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.
New Interview with Adam Hurt - a work in progress
Paul Roberts:
Adam, it's always seemed to me that you have taken a profoundly different and original approach to banjo by reaching back into history and coming out with your own highly artistic and refined style. Your uniquely exquisite banjo tone and musicality opens a captivating dimension in clawhammer banjo that inspires many players. Many have become players as a result of experiencing the captivating sounds that you have put forth. And, for those who have no aspiration to actually play a banjo your playing provides an appealing musical realm in which to appreciate it. Your original musical arrangements, your work with other high-level musicians, your performing, recording and teaching - all these, and more, have immeasurably elevated the art-form of clawhammer banjo. In fact, if one were not aware of what was happening in the clawhammer banjo world - before about 17 years ago - it might be difficult to recognize how pervasive your influence has been. Since you first appeared on the music scene, many have been taken aback at how sonorous you are able to make a banjo sound. “I never knew a banjo could sound that beautiful,” is a common refrain. Please share something about your feelings concerning banjo tone; how your sense of tone evolved, and some of the noteworthy aspects of how you are able to achieve your signature tone.
Adam Hurt:
Part of the development of my particular approach to tone production was very intentional, and another part of it was subconscious. In my earliest days of playing the banjo, I did what I could to make my right hand and my instrument position match those of my mentors. This was before I had developed much of a sense of the spectrum of clawhammer banjo tone; it just so happened that the players from whom I learned a lot in the beginning all pulled nice, rich tone from their instruments.
A bit later on, though, as I began to listen to and take cues from a broader swath of clawhammer banjo players old and new, I noticed a real variety of tone—and found myself not caring for a lot of it! Rather than attempting to emulate the entire aesthetic of the players whose music I enjoyed but whose tone I didn’t enjoy, I made a decision to do what I could to pull tone from my instrument that I found pleasing and to play whatever I wanted using that kind of tone, even music learned from players with different approaches to tone production. To me, old-time banjo and respect for its iconic players isn’t an all-or-nothing situation; we all can feel free to mix the elements that we like from a range of both specific and general influences to form our own personal styles, and tone production is just one of these elements that is worth exploring to each individual player’s taste.
Much later, as I began teaching others to play the banjo from scratch or hone their preexisting skills, I had to gain a more acute sense of the various larger and smaller contributors to tone production in order to effectively work with learners on this subject. This process of putting my own technique and setup preferences under the microscope showed me so much about how subtle adjustments can have an outsized effect on a player’s tone. I can see why the bluegrass banjo community has long been so hyper-focused on such things: they really do make a difference that is plainly heard!
[To Be Continued...]
Edited by - Paul Roberts on 11/03/2024 05:53:02