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Fingerstyle Productions
Wendy Holman
April 2008

Styles of banjo music/technique which may influence your choice of instrument:

Mountain Banjo Style

Mountain Banjo Style is based on a picking/strumming/thumbing action – check out the vid clip on the Fingerstyle Video Player - Mountain Banjo dvds, to see a demo.
This style will get you off and racing. Put in 20% effort, get 80% result. It's a type of frailing or, clawhammer, but instead of all downpicking Mountain up-picks instead - this makes it easier to adapt to bluegrass at a later stage. The core sequence of pick, brush and follow that is the heart of Mountain banjo can be used to accompany songs, alternating between strings and adding more banjoisms such as hammers, pulloffs and slides as your confidence grows. There’s plenty of music written for Mountain banjo/Clawhammer style; Tim Jumper’s Book – Banjo Players Songbook (an Oak publication) contains over 200 well-known songs with tab written in this style.

Bluegrass Banjo Style

Bluegrass banjo is associated with Earl Scruggs, the father of bluegrass banjo. It's a style based on fingerpicking patterns using thumb and two fingers, called rolls. Fast bluegrass is exciting; it makes your heart beat faster but takes more hard yacker to get results - drills and exercises and care in technique. Bluegrass is more demanding to master and absolute beginers sometimes have difficulty hearing the tune amongst all the other notes. The quick answer to that is to listen to lots of bluegrass music. You learn a lot by listening to different versions of the same song. In songs, (as opposed to instrumentals) the tune carried by the singer is often the basis for the banjo solo – especially if the banjo kicks off the song.

Whatever style of music or type of banjo you choose, you're never too old or too young to start

In a nutshell, if you are well co-ordinated and have lots of time, you’ll be fine starting with bluegrass style. If you're more cautious and have never played an instrument before start with Mountain style. Half way through the 2 x dvd Fingerstyle Mountain Banjo Course, bring the bluegrass rolls into your practice sessions - that way you're still making music and having fun while preparing for the greater challenges of Bluegrass.

Some common denominators:

• Both styles use the same tuning. (Mountain Banjo style can progress to some fascinating alternative tunings.)
• Both styles can be played on a resonator banjo. (Shift your hand from bridge to fingerboard for the mellow sound needed for Mountain and perhaps use bare fingers) Later you may decide that Mountain is where it’s at and change your resonator/bluegrass instrument for an Old Time/open-back banjo for a lighter instrument and a more mellow tone.
• Both styles use the same chords.
• Both styles allow a variety of accompaniment techniques (called back-up) to the voice in sing-a-longs.
• An open-back banjo weighs less – perhaps a consideration for people with neck or back problems.
  

5-string banjo is such a happy sound, satisfying to play on your own, versatile, and lots of fun when you start jamming with other people. I've played piano, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and banjo in my music career but banjo speaks to me in a unique way - capable of saying something new each time I pick it up. Regardless of style of music the banjo(s) you eventually own can be a real influence to push through the difficult bits, a pleasure to listen to and an inspiration to go off! Buy the best you can afford – you’ll be glad you did – and so will anybody who’s listening!

Happy Picking!