Been playing about a year. Have a teacher and plan on continuing for sure. He has helped me tremendously and feel I def need a lot more guidance there. But I am hungry to see what is out there for a beginner to intermediate level as far as finding more music..Books? Internet? Any suggestions?? Just tinkering this am. TY
The Scruggs (black) book and the Scruggs Songbook ought to be in any "scruggs' " collection.
These tunes might interest you,, beginners & early intermediate.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsI...Yd9C2keUj
quote:
Originally posted by TikiJeffBeen playing about a year. Have a teacher and plan on continuing for sure. He has helped me tremendously and feel I def need a lot more guidance there. But I am hungry to see what is out there for a beginner to intermediate level as far as finding more music..Books? Internet? Any suggestions?? Just tinkering this am. TY
Check out this guy. As well as a great online resource Ben also holds Cabin Camps at various location across the USA. Virtual Camps Online with guest teachers. Sign up for a FREE Silver Pick Membership with FREE access to 3 full lessons to help you decide if you want to head down this path.
How would you describe your current level of ability? Where you are now and what you would like to accomplish next have a lot to do with the instructional materials you might consider.
That being said, Fred's suggestion of Banjo Ben's school is very good. Ben Clark offers plenty of material for players at all steps of the beginner and intermediate levels. Besides sampling his free Silver Pick membership, you can go to this YouTube page, which is a playlist of all the free teaser versions of all his banjo lessons and other banjo content. There's a lot! You can see if he covers the type of material you want to pay for.
I frequently suggest Tony Trischka's school on ArtistWorks. Noam Pikelny and Alison Brown have schools there, too. But Tony's has been there for about 15 years so he has way more content at all levels. Lots of lessons focused on technique and concepts to add to your improvisational skills.
Artistworks always has a sale going on. Right now it's $120 off a 12-month subscription, which is half price. Full year typically costs $19.99/month billed annually, which is $239.88. The code VOICE12 at checkout takes off $120. If you do subscribe to ArtistWorks here's a tip: immediately go to your account page and turn off auto renewal. Otherwise, your membership renews at full price. What I do is renew each year during a sale, so I'm always paying half price. They allow that. Then I turn off auto renew and repeat the process. You can also subscribe for one or three months to see how you like it.
Some of the best free banjo lessons are the 170+ videos posted by former Hangout member John Boulding in his "Lick of the Week" series from 2008 to 2013. It was way more than licks. Here's an index to all his lessons, grouped and categorized by topic.
Good luck.
I purchased a used copy of the scruggs book a couple years ago but honestly didn't find it all that useful, or to be better than the information you can find on youtube and places like here... I'm sure in its time it was one of if not the best source to learn from, but you have loads of choices now. The giant tab library here is a great source for learning new breaks & songs and won't cost you a cent.
If you have the basics down and can play rolls and have learned slides, hammers, pulloffs, those kind of frills, you probably don't need a beginner book.
You might check out some of Alan Munde's books as he has several that are NOT beginner but get you into melodic and doing your own breaks.
Janet Davis' Back Up Banjo is a great addition to your library. When you start jammin' with others, you'll do more backup than anything else.
Janet Davis' Up the Neck and Splittin' the Licks are also excellent reference books that will help you with learning up the neck breaks and doing some of your own breaks.
Eddie Collins has an intermediate book that might be of interest.
I'm sure there are other books out there that would help but right now my mind is blank. I'm sure others will fill in those blanks.
If you aren't familiar with chords and chord sequences to songs, that's something your teacher could probably help you learn more so than a book, as he or she could play lead while you did backup and vice versa.
Here's a few banjo repertoire sourcebooks to check out :
halleonard.com/product-family/...d-edition
halleonard.com/product/699516/...d-edition
halleonard.com/product/1400328...fake-book
halleonard.com/product/2501685...favorites
just tabs out the melodies - build your own arrangements:
melbay.com/Products/20850M/par...anjo.aspx
halleonard.com/product/1400466...-songbook
quote:
Originally posted by TikiJeffBeen playing about a year. Have a teacher and plan on continuing for sure. He has helped me tremendously and feel I def need a lot more guidance there. But I am hungry to see what is out there for a beginner to intermediate level as far as finding more music..Books? Internet? Any suggestions?? Just tinkering this am. TY
You've been given some good suggestions here. But I have a different suggestion for you. Start by talking with your teacher.
Every teacher's approach is a bit different, but as a teacher myself, my approach isn't to build repertoire - it's to build a solid foundation of technique using repertoire to keep things interesting. I use a fairly specific progression of songs (with modifications based on the student) intended to develop specific skills. Those foundational skills then make expansion into new repertoire faster and easier, and facilitate developing skills at jamming. And jamming is what it's all about!
I can assure you that when students have fire in their bellies and want to stretch? There's nothing more gratifying for a teacher. My teachers were glad when I did, and today I am ALWAYS happy when students try to push beyond the curriculum and expand. At the same time, I DON'T want students spending huge amounts of time adding new songs when, say for example, they still can't do a crisp 3-2 third string pulloff.
So start with a conversation. You may very well be pleasantly surprised to find your teacher actually has some good stuff that you'll like and haven't been exposed to yet. And I assure you that your teacher will NOT be upset that you want to stretch. Quite the contrary!
Edited by - eagleisland on 05/17/2025 05:45:49
You might have these already, but if not, I suggest you start learning the repertoire typically played at jams. Here are a few resources:
The first two assume you can figure out backups and breaks to play or you're using these books as you learn that.
Edited by - dfstd on 05/17/2025 05:58:00
One of the best things you can do for your general musicianship--and it's something that many students neglect--is to figure out melodies on your instrument BY YOURSELF. I'm not talking about banjo arrangements; just the notes you would sing.
It's laborious at first, but gets easier the more you do it. Here's why it's so valuable: you're forging a link between the sounds you hear someone else play, or the sounds you hear in your mind, and the places on the fingerboard where those sounds can be played--and also what your hands have to do to get to those places.
If you haven't done this before, I can help. I teach a lot--mainly beginners--and show this to all of my students pretty early on.
Oh wow great stuff...Can not say thank you enough. yes I am paying to be taught so just staying within' what I am learning. Like I said, my teacher is the best and I see what track he has me on currently. I have played guitar for many years and I am always thirsty for more. :) Def not going to overstep what I am learning from a great teacher like I have but I do get a great rush out of, just following some new TAB lessons etc on my own when I get time in between practicing what my teacher gives me. Being able to recognize what I have learned and what is in the TAB is enlightening and shows me that every dollar I spend on lessons is worth it. Thank you allll, Just being able to look over the links and suggestions you all graciously sent me is a great incentive to keep on picking. Thanks ya'll
Grab a bunch of books,old BNLs,Oak books,Banjo Fakebook,etc.
You never know what might catch your interest.
I searched out tabs of fiddletunes because I'm into fiddletunes and they can be a bit overwhelming at first.
I struggled with Huckleberry Hornpipe until I saw Alan Munde's tab in an issue of "Frets".
