linked by brownsdream 3 years ago
Forum Post: (untitled) Linked by brownsdream 3 years ago
	Backup Patterns for Banjo Linked by ipik5 3 years ago
Forum Post: (untitled) Linked by brownsdream 3 years ago