I'm mostly a clawhammer player and I have been playing in a bluegrass slow jam sessions for a while. I'm trying to figure out my role in this group. I don't think clawhammer is fitting very well for most songs and tunes, and is just not loud enough with my instrument anyway. I think I can lead with clawhammer, but not comp. I tried just strumming like tenor banjoist might but I have a feeling that I am just competing for the guitarist's role in the ensemble. So I started playing 2-finger to comp to other's lead and I think it might compliment the other musicians better. I am not even using finger picks but can be heard in the jam. I am looking for advice from bluegrass players. (If your reaction is to advise me to learn Scruggs style, that is not where I am going.)
Is there a role for 2-finger comping. Are there any videos or resources that you can recommend?
Two finger backup should work just fine in a bluegrass jam. It is an underappreciated aspect of 2F style. To that end, I have an entire lesson series on YouTube (free) dedicated to playing backup in the 2F style.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL00z9mDkwwfcg80hfENImWHO6PducoOiH&si=QG8FQyQT0VsyEsjx
There is always a role for singing bluegrass and good country songs in a jam no matter how many fingers you use.
May I at least suggest you try three-finget vamping? Probably the same thing you're calling comping. A three-finger simultaneous pinch of a three-fretted-notes chord with an immediate release of fretting pressure (but string contact maintained) to quickly deaden the sound. Comparable to mandolin chop.
Or a two-finger version of Pete Seeger's "bum-ditty." Maybe that's what you're doing.
A clawhammer player comes to one bluegrass jam I sometimes attend and he manages to fit in. He'll call songs that can go either old-timey or bluegrass.
If they're not telling you to stay away, keep doing whatever you can make fit.
Nothing wrong with just vamping along with the music. That should fit in just fine. If you want to try some sort of a roll, just try a 2 finger back and forth motion on 2 different strings (as long as the chord blends in).
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