Dinkey's Reel nylon string Tenor Banjo

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All Forums / Playing the Banjo / Playing Advice: 4-String (Irish Trad Music & Related Styles)

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Apr 15, 2025 - 2:33:27 PM

1 person likes this

Paul Roberts

USA

4477 posts since 12/3/2008

I got the idea of thumb/1st finger picking from Gordon Johnston, tenor banjoist from the north of England. Gordon uses thumb, 1st and second, and he gets some lighting fast triplets. Besides the relaxed playing hand position that finger-style affords, the rocking back and forth, between thumb and finger, lends itself to a kind of "internal-rocking", which feels like you're syncopating the rhythm. It also gives allows to construct a foreground/background relationship between the skeleton of the melody and the notes that surround it; something that much easier to do, I think, than playing with a flatpick, which - for me - tends to create a more lineal, "flatter" texture. These aspects of fingerstyle single-string playing were what attracted me to the idea when I first heard Gordon Johnston play.

Apr 15, 2025 - 2:45:02 PM

tdennis

3582 posts since 3/30/2008

Beautiful job ! Those strings sound great.

Apr 15, 2025 - 6:10:56 PM

Paul Roberts

USA

4477 posts since 12/3/2008

quote:
Originally posted by tdennis
Beautiful job ! Those strings sound great.

Thank you!

Apr 16, 2025 - 2:09:48 AM

pasdimo

France

384 posts since 12/7/2017

Great !
I play tenor banjo (CGDA), I use ordinary pick and finger picks like this guy. Finger picks provide a loud, clear sound and precise articulation, but need practicing.

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