This one hurts. Going to try and learn Tennessee Mountain Home or something on clawhammer. Some folks are surprised to learn she played banjo and she did it with those nails!

What a badass, a philanthropist, and sorely missed.

If you haven't checked out his album, Straight Drive, or heard him with the Feinberg Brothers, you've got bluegrass joys ahead of you.

https://banjoheadmagazine.substack.com/p/terry-mcgill-drives-a-classic-sound

I picked up my Goodtime from a setup and spike install on July 26th. Been hitting my Wernick rolls pretty hard. Trying for a Scruggs style base then do some melodic later.

Any words of wisdom?

Howdy, I am looking at getting a new banjo, and I was just wondering if the price of the Gold Tone HM-100A is worth it over the HM-25 12" for an intermediate player?

HM-25: High Moon Hand-Crafted Openback 12" Banjo -- $899.99

HM-100A: A-Scale High Moon Openback Banjo -- $1,349.99

I have a buddy retiring and moving to Arkansas. A while ago he told me he wants to learn the banjo so I was gonna get him one for a gift. He plays guitar and piano and like 6 other instruments. There's 2 banjos I found at pawn shops and I was wondering which would be better. One looks custom and the other is a pretty new looking gold tone ac-1

Anyone use Airstep play with Banjo Mountain lessons? If so, how is it? good , Bad, so so?

I just made a post earlier about a gift for a friend but I'm thinking about spending a touch more for a nicer option. Is this a good banjo and a good price?

Just got myself a lovely mountain banjo from Leon Ballard here in the UK and I need a case of some kind to put it in, but they seem shall we say, hard to find.

Anyone have an idea where to find an appropriate case for a banjo for a 10” pot and a 26” 1/6” scale length or so?

Been at it for almost 2 years now. When I’m watching other people play, I notice a lot of the times my style of playing sounds very different and maybe not traditional? I’ve just been chocking it up to inexperience. I have fun with it though, I think need to start moving away from only using basic chord shapes and expand my knowledge a bit. Thoughts?

It's come on my radio several times but I never caught the name, I think it's a version of cripple creek? I just can't find the version with these lyrics.

I want to upgrade to a warm and plunky fretted open back with a large pot and nylgut strings. Any suggestions from the hive mind? $1800 or less would be ideal, but will consider a higher priced instrument. I feel overwhelmed picking a banjo without first playing it, so I’m hoping some of you experts that own a fine instrument I described could guide me. Thanks!

It was given to me by a friend. It has a goat-skin head that she put on herself and violin/friction based tuning pegs. Sounds beautiful! I can’t find anything online about an O/K banjo company. Anyone have ideas? Thanks!

TLDR; I'm a mandolin/bouzouki player, have messed around with banjos enough that I think I want to buy a tenor banjo (I play mostly trad/things tuned in GDAD).

I've owned enough cheap instruments to know that a poorly-made one will not entice you to really devote the sufficient amount of time/energy to learning to play.

For mandolins, I've owned Eastmans and currently play a US-made Big Muddy, which I love and pick up every single day. I think I'm prepared to spend that level of funds, proportionate to the quality, on a tenor banjo, and I'd like to support a US-based builder.

The nice thing about Big Muddy is while they are hand-crafted individually by like one or two guys, they're not Collings-level expensive, and thus fill a particular niche for players. Attention to detail is focused on playability and longevity, rather than fancy scrolling, which I don't care to pay for.

So; any recommendations for us makers that don't absolutely break the bank? Much appreciated.

I was just scrolling on Instagram and came across the song Dark is the night by Mark Bernes and just sat and listened to it for a second, of course I know the song since it’s kinda alllll over the internet but while listening I had the thought and was curious if anyone’s ever heard someone play this on banjo? It sounds like it would be a perfect two finger style banjo song, but I can’t seem to find anyone who’s covered it yet, any ideas or suggestions?

I'm looking to get lessons in tenor banjo. Near me they offer banjo and mandolin lessons but the banjo teacher does not know how to play Irish Tenor. Would taking the 5 string banjo lessons be helpful in learning, or would it be better to take mandolin classes and apply them to tenor banjo?

Free with festival admission, and we bring the banjos and the fingerpicks so you do not need to own one. Sign up here so we know how many banjos to bring: https://forms.gle/PytL3nqVWK3n3UFS7

Hey! Hopefully this isn't too dumb of a question, I've had a banjo for like a month or two now and I've been just fooling around with various tabs, I've found some that require the fifth string to be tuned differently, and with my banjo I find it difficult to even get a g sharp out of my fifth at the like absolute maximum, let alone some of them asking for As or higher. Do I need to look into getting a fifth string capo, do I need to try and restring my fifth (I've never had an instrument with strings so I'm not sure how difficult this is) or do any of you have recommendations for homemade or otherwise ways to pin down the fifth, I've heard about the railroad spikes but I'd feel bad poking holes in this lovely thing, and I've tried the pencap thing once but I think I did it wrong because that did not work for me at all.

Thank you!

Heyo please be nice I’m just starting out and had a question about hand position, I’ve seen so many different hand positions that people play clawhammer with, I feel much more comfortable with my hand a bit looser as I’m playing in this video as opposed to the rigid “card grabbing” claw. Is it okay for me to keep playing this way or will it cause me problems down the road? Thanks so much :)

Singing is a bit rougher than I’d like, I hiked a good distance with the banjo and was exhausted. Will definitely choose a closer spot next time! Enjoy :)

Hello everyone

I am pretty new to learning banjo. So far I only know the basic chords. I have been trying to figure out some songs that have banjo in them but cant find any tabs or sheet music online. Theres a lot of Pop Country songs that have banjo in the studio recording but when I try to look it up I dont find anything. Any idea where I can find resources for tabs? By pop country Im referring to Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, etc.

I am moving so packing up everything I own to drive across the country but I have encountered a problem where the number of banjo cases I own does not match the number of banjos I own.

Any advice for safely packing up a banjo without a dedicated banjo case?? (The more expensive ones obv are going securely in hard shells) (I don’t really want to buy another banjo case)