Thank you Tom. Greetings from the UK. Your ‘Engine of Clawhammer’ analogy really resonated with me. As a beginner with clawhammer getting the basics down has in itself been a journey. This lesson is above my grade but my takeaway was the clawhammer ‘engine’ helping to ‘de-mystify’ an instrument is the key to it all. Thankyou.
So glad it was useful, Fourby! Yes, as a beginner it's good to keep in mind that the clawhammer stroke is "always on". Hope you come back to this lesson in a couple of months to give it a whirl! Cheers! Tom
@ i was watching with intent. Your earlier video on drop thumb was a real help to me, but I’ve Identified a flaw in my technique from this video and that is I am strumming more than hammering, watching this video along with the engine analogy was a real help the penny dropped. I can see where I’m going wrong. Thankyou for taking the time to reply and for the superb YT content.
Oh yes! The skippy makes everything so funky and delicious to play. Really looking forward to practicing this technique. Also, I didn't know about Dan Gellert, he is so fantastic! I just listened to him playing Poor Rosy on a fretless. Beautiful.
Call it what you will, I'm just glad someone is advocating for the removal of notes in banjo arrangements! Things are becoming awfully dense out there in banjo tab world. I wonder if its helpful for some to think of the first note as a dotted-quarter. It's hard to call the "silent" note anything but a ghost note in my mind because like you said it's not technically a rest either. I tend to arrange fiddle tunes exclusively so I'm used to looking at the actual music. Funny how our musical backgrounds influence banjo jargon. Great lesson!
Totally agree. We seem to have reached peak density! In defense of the melodic banjo players out there though, the banjo does present certain inherent shortcomings ... namely rapid note decay. But I agree....space in arrangements is good, and these skip strokes are a great way to let the phrasing breathe (and create room for other players!). "Ghost" will always imply a quiet note to me, and one of my favorite lessons is teaching players how to ghost the 5th string: keep it alive, but very subtle, with every upstroke. It's gives the illusion of density without a proper "note". So I reserve my usage of "ghosting" for that particular technique!! Like you said, we're all coming at this from different backgrounds, and there's really no formal pedagogy or nomenclature...kind of exciting if you think about it. Thanks for your great comment! Cheers! Tom
Hello Tom. Thank you for the video. I found it refreshing. I've been fiddling around with the banjo for a number of years but have been having a hard time finding my way. I'm not really interested in bluegrass or old-time but just want to play along with songs that I like from any genre. This might fit the bill. Does your teaching on Patreon go into detail on how this could be applied to other music? Thanks, Rick
Hey Rick, I'm glad you found the video helpful! I have some campfire clawhammer happening on Patreon and I really want to grow the project into spaces other than traditional (especially into singer/songwriter and modern music idioms!). I see banjo as an instrument that can play any style. Hope to see you over there! Just about to drop some Christmas tunes and start a whole new module starting from banjo basics.
I probably should have mentioned that, Jeff! The “m” stands for middle finger, so it’s not the best term as it leaves the index players out! “Phantom downstroke” is another term I’ve heard. It’s finger agnostic, but a mouthful to say. “Rest stroke” is probably the best term for it, but … horses for courses. Thanks for the great question!!
Yes! I’ve heard that one too, Jeff! My one issue with that term is that as a former drummer, I was taught that ghost notes are still audible! So I don’t use that term personally. What a dizzying number of banjo terms we have. It sure makes things confusing for beginners. I don’t love “rest stroke” either as it implies a cessation of movement ….. If you come up with anything amazing for this technique, let me know!!!
The phrase, "Woodshed drop thumb and do a bunch of dities", as an Englishman, is entirely incomprehensible to me. Oscar Wilde made a very erudite observation that we are two peoples, separated by a common language. It is interesting that when the English publish on youtube, that they vary their language to accommodate the American audience, but it is very rare that the Americans do the same for those of us to whom English is a native tongue.
The fact that all of these phrases are incomprehensible to you points more to your lack of familiarity with the technique. “Woodshed” is the most important term for you, meaning…”practice”, as in go lock yourself in the wood shed for a period of time until you understand. There is no international conspiracy to deprive you of knowledge. In fact, the English language is equally misunderstood by Americans depending on which part of the country we visit (I understand you have a similar situation over there). You just need to learn to speak the common language of banjo.
Thank you for your explanation of ‘woodshed’. It was in an endeavour to seek meaning that posted my comment. Besides the use of colloquialisms, and the more specific technical terms related to the banjo which I am picking up, the general point is that a huge majority of American content makers appear to make little effort to be inclusive. An example being the metric and imperial systems. I was born before the metric system was used in England and have adapted to a joint use of both. For example, when buying timber, it is most common to buy 3 meters of 4”x2”. Most non American content makers will give both centigrade and Fahrenheit cooking temperatures as well giving quantities in grams, and ounces. Explaining that ‘plain flour’ may be known to you as ‘all purpose flour’. These courtesies are often not reciprocated. No conspiracy is suggested or suspected.
If I defined every technical term in every video, without presuming prior knowledge from my entry-level material, my videos would all be 120 minutes long and get no views. For expediency, flow, and ease of teaching, I have to presume a certain level of competency for my advanced topics, of which this video is a part. You're essentially walking into a physics course and asking the instructor what the "+" and "=" signs mean. The good news is....it's really not your fault! UA-cam only allows a paucity of course organizing, so it's very easy for a beginner to get lost quickly. Don't take it hard. I have many, many, MANY videos that define these terms very carefully. If you're really invested in learning clawhammer right, I would point you towards my Patreon project: www.patreon.com/c/tomcollins . That's where the fun really is!!!
Your passion for the banjo really shines through, and it’s so inspiring to watch. Thank you for sharing your talent, Tom! 🙂
Awwww, thank you SOO much for that lovely comment! You made my day. Cheers!
@@TomCollinsBanjo You're welcome. Keep posting your good contents, I always learned a lot 😊
@@RoseAnneLivao Will do!!!
Thank you Tom. Greetings from the UK. Your ‘Engine of Clawhammer’ analogy really resonated with me. As a beginner with clawhammer getting the basics down has in itself been a journey. This lesson is above my grade but my takeaway was the clawhammer ‘engine’ helping to ‘de-mystify’ an instrument is the key to it all. Thankyou.
So glad it was useful, Fourby! Yes, as a beginner it's good to keep in mind that the clawhammer stroke is "always on". Hope you come back to this lesson in a couple of months to give it a whirl! Cheers! Tom
@ i was watching with intent. Your earlier video on drop thumb was a real help to me, but I’ve Identified a flaw in my technique from this video and that is I am strumming more than hammering, watching this video along with the engine analogy was a real help the penny dropped. I can see where I’m going wrong. Thankyou for taking the time to reply and for the superb YT content.
Cooool. I really like your YT banjo lessons. Yo u are taking banjo teaching to the next level ❤️
Thanks for the kind words! 😃
Oh yes! The skippy makes everything so funky and delicious to play. Really looking forward to practicing this technique. Also, I didn't know about Dan Gellert, he is so fantastic! I just listened to him playing Poor Rosy on a fretless. Beautiful.
Yes yes yes!! So glad you’ve found Dan. He’s a wizard!!
This is so freaking beautiful! Thank you. You rule. ❤🤩🪕☮️
Your comments always make my day, fiddlepeg!!! Thank youuuuu!!!!!
You talkin bout my homie Frank Lee!
Frank is one of my banjo heroes!!! He’s a beast!
Thumb lead equals mind blown
Hahaha, Cameron! Oh yeah....it opens doors within doors!
Many Thanks Tom. Greatly Appreciated. STP
Very welcome, STP 🪕
If anyone is searching for the TLDR, the actual thumb lead part starts @10:05
Call it what you will, I'm just glad someone is advocating for the removal of notes in banjo arrangements! Things are becoming awfully dense out there in banjo tab world.
I wonder if its helpful for some to think of the first note as a dotted-quarter. It's hard to call the "silent" note anything but a ghost note in my mind because like you said it's not technically a rest either. I tend to arrange fiddle tunes exclusively so I'm used to looking at the actual music. Funny how our musical backgrounds influence banjo jargon. Great lesson!
Totally agree. We seem to have reached peak density! In defense of the melodic banjo players out there though, the banjo does present certain inherent shortcomings ... namely rapid note decay. But I agree....space in arrangements is good, and these skip strokes are a great way to let the phrasing breathe (and create room for other players!). "Ghost" will always imply a quiet note to me, and one of my favorite lessons is teaching players how to ghost the 5th string: keep it alive, but very subtle, with every upstroke. It's gives the illusion of density without a proper "note". So I reserve my usage of "ghosting" for that particular technique!! Like you said, we're all coming at this from different backgrounds, and there's really no formal pedagogy or nomenclature...kind of exciting if you think about it. Thanks for your great comment! Cheers! Tom
Hello Tom. Thank you for the video. I found it refreshing. I've been fiddling around with the banjo for a number of years but have been having a hard time finding my way. I'm not really interested in bluegrass or old-time but just want to play along with songs that I like from any genre. This might fit the bill. Does your teaching on Patreon go into detail on how this could be applied to other music? Thanks, Rick
Hey Rick, I'm glad you found the video helpful! I have some campfire clawhammer happening on Patreon and I really want to grow the project into spaces other than traditional (especially into singer/songwriter and modern music idioms!). I see banjo as an instrument that can play any style. Hope to see you over there! Just about to drop some Christmas tunes and start a whole new module starting from banjo basics.
I've never heard someone refer to this as an m skip. What's the m for?
I probably should have mentioned that, Jeff! The “m” stands for middle finger, so it’s not the best term as it leaves the index players out! “Phantom downstroke” is another term I’ve heard. It’s finger agnostic, but a mouthful to say. “Rest stroke” is probably the best term for it, but … horses for courses. Thanks for the great question!!
@TomCollinsBanjo thanks Tom. To throw another one out there, I've always referred to it as a ghost stroke or ghost note. 👻
Yes! I’ve heard that one too, Jeff! My one issue with that term is that as a former drummer, I was taught that ghost notes are still audible! So I don’t use that term personally. What a dizzying number of banjo terms we have. It sure makes things confusing for beginners. I don’t love “rest stroke” either as it implies a cessation of movement ….. If you come up with anything amazing for this technique, let me know!!!
The phrase, "Woodshed drop thumb and do a bunch of dities", as an Englishman, is entirely incomprehensible to me. Oscar Wilde made a very erudite observation that we are two peoples, separated by a common language. It is interesting that when the English publish on youtube, that they vary their language to accommodate the American audience, but it is very rare that the Americans do the same for those of us to whom English is a native tongue.
The fact that all of these phrases are incomprehensible to you points more to your lack of familiarity with the technique. “Woodshed” is the most important term for you, meaning…”practice”, as in go lock yourself in the wood shed for a period of time until you understand. There is no international conspiracy to deprive you of knowledge. In fact, the English language is equally misunderstood by Americans depending on which part of the country we visit (I understand you have a similar situation over there). You just need to learn to speak the common language of banjo.
Thank you for your explanation of ‘woodshed’. It was in an endeavour to seek meaning that posted my comment. Besides the use of colloquialisms, and the more specific technical terms related to the banjo which I am picking up, the general point is that a huge majority of American content makers appear to make little effort to be inclusive. An example being the metric and imperial systems. I was born before the metric system was used in England and have adapted to a joint use of both. For example, when buying timber, it is most common to buy 3 meters of 4”x2”. Most non American content makers will give both centigrade and Fahrenheit cooking temperatures as well giving quantities in grams, and ounces. Explaining that ‘plain flour’ may be known to you as ‘all purpose flour’.
These courtesies are often not reciprocated. No conspiracy is suggested or suspected.
If I defined every technical term in every video, without presuming prior knowledge from my entry-level material, my videos would all be 120 minutes long and get no views. For expediency, flow, and ease of teaching, I have to presume a certain level of competency for my advanced topics, of which this video is a part. You're essentially walking into a physics course and asking the instructor what the "+" and "=" signs mean. The good news is....it's really not your fault! UA-cam only allows a paucity of course organizing, so it's very easy for a beginner to get lost quickly. Don't take it hard. I have many, many, MANY videos that define these terms very carefully. If you're really invested in learning clawhammer right, I would point you towards my Patreon project: www.patreon.com/c/tomcollins . That's where the fun really is!!!