When I started clawhammer many years ago I read about the Classic Banjo style. I listened to a few recordings and bought the Mel Bay book but decided it wasn't for me. (I guess clawhammer also was not for me as I switched to tenor banjo.) The first and only time I heard a live performance of Classic Banjo was a little over a year ago in a wonderfully executed and entertaining performance by Ethan Schwartz at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Since then, as far as I know, Classic Banjo has gone quiet around here.

It’s an interesting question because it opens a discussion of finger-style in general, or classic-interest more specifically, as social music.

It was and is, on one level, social music. But it quirkily retains its pre-folk revival form of informal performance. It is a style that has avoided the cultural food processor of successive 20th century folk revivals that re-constituted most social music into a modern puree that we refer to as a ‘session’.

Finger-style as a technique is perfectly adaptable to a session setting. Classic-interest, as centred around a historic repertoire, is more suited to low-key solo or accompanied performance.

Personally I love to hear historic repertoire in solo, banjo duet (1st and 2nd parts) and banjo with piano or piccolo accompaniment. I’ve never heard a banjo band arrangement That blend of parts would probably sound great too. However, I have been subjected to multiple banjos (and I mean multiple) all playing the solo lead of a historic piece. Had there been a means of rendering myself unconscious near at hand I would’ve taken it. That was never how such fine compositions were meant to be heard!

The smoking concert or 'smoker' was a very popular social venue for these low-key performances. The smoker is long gone, but there are modern near-equivalent social music settings.

We have a rally twice a year near Rochester. Next one is in October. Free to attend. I’ll be giving a concert so you can come and hear me play “stock pieces” such as Sextet From Lucia di Lammermoor, Anvil Chorus, Devil’s March, Spring Song, stuff like that.

But we also jam on easy stuff, jigs, reels and “standards” that are generally known.

Banjo group, new composition by Gavin Rice (on the right).

youtu.be/vE1h2Ep6jck?is=LnOOw8E6hnb7JsJS

One player can be fine to me --As far as a jam-- on one or two with a chord chart might get good results and might be a crash and burn--But orchestrated arrangements are a completely different music that interlaces much more

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Originally posted by Joel Hooks

Banjo group, new composition by Gavin Rice (on the right).

youtu.be/vE1h2Ep6jck?is=LnOOw8E6hnb7JsJS

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wonderful Joel--I think I heard a bit of the classic western/swing 4-2-1 6 --==in that one part--

I thinks it’s also important to identify that finger-style, particularly in relation to historical repertoire or modern composition of similar type, offers a form that is also complete in itself.

I also play clawhammer and OT and my strong instinct is to seek others to play with. To the extent that I actually see myself as incomplete in that genre, the banjo ‘half’ - looking for my ‘other half’ in the shape of a fiddle playing friend.

In contrast I have no such instinct or desire in relation to finger-style; instead I feel entirely fulfilled simply as me and my banjo. Self-contained. Solo engagement with more challenging music is enough to keep me fully interested.

Rochester, NY?

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Originally posted by malarz

Rochester, NY?

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Yes.

https://banjofraternity.org/rally-news/

Historically, classic style was THE style and therefore was played all over the place. Today, its practitioners are spread out around the USA, England, and the rest of the world.

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Originally posted by malarz

The first and only time I heard a live performance of Classic Banjo was a little over a year ago in a wonderfully executed and entertaining performance by Ethan Schwartz at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Since then, as far as I know, Classic Banjo has gone quiet around here.

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Ken -- I'm glad you could make it. Keep an eye out for news of a subsequent performance in Spring 2027.

There are many reminiscences in print describing the past generation of finger-style players meeting up socially to play what we refer to as historical repertoire, but which was to them simply banjo music.

In those informal ad-hoc settings (not for public performance) there might be four friends. They did not generally all play the lead or solo part. Maybe two did, but the others would either know, or improvise, an accompanying or 2nd banjo part. Not exactly a ‘session’ but a means of social banjo playing that prioritised and enabled the harmonised sound of banjos played together. Not uncommon that these musical gatherings of friends would last well into the early hours.

As contemporary banjo players we've been convinced away from that traditional, musically-savvy informal social banjo setting. Instead modern social banjo playing in sessions all bangs out a melody or 1st part in unison by rote like the musical equivalent of headless chickens...to the detriment of our instrument. We've allowed ourselves to be dumbed down by default. Why?

Most likely the relatively sudden, wholesale shift away from a basic, foundational musical grounding in notation is the root cause. That change detached the banjo from a connection to, and relationship with, harmony and ensemble playing. The Blindman's Bluff implicit in the 'join-the-dots' of tab became the new 'normal'. We then simply got amnesia by encultured neglect. And consequently became detached from possibility.