We live in a pretty amazing time in regards to our instrument the banjo. Never in history has one had the level of learning resources we have access to today. It is pretty unbelievable.
I often promote the "Mel Bay Banjo Method" by Frank C. Bradbury as the textbook of learning. This is still in print (though I recommend getting the original two volume set off ebay for cheap).
And I am recommending that again here. But along with that there is mountains of supplemental material. More than a lifetime worth.
I've lately been enjoying the US School of Music Correspondence Course as the lessons go in to a bit more detail the usual. Sadly, the music has many typos and this would be very frustrating to beginners.
It is a little unbalanced in regards to the grading of music, and it focuses a lot of ink on "tremolo", but the lessons might be helpful for generally learning to play musically.
archive.org/details/home-study...ic-foden/
While working out of the Mel Bay Method, you might want to look at Bradbury's earlier work. This remains an excellent method for learning banjo as well as being a great reference book.
archive.org/details/bradburymo...dforbanjo
If one puts in a little effort to work through the Mel Bay Method (which they only have to do once) they will be well on their way to playing anything they want on fingerstyle banjo.
Edited by - Joel Hooks on 08/14/2026 08:54:38
Joel has suggested above a number of thorough and dependable finger-style tutor books.
Using his link to the Home Study Lessons, U.S. School of Music method, this is a downloadable sound file to accompany Lesson 1 - Open String Exercise (6):
Edited by - EEB on 08/16/2026 02:46:14
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