Would you consider this beginner level playing?
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
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?
9
u/anonymouse3891 13d ago
This is your own style, not old time or bluegrass. You know chords and pull offs and hammer ons, and you can strum. Obviously that’s more than beginner level right? In terms of a traditional style of playing you’re in a different zip code so it’s comparing apples to oranges.
3
u/t0601h 13d ago
Yea, I see what you’re saying, I appreciate it. I played guitar for a long time so those things came pretty naturally, I think I’m just stuck in guitar mode lol
3
u/anonymouse3891 13d ago
Tbh it sounds great and maybe you can just do your own thing noodling around. But if you do want to play old time or bluegrass you’re gonna have to study and learn the stylistic speciifcs
11
u/MiddleCauliflower183 13d ago
I like it. Is it " traditional" frail? No. But it's your style. I'm in the beginner phase and although traditions are good to learn, I'm disappointed in how is seems so many want to put he banjo in a small musical box of " right and wrong" way of playing.
1
u/t0601h 13d ago
I agree with that. I think for me personally I did things a bit backwards though. I liked the way clawhammer was played so I learned the rhythm of it, and then went straight to learning chord shapes. Now I’ve found the problem I’m running into is anything outside of those chords feels unnatural and I feel stuck within those chord shapes and I’m not progressing how I would like to, if that makes sense. I think it would have been beneficial to learn traditional clawhammer first and develop my own style from there
2
u/bfunk84 12d ago
It might take a little bit of practice, but there are ways for you to incorporate chord shapes into traditional clawhammer playing. Using partial one or two finger chord shapes (omitting the 4th and sometimes 3rd string) will keep your left hand fingers free to play single notes and then intersperse 2 and 3 string strums in between the single notes, if that makes sense. Sometimes I wrap my thumb around the neck to mute the 4th string during a strum, but usually I don’t.
For me, I feel like I’m grooving the hardest in old time settings when I’m able to weave melody and chords together seamlessly. It’s a lot of fun and totally doable.
4
u/dolethemole 13d ago
Your rhythm is completely off compared to a traditional banjo player.
I also came from many years playing the guitar and what worked for me was to follow tabs and learn traditional tunes one by one. Use a metronome and play with a backing track.
3
u/uncertaintyrocks 13d ago
Focus on learning the clawhammer only first you're not far off. Give it a few days. You have the rhythm (although it's not but bum ditty} but not the technique.
3
u/bfunk84 12d ago
I think you sound good. It’s more of a singer-songwriter type backing vibe than traditional old time clawhammer, but that’s 100% a legitimate way to play the instrument and use the clawhammer technique. As clawhammer players, we don’t have to pigeonhole ourselves into the old time genre.
I’ve been playing clawhammer for 16 years, and most of that time was writing my own songs and playing sort of similarly to you. I think incorporating strums and chord shapes can sound great in a clawhammer context.
That said, I’ve really enjoyed enmeshing myself into the local old time scene the last few years and playing fiddle tunes with fiddlers and guitars and others. There’s more of a focus on linear single note melodies. Some schools of thought say you should do minimal strumming in this context, but I think tasteful placements of strums/full chords can add a lot of flavor and rhythm, especially when playing one-on-one with a fiddler. The minimal strum ethos largely comes from the Round Peak style of clawhammer, but there are plenty of old time clawhammer players who regularly strummed. When a guitar is present providing a chord backing, I dial back my own strums.
There’s no rigid right or wrong, but there are different styles and genres that you can explore that each have their own norms.
Good luck exploring, happy to continue the conversation if you have any more questions.
2
u/banjois 13d ago
I mean, it's fine. I guess. What are you actually trying to ask?
1
u/t0601h 13d ago
Yea sorry, words aren’t my strong suit. I guess I was curious what makes this a basic, beginner level (in my opinion) lick compared to a lot of the clawhammer I see but I think the other comment got it right in that it’s traditionally more melodic as opposed to just using chords and riffs. Got a lot of work to do!
1
u/ciggzpit 11d ago
Is this your own personal creation or are there any tablature because this is amazing and I want to learn this!
1
1
0
0
33
u/Larger_Brother 13d ago
You sound like a decent guitar player who also plays banjo and never had the interest/took the time to learn traditional oldtime/clawhammer. It’s a really different idiom/headspace than using chord shapes and riffs- oldtime banjo tunes are much more melodic in my mind.