DVD-quality lessons (including tabs/sheet music) available for immediate viewing on any device.
Take your playing to the next level with the help of a local or online banjo teacher.
Weekly newsletter includes free lessons, favorite member content, banjo news and more.

Posted by JanetB, written by Michael Gorman
[download]
- Play count: 277
Size: 2,281kb, uploaded 9/22/2023 2:31:52 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Written in 1922, this upbeat tune had six parts notated for fiddle and I play three here.
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 225
Size: 801kb, uploaded 3/14/2015 4:55:24 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This week's Tune of the Week was in honor of St. Patrick's Day. It's actually a drinking song about a man who was disliked and the town celebrates upon his death. You've got to hear the lyrics to appreciate it, so tune in to: http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/300790
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 57
Size: 5,043kb, uploaded 7/12/2025 4:35:34 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
A song from an 1800's hymnal, being brought back to life, as the departed souls are promised to be in the last verse.
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 102
Size: 1,762kb, uploaded 12/30/2023 11:04:34 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
From the playing of West Virginian Jimmy Triplett via a Mose Coffman recording. Who is this she-possum?!
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 131
Size: 921kb, uploaded 10/29/2017 9:50:57 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
One more try for the old-time Tune of the Week, 10/27/17. This time it's in the 2-finger style -- a very simple, play-the-words version.
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 157
Size: 1,172kb, uploaded 10/27/2017 11:25:54 AM
Genre: Traditional / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This traditional song is one dear to my heart, the old-time Tune of the Week for 10/27/17, also called I Gave My Love a Cherry. Since the poster, Cyndy, did such a beautiful job in open G tuning I thought to look for another tuning to try and found bDGAD. It's listed as "A Tony Trischka D/G tuning" in the Anita Kermode list of tunings I like referring to. Funny, but my 5th string didn't like being tuned down that low. It get tuning itself back up! I think it gives the song an old-time mountain feeling, which is good, since it was an old English song brought to Appalachia by settlers.
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 142
Size: 1,663kb, uploaded 3/16/2016 6:02:30 PM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
An emotionally charge title with a melody to match.
1 comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 695
Size: 1,113kb, uploaded 8/24/2016 4:18:51 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This old tune was in the well-known fiddle tune book Knauff's Virginia Reels, published in 1839. I've heard good "source recordings" from Burl Hammons and Henry Reed. My arrangement is from listening to Alan Jabbour with Tommy Thompson on banjo on The Hollow Rock String Band CD, recently re-released as a 2-CD set called The Hollow Rock Legacy. The Route is one of those tunes that has a familiar feeling, even the first time you hear it.
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 595
Size: 815kb, uploaded 10/12/2013 4:32:01 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Learned from the banjo playing of John Herrmann accompanying Art Stamper's fiddle. For the Tune of the Week, Oct. 11 2013.
1 comment
Posted by JanetB, written by Kenny Baker
[download]
- Play count: 198
Size: 2,581kb, uploaded 6/20/2017 6:09:11 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
It's always a challenge to arrange a Kenny Baker tune for clawhammer banjo, but his music is so good that it's fun to try. The cello banjo chimes in a bit, too.
2 comments
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 227
Size: 826kb, uploaded 4/27/2014 1:48:38 PM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen
For the Tune of the Week, 4/25/14, this tune is one of Samuel Bayard's Hill Country Tune collection, available on line. It feels like a hornpipe to me. Check out this week's old-time TOTW. Learned from the fiddle and harmonica recording of Pennsylvanians Mark Tamsula and Richard Withers who have specialized in making recordings from Samuel Bayard's extensive work.
3 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Donall MacConmara
[download]
- Play count: 2236
Size: 993kb, uploaded 1/23/2012 6:15:28 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
An Irish waltz included in the early 1800's harp collections of Edward Bunting, who also collected many of O'Carolan's pieces.
3 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Greg Brown
[download]
- Play count: 277
Size: 838kb, uploaded 7/22/2011 10:22:52 AM
Genre: Other / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Jimmie Rodgers had an effect on lots of people back then. We can still appreciate him now.
4 comments
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 846
Size: 2,686kb, uploaded 5/31/2017 8:42:26 AM
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
This traditional air honors the Irish soldiers who left Ireland to fight for France. The last time they left marked the 1691 Treaty of Limerick , a momentous time in Ireland's history which ended the Williamite war and the reign of King James, who left, too, after the Battle of the Boyne (which has a namesake tune as well). When the Chieftains recorded The Wild Geese they were picturing women singing on shore while the soldiers sailed off forevermore to fight elsewhere. At the end of my recording listen for the geese flying off...
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 750
Size: 1,316kb, uploaded 4/5/2014 5:01:10 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
Listening to Ed Haley, it's hard to clearly hear his fiddling. This was Tune of the Week for 3/28/14 and has 3 parts instead of 2 in the other examples of historic recordings for this tune. After looking at a map we found there are actually three forks of the Big Sandy River, so it makes sense to have three parts. I wonder if Ed Haley performed on that river and wish the John Hartford book about his life would be published, even if unfinished.
5 comments
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 167
Size: 2,106kb, uploaded 1/13/2018 3:37:31 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, this is a three part tune from Ohio which reminds me a bit of Devil's Dream. I play it clawhammer style melodically and can see it eventually becoming more rhythmic and less notey. But here it is for now, from the original recording on Slippery Hill by Ohio fiddler John Hutchison who learned it from his father who learned it from another fiddler.
4 comments
Posted by JanetB, written by Jordan Wankoff
[download]
- Play count: 487
Size: 1,328kb, uploaded 10/2/2015 11:18:16 AM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
For the old-time Tune of the Week, 10/2/2015, Tippin' Back the Corn was written by a Chicago fiddler, Jordan Wankoff. This version comes from Lynn Chirp Smith's fiddling. I wouldn't be tipping back the corn, but I do feel its joyfulness!
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 85
Size: 2,928kb, uploaded 10/24/2025 5:13:51 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
In topics:
TOTW 10/24/2025 Tippy or Johnny or Gippy Get Your Hair Cut/Hey or Pretty, B
A fun little tune where I keep singing the more common B part in my head, "Johnny, get your hair cut, hair cut, hair cut..."
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 41
Size: 3,661kb, uploaded 10/25/2025 1:50:50 PM
Genre: Old Time / Playing Style: Clawhammer and Old-Time
In topics:
TOTW 10/24/2025 Tippy or Johnny or Gippy Get Your Hair Cut/Hey or Pretty, B
Using cello banjo, this recording adds chordal accompaniment to the previous solo banjo posted for Tune of the Week.
Add Comment
Posted by JanetB
[download]
- Play count: 1010
Size: 815kb, uploaded 11/22/2011 5:45:29 PM
Genre: Unknown/None Chosen / Playing Style: Unknown/None Chosen
Played on my Deering Calico, learned from James Bryan's fiddling of Tombigbee Waltz and John Hartford's version of Gum Tree Canoe.
4 commentsCopyright Notice:
You are allowed to post recordings of yourself performing:
- public-domain (non-copyrighted) songs
- original songs written by yourself
- songs written by someone else and licensed through ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC
Anything posted in violation of this notice may be removed by the webmaster without prior notice, and may result in your myHangout account being locked. Read complete copyright policy.