Before You Start

This is the first lesson in learning to play bluegrass banjo. I hope to teach you good playing and practice methods right from the start. This set of lessons is geared to the beginning player, but many intermediate and advanced players can benefit from the techniques discussed here.

First, I want to emphasize that bluegrass banjo is a rhythm instrument, just like a snare drum. Good banjo playing depends on timing, timing and timing. This is the secret of Earl Scruggs style playing. The very best banjo players are the ones that play smooth, even right-hand picking rolls with perfect timing.

I'll put this another way. If your right hand rolls are even and smooth, and your timing is right, you will sound like a great banjo player, even though you are only playing the simplest chords with your left hand. But if your right hand picking is off the beat even slightly, or your volume is uneven and your timing is unsteady, you will sound like a poor banjo player even though your left hand is playing really complex and fancy licks and runs.

With a banjo, timing is everything. Flashy licks are trashy licks unless your timing is perfect.
With this in mind, these lesson will concentrate on right hand playing techniques and rolls first.

About Fingerpicks

The way you wear your fingerpicks, and the type of fingerpicks you use will affect your playing. I use Dunlop #.018 fingerpicks, because they are light enough to play cleanly, yet strong enough to shape to my fingers. With the pictures below, I will show you how to shape and place your fingerpicks for the best results.

First, your right hand will be placed in a "natural" position. I have my little finger touching the head lightly, and my fingers are poised to pick the strings. See how my hand is naturally at an angle to the strings?

The way I set my hand position is to touch the strings with my thumb, index and middle fingers, on the high g, the b, and the d strings, like I was "grabbing" the strings.

Fingerpick Placement

You can see in the picture above that my hand is naturally at an angle to the strings. In order to pick cleanly, I need my fingerpicks to hit the string at a right angle, (straight on), rather than hitting the strings at an angle. So I accomplish this by offsetting the picks on my fingers, as seen in the photo to the left.

Notice that my picks are set off to one side of my finger, rather than being centered. This little trick is crucial for good, clean banjo playing. Also notice that the picks are flush with my fingertips, not extended out into space.

Finger Placement

Here you can see that my fingerpicks are hitting the strings straight on, which results in a good, clean, and powerful tone.

If I put my fingerpicks on centered, and poking out past my fingertips, I would never be able to play well.

Now you can start playing, and we'll start with the basic fingerpicking "rolls" on the next page.

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