Bill Evans

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. These ways of playing are used increasingly in progressive bluegrass banjo styles. Trying out a G-major scale using both techniques reveals the difference in these approaches. Finally, when playing with others, you’ll need to support other musicians with backup techniques. A key to playing great banjo accompaniment is knowing your movable up-the-neck chord shapes, beginning with the F-shape chords.

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 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. Fill‐in licks put the focus on you and your banjo, and they’re an important part of your identity as a bluegrass banjo player. Each of the twelve licks below is worthy of your attention — you’ll want to play them all well. Banjo players owe a huge debt of gratitude to Earl Scruggs for coming up with almost all the ideas used in these licks. Check out the following fill‐in licks:

Article / Updated 06-05-2016

Using a style in Word 2013 makes it easy to apply consistent formatting throughout a document. A style is a named set of formatting specifications. For example, you might apply the Heading 1 style to all headings in the document and the Normal style to all the regular body text. Here are the advantages of this approach: Ease: Applying a style is easier than manually applying formatting. And changing a style’s formatting is a snap. If you want the headings to look different, for example, you can modify the Heading 1 style to change them all at once. Consistency: You don’t have to worry about all the headings being formatted consistently; because they’re all using the same style, they’re automatically all the same. By default, each paragraph is assigned a Normal style. The template in use determines the styles available and how they’re defined. In Word 2013 in documents that use the default blank (Normal) template, the Normal style uses Calibri 11 point font and left-aligns the text, with no indentation. You can redefine the styles in a document, and you can even create your own new styles. In the Styles group on the Home tab is a Styles gallery. (The Styles gallery on the Home tab contains shortcuts for commonly used styles.) The first row appears on the Ribbon itself, and you can see the rest of it by clicking the More button to open the full gallery. Not all styles appear in the Styles gallery — only the ones that are designated to appear there in their definition. The rest of them appear only in the Styles pane. To open the Styles pane, click the dialog box launcher on the Styles group. To apply a style, select the paragraph(s) that you want to affect or move the insertion point into the paragraph. Then click the style you want to apply, either in the Styles gallery or in the Styles pane. Some styles also have keyboard shortcuts assigned to them for quick applying.

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. Check out the following ten D licks:

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. Now it’s time to play them yourself! Check out these ten classic G licks to start your lick collection:

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). As you try each of the following C licks, fret the full chord first before you play the lick. Check out the following ten C licks:

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Whether you're accompanying others or blazing through a fiery banjo solo, you need to know where chords are located on your banjo's fingerboard. Here are 12 chords you'll put to good use in thousands of bluegrass and old-time songs.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The key to becoming a great banjo player is having solid timing and rhythm in your picking hand. One of the best ways to develop this ability is to practice the most frequently used patterns in clawhammer and bluegrass style, playing them over and over again until you've completely internalized them. Here are the crucial right-hand moves you'll use just about every time you pick your banjo. Clawhammer patterns The Basic Clawhammer Stroke Double-Thumbing Technique Bluegrass patterns Alternating Thumb Roll Forward-Reverse Roll Forward Roll Credit: Tablature courtesy of Bill Evans

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. The numbers indicate left-hand fretting positions, with 0 standing for an open string.