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Articles & Books From Bill Evans
Here’s the quick way to get pickin’ with the best of ‘em The banjo is both a staple of old-time music and an instrument that makes frequent cameos in today’s chart toppers. Whatever your musical leanings, Banjo For Dummies will show you how to pick your way around your instrument, even if you have zero musical background!
Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-25-2022
The picking-hand sequences known as roll patterns are what gives bluegrass banjo its unique and incredible sound. It’s important for these patterns to become completely second nature, because you use them in all aspects of bluegrass banjo playing.Melodic and single-string banjo techniques offer alternative ways to play based around scales.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 01-31-2022
Knowing how to interpret chord diagrams and being able to read banjo tablature, the written form of music for the banjo, will pave the way for a much smoother road ahead on all of your banjo adventures. Becoming familiar with the most important chords and essential right-hand techniques will put you in the fast lane for having more fun playing music with others.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Bluegrass banjo players live in the world of G! The open strings of your banjo are tuned to a G chord, most of the songs you play will be in the key of G, and you’ll encounter the G chord most frequently in chord progressions. For all these reasons, you simply can’t have enough G licks. The phrases you’ll encounter here lay the foundation for great bluegrass banjo playing.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
D licks can be real bluegrass banjo attention getters. This is probably because bluegrass banjo players have come up with a lot of creative things to play when this chord inevitably pops up in a song. Most of these licks are based around different roll patterns. If you grasp the picking‐hand moves first, you can then more easily add fretting‐hand techniques to play each phrase smoothly.
Step by Step / Updated 02-01-2017
Fill‐in licks comprise a special category of phrases that are treated by bluegrass banjo players with special reverence. You call upon a fill‐in lick when there’s a break in the musical activity of some kind, as when a singer takes a breath between the lines of a song lyric. You can also use one or more fill‐in licks to raise the musical temperature for the final measures of your next banjo solo.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Bluegrass banjo players can’t live by G alone, no matter how much they may wish this were true! It’s now time to look at ten great‐sounding licks based around the C chord, which is the chord you’ll often encounter just after you play a G lick in a song (and sometimes — as in the songs “This Land Is Your Land” and “John Hardy” — the C chord is the first chord you’ll play).
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The alternating thumb roll is the first thing you might play on the bluegrass banjo if you were taking a leisurely stroll down a country road on a spring morning with banjo in hand. Sometimes called the thumb‐in‐and‐out roll, the easygoing sway of the alternating thumb roll is at the heart of classic songs like “Cripple Creek” and “I’ll Fly Away.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Tablature is the written form of music for the banjo. While it looks much like conventional music, tablature provides banjo-specific information, such as what string you play and whether the string is open or fretted.
The five horizontal lines represent the five strings of your banjo, with the top line corresponding to the 1st string and the bottom representing the 5th string.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Although the five-string banjo is by far the most popular type of banjo being played today, decades ago the most popular banjos in the first half of the 20th century were four-string tenor and plectrum banjos. These banjos are really different instruments and shouldn't be confused with the five-string banjo.
Understanding the differences between banjos is important, because before you begin your adventure, you need to make sure you're traveling with the right kind of equipment.