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Clawhammer Banjo

Category: Banjo

Level: 2/3

The more advanced elements of instrumental musicianship, those being arranging your own versions of tunes, chasing unknown tunes in a jam, and improvising solo breaks or variations on the fly all have one thing in common: they require a certain level of comfort and courage on the banjo. But by their very nature, these are the self-reliant musical skills that pick up where tablature leaves off. In this fun level 2/3 Clawhammer Banjo intensive, Ryan Harlin will be showing the techniques he uses to approach arranging, learning and improvising his own melodies. There will be a focus on fundamental banjo techniques, but more specifically how those techniques form the backbone of our banjo vocabulary and help us speak more freely, playfully, and fluently on our instrument.

Prerequisites:

To get the most out of our time together, students should have a solid fundamental bum-ditty clawhammer stroke and experience learning and playing some tunes at a consistent tempo. We will be spending some time in standard tuning and double-C tuning. However prior extensive experience with double-C tuning isn’t required.

One excellent preparation you could do prior to camp would be to practice singing tunes you might already know on banjo as a vocal melody. By doing so, you’ll already be developing the critical skill of distilling a sometimes ornamental banjo arrangement down into its core melodic DNA.

Person with long hair and glasses smiling, wearing a tan jacket over a gray shirt, seated in a room with audio equipment and a guitar in the background.

Taught by:

Ryan Harlin