Transcripts
1. Introduction To Clawhammer Banjo: Hey, welcome, you are in the right place. If you're ready to learn some banjo, if you can count to four, I can teach you to play the banjo. You don't know anything about stringed instruments or our banjos in particular. Or even if you have no musical theory, just a little bit of a desire to learn, and maybe some fingers, and maybe you can count to four. We're gonna be learning to play what's called claw hammer or old timey or framing. Okay, it's the same thing. It's what was played on the banjo from census birth until up to the time of Earl Scruggs. Earl Scruggs places a three finger picking DDT DV. And that's really nice, is really lovely, but it's hard to sing along with three finger picking, you know. And this kind of music is for sing-a-long and playing and having a great time. I don't know, being out at the beach or the lake or just hanging out at your friend's house and sand, some music, sit around a campfire. I have family come over generally once a week and we sit around in the living room and we all just sing and play. There are people out there who have taught thousands and many people have taught hundreds to play. That's, that's not me though. I don't teach three finger style. I teach the old timey style, but I've taught a couple of three dozen. In-person had a play and I've done it quickly because I cut through the fluff. I just show you what you need to do. Just progress at your own speed because there's a, there's a saying in banjo, it's the slower you practice, the faster you play. Now my personal website is Dan Harvey.com and that's because my name is Dan Harvey will. I'm going to teach you some songs here. We're gonna work through a couple of songs, but on my website I've got a whole bunch of free songs. You can certainly go there and peruse through them and pick out what you want. So I'm going to show you how to pick up a piece of paper that's got the words and a chord chart on it. Not notes, not tablature, not anything crazy. Just the chord chart. Okay, it's going to tell you what courts to play when and the words, when to change the, change the chord. I promise you you can play and you will amaze yourself at how quickly that will happen. Let's do that. Okay, pick up your banjo and less. Let's get going.
2. Class Project: Okay, so for the class project, I want you to play a song. You can either play just the music and do some chord changes for us. Or you can play and you can sing along. Or you can play with other people, you know, have a little ensemble. But that's what I want from you, that a class project is to show us your success and playing the banjo. Alright.
3. Types Of Banjos: There are several types of banjos. The most obvious thing is the number of strings. There are six string banjos, five string banjos. And for string banjos, there's actually you banjo ukulele type things and banjo Mandel ends and banjo. My brother-in-law, the lights and pointing out different types of banjos. And I've never seen before they even have a base banjo type construction. But generally they're going to be six string, five string, or for string. And they're either going to be open back. Like this. There's the band Joan, you say there's nothing on the back. This is just like a like a drum head. Okay. And it's got five strings because you can see right here the fifth string only goes. This got for strings that are long. And then it's got a fifth string, which is shortened as like let's say two-thirds of all length. But that's the drone shrink. We'll get into that. Don't panic. Ok. But what I wanted to show you is they're open backs. And this is generally what people who frail or play a claw hammer or old tiny MIT were old tiny banjo will play this type that's got the open Baffin, not my favorite. Because I really, man, I like it loud and proud. So there's six string banjo, which is just nothing more than a guitar that's got this type of body on it. And a six string banjo will most likely have a resonator on the back is called the resonator because if you look, it's shaped like a bowl. And what that does is it throws the sound out the front. You can see, well maybe you can't, but this is just held on by flanges. There's a flange there. There's a flange there, but all of this is open in here. And so the sound bounces around in this bowl and comes out the front. Alright, this is a nice, a nice banjo. This is my wife span job. I taught her to play. She's one of those dozens of people when I taught this. It's also a five string banjo. And it's got a clear face on it. And this is, this might be just about my favorite banjo. I love this banjo a lot is the 1969 Leo made by the thinner company back when they made banjos for awhile. But it's got inside. I'm like you just got a clear head on it. So you can see inside this thing weighs a ton because this is a metal ring that they machined in here, and it just blows the sound out the front. This thing is so freakin loud. I love it. It's a five strings. Well, I only have five String Band gels because I have plenty of six string guitars. I don't need a six string banjo, which again, just a guitar with a banjo body. So it kinda has an OH, on it. It's got that banjo sound, but you play it like a guitar, ok? The fourth string banjos will most likely have a DAC on them like this does. But there'll be missing the short string on top, right. It's just, it'll just be these forced cuz you got four strings here, but then you've got five strings when you play here because of that short string in the middle. For string banjos will be missing this string, there'll be missing that drone string. The five string is for playing country, for playing bluegrass, for playing folk. The fourth string banjo. You can kinda get along plane that other stuff too. But, but the fourth string banjo is basically a jet for playing jazz, especially Dixieland. If thought, if you like, dictum, which I absolutely loved it. Of course, I'm in Louisiana, I'm from Louisiana. I live in Louisiana and I love Louisiana and I love Dixieland Jazz. And they'll use a force string and we'll play with a five string too. But the techniques just a little bit different. They'll play it with a pick, a flat pick, and they play jazz on a banjo. Okay, so that's the, those are the differences. Six Stream livestream for string will be playing five string in this class. If you play a five stream, you have the option of playing three finger style, which is, you know, the Earl Scruggs stuff. You know, before, like Steve, Steve Martin who is a fabulous banjo player in a comedian said, I believe he said that before Earl Scruggs, nobody played black girls drugs. And after Earl Scruggs, everybody played like girls scrums. So yeah, I see a kiddy. So let me take a sip of MIT, get back on subject. We won't be playing like girls drunks whom I adore. Her doing the claw hammer style instead of three finger picking.
4. Parts Of The Banjo: So here we are. Let's pick up. I'm gonna play my wife's banjo just because that allele, I love it, but I only, I don't want to be picking up and send it down because it's so heavy, I bet it's 30 pounds maybe, maybe, maybe not that much, but manager feels like it. My wife's banjo was maybe six pounds, seven pounds. So I'm gonna play this one. Alright. The parts of the banjo, This is sometimes called the body, or sometimes people will call it the pot. This is the bridge. This is the tail piece. The strings hook into the tail piece, go over the bridge, which is then just placed on top. It's not glued or anything that's held in by pressure from the strings, right? So let's across the drum head on top of the banjo. Now we move up to the neck. The top part of the net as called the fretboard. These little gizmos right here, these big thick wires that go up and down vertically. These are called frets, okay? And what happens with a friend? You hit a string and then you, what you're doing is you're shortening that string now between, between the bridge and your finger. And the, That's how, that's how you get different notes. Alright, good enough. Now and move on. Policy, we're going this way. This is the fifth string tuner, about two-thirds away up the neck. We get up here. I should have dusted this thing off on. This is called the nut. The strings come off the nut across the mountain and down the fretboard. Now these are the tuning pegs. Some people will call these machine heads to these or guitar style machine heads or tuning pegs. This, we get the Leo. These, our banjo style to see how they just go straight through. Those were faster for tuning and a little higher quality. They have planetary gears inside instead of just 90 degree gears. And this is the called the headstock. This section right here is the headstock that the machine heads are on. And we'll see is that it, well, there's the back, sometimes called the resonator or the back of the banjo. And this is held on by all these little clasp. So you can see right here they've got bolts and they hook onto this rim that you put a drum head on this and you tighten all these little monsters down all the way around the banjo. And that's what gives that the tension and the vibration which then causes the sound. And I really like this, right, this thing right here, this is a forearm guard, which doesn't seem like a whole lot. But this one, this banjo, does not have a forearm Guard anywhere on it, right? And so after you play that for a while, the inside of your forearm right there, we'll end up with a mark on it that's kinda painful after a while.
5. Strings Of The Banjo: Now let's count strings. Whenever I say string number one, I'm talking about the string, calls us to the floor. Okay. I'm going to talk String Number five. I'm talking the string closest to your nose. So 12345. String number one is tuned to a D, D delta. String Number Two is a, B S and B bravo. String number three is the g, as in GAR Goyal. String number four is ds and delta again. So 14 are the same note, just an octave apart. All right? And then String Number five, the short string, is tuned to a g. So that means string number three, which is the middle string. And string number five are an octave apart. So you have got the D delta and the G golf or garb oil or Goyal. Alright. Okay, so we got that.
6. Tuning The Banjo: One thing that we're going to need to do is to make sure that we are in tune. So there are plenty of tuners out there. You can find them all around the web or you can get an app that goes onto your telephone, alright? And that's what I use as a tuner. I've got the ones that go on the headstock as well, which I just can't seem to find it. I think my wife and I own seven banjos and two guitars, and to bass guitars, a fiddle and a mandolin, and an at least one accordion. And I'm not sure what else, but I don't know where that tuner isn't a minute at the moment, it's probably somewhere in one of those cases. So what I'm gonna do is I'm pulling out my phone and I'm gonna go to my app and any, any app. I mean, they're all, I believe most of them are free. But I'm just going to use this to tune my banjo veteran speaker or turn the microphone on. And they go, I can't see it. So forgive me while I tune. That's right on the little flat. Now, do you know what given just a second sharpened flat. Now, they say unicorns and in-tune banjos. They're just about as rare as each other. That's good enough. And that's just micron sharp. Okay. So when I'm talking sharpen flat, you know, I mean, I'm talking, if you're sharp on a note, that means that your pitches just a little too high. Or if you're flat, you just a little bit too low. All right. So those are right on now to go ahead and tune your guitar. Let me, let me tune your guitar and I'm sorry, wrong class, right? Okay, let, let's go ahead and tune your banjo. And to me so that even if I'm attitude and you're in tune, or that we were both in tune or were both attitude and slightly together. String number five. Okay, let's go string number one. This is a D-string, d delta. Now go to string number two. This is a B, as in bravo. It's always best to go to, to loosen your string and then tune up to the note that you're listening forks, you could tune down, it's going to start playing that there's any tension left in the, like the nut, sometimes it's not a slick as it should be. You can put a number two pencil and there and rub it around in that graphite will then make it a little more slick in there. But sometimes it'll hang just a little bit and keep you out of tune or tell you are in tune when you start playing, it'll let go and then your flat, okay, so it's always best to go flat and then tighten up to the note. So, uh, one more time. This is where were we on GF. Now we're on B, bravo, I'm sorry, string number to be Bravo. Now you can also, as you get close, you will hear the phase shift. It kinda sounds like a pulsing pulse, pulse, pulse, pulse. Fossil fuels get really, really, really, really fast. And then as you move around, it'll start getting slower and slower. And then that pulsing will go away. And that's when you're in tune. You'll, you'll hear it. Okay, String Number three. Gar Goyal, G is the middle string on a five string, banjo. G, string number three. Okay, let's go to string number four as in d delta. How string number for sound to you. That's a D delta. Can you hear my cat? She's meowing and she's a little sharp. String Number five is g, right? So let's do a mall string number one, delta, String Number two, Bravo. String Number three, garb oil. String number four, d delta again. And string number five is G. Golf, or garb oil. Or Gillespie, or find some G word the like. We are now in tune. Does it sound like this? Good?
7. Strumming Thumb: Good. Okay, let's take a look now. You know what I need. If you'll give me just a second, I need to go get a pin. So just a secondary pool out here. Because this is very, very, very important. So I have this pin, blue ink and my thumb. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take this pen and I'm going to draw right down, right down the center of my thumb. So I did that like that. I want you to You're welcome to draw on your own thumb or just imagine that you have that mark on your thumb, ok, right down the center of your thumb. Length ways. Now, we're taking this link, that blue line, and I want you to do this, ok? Oh, I should point out, if you're right-handed, This is on the top and you hold, you make the chords with your left hand. If you're right-handed, your doing this down here, this is your right hand on the pot, okay? If you're right-handed, your left hand is making the chords. Now, if you're left-handed, it's the other way around. If you're playing a left-hand and banjo, your left-hand, there'll be down here playing the pot. And your right hand would be up here making the chords. Some instruments you can just turn up, turn upside down and play like I've seen guitar players who play a six string, a right-handed. I've seen left-handed guitar players play right-handed guitars because they just flipped them upside down and play them. I've seen ukulele players do the same thing. I've seen bass players, left-handed bass players play right-handed bases the same way. That doesn't work with a banjo. If you're gonna play left-handed, you have to have left-handed banjo, which means this short string is, you know, near your right-hand. Whereas you would be playing with your left hand and then on the right hand, obviously, I think I think you get the point. So there are right-handed and left-handed banjos Ennis, two things hard to find the left-handed banjo usually, and if you find one, it's about a 100 bucks more than right-handed banjo. Because the person who has attended banjo also went through the process of trying to find a left-handed banjo like you are. I've got one that my sister uses when she comes over to play, but she doesn't bring her own left-handed banjo. And she's got a left-handed daughter who plays banjo now, and a nephew of mine also play anyway, it didn't matter, but that's what it is, right and left handed banjos. So so we had this mark on our thumb, right down the center line of your thumb. I want you to take that and make a kinda make a fist and then relax it just a little bit. This is what the claw hammer is all about right here. Because people say that that looks look, look down here in the corner. People say it kinda looks like a hammer that you would hammer width and then use the thumb to pull up nails and such? Yeah. Okay. I guess I can see that. But this is the shape of the hand that you want. Now, let me move this up so you can see it like this. It's kind of a fist but slightly relaxed. Your thumb is extended, your fingers are curled under. Now. In a minute, we're going to talk about which finger you play with. A lot of people. Most people who played claw hammer or framing or old timey banjo will, you'll extend one finger out. See I'm, I'm extending that middle finger out that social finger so that you can pick a note with that. And then we'll get to that in a second. A lot of people play with the middle finger. 8% will play their middle finger. About 20% play with your index finger and thumb. I play with my index finger and thumb, but you're certainly welcome to do whatever is most comfortable for you. I encouraged that. Okay. So what we're gonna do now before we get to that finger, which I'm going to go, we're going to get to in just a second. Is you can see that line on my thumb. What I want you to do is take that line. And just with your hand kinda clade over when you're playing banjo. None of this is going on. None of this. The fingers stays stable. But I want you to do this. I want you to take this and take that thumb and that line and just laid on the fifth string. Take it off. Lay it back on. Take it off, lay it back on. Take it off and lay it back on and see, that's basically that stripe going down the center line on my thumb is on that banjo. I'm not doing, I'm not lessee. I'm not doing this to see how that's 90 degrees or something, or 75 degrees. I want it like that. I want the center line of my thumb on string number five. You want the center line of your thumb on string number five. Take it off, put it on. Take it off, put it on. Take it off, put it on. We are training your brain. Ok. This is, this may seem just really elemental or our silly to you, but this is where training the brain them off. Thumb on. Now let's do that in time ready? 123412341234. Doesn't matter if you if you if you slap the top, it's okay. If you hit a string by accident, that's okay. But this is what we're doing. Thump that that thumb rest every time comes down stream number five and just rest there. The center line of that thumb on string number five. Let's go again. 123412341234. Keep your hand in that clause shape. It's relaxed fist with the thumb extended. 1234123412341234. You're still with me. Okay. I'm promising you this is training your brain and training your hand, OK. We're do as muscle memory and we're getting that rhythm. And I want you to realize, I want you to get that feeling in your thumb. That's how you, that's how you keep the rhythm in your head. You can tap your foot as well. But when you're playing banjo, This is where the rhythm comes from. This is how you feel the rhythm when you're playing failing banjo or you're playing claw hammer or old timey, whatever you wanna call this. That's how you're feeling the beat when that thumb hit set string 1234123412341234. Okay, now I'm going to, I'm actually going to do another lesson where I've got the metronome going. And I just want you to sit there and watch the metronome and get that thumb every time. That stripe on your thumb laying down on String Number 51234, that's the foundation of framing banjo. That's the foundation of claw hammer banjo. Ok. Onward.
8. Strumming Hit: Bom, bom, bom. Now, earlier, let's talk about the thumb. Right? 1234. And you see how my hand is to staying in that same position, that same shape. That shape right there, that shape. Right? I'm not moving that. I'm not doing anything to it. That's the shape right there. Okay? But you can extend one finger. And 80% of the people who play banjo are going to extend the middle finger just a little bit. I and the minority. This like 80-20. 80 uses social finger, 20% use the index finger. So make that adjustment for yourself. Why I want you to do is take your hand and then whichever finger you're going to use. Just extended just a little bit. Okay? And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna knock and just hit one string. I want you to aim for string number three. Okay? So now the way you can aim for it is put your thumb down on the string and kind of 123. Put your finger right there on top of it, right? So you've got your finger. I'm I'm using my index finger. You can use your social finger, 1-2-3. And kinda what you do is you put your finger underneath the string you want to hit, so you'll get the muscle memory of how to do this. But I'm going to just like knock with just that one finger extended, just kinda knock and aim for spring number three. Let's see if I can do it. Yeah. I had an extra string there. I hit stream number four. There we go. String Number three. String number three. String number three. And hit through it, knock through it. And the reason I'm hitting that as because what I'm doing here is I've got my hand frozen in this position. So everytime my, my thumb hits, I'm in the right place to hit string number three. You just aiming to hit just that just kind of knocking that you're not doing this kinda knocking with your wrist. And that extended finger on me. It's the index finger that it, that as just barely you're able to pick out one string. You practice on One if you like. One. Now sometimes you're going to hit another string. Sometime you hit two strings. Sometimes you'll hit string number three in your fingernail Cat String Number two. Or sometimes we hit string four by accident. It's all okay. But this is what we're aiming for right now. A string number three. Now that, now that, that strong that I showed you the old time he's drama the claw hammer. Strom is sometimes called the bummed Diddy because we're gonna go bomb, right? That, that's going on in your head. Bomb, the bomb in the bom. Bom. That's the rhythm. We're gonna get. Bomb deity, bomb deity. So this is the bomb part hitting one note. String Number three. String number three. String number three. Freeze this hand, this position. Put either your middle finger out or your social thing that your social finger, your pointer finger, whatever it is, and practice them until you can kinda consistently hit one string. Just practicing just that one string a sometimes you'll, you'll hit dead net with your fingertip is sometimes you don't go, you'll get to, and sometimes I hit string for while you're aiming for three. That's okay, that's all. Okay. So here we are, string three. And every time I thumb has been laid right there on string number five. And since we aren't flexing our hand or are flexing our fingers, we're gonna hit that string pretty much every time. And we're developing the muscle memory right now in the bomb diddy. This is the bottom part. Some people call it boom Chaka. So this would be the boom part, right? But there's some people call a run pony, so it'd be the R1, R1 beat. But it's going to be that run Tony, run Tony, boom, boom, Chuck, bomb, Diddy bomb the bomb. Deity, whatever works inside of your head, feel free to use. I use Boom Chaka on guitar usually. I don't know why. I'll use bundy playing banjo and if I'm playing the fiddle, I'm using run, pony run, run, puppy run, puppy run, puppy run, puppy. Adjust as just the connections you make in your head.
9. Strumming Strum: Okay, so now we're going to actually enter this three steps, right? You've got your thumb laying there on string number five every time. And that's important because that's your rhythm. That's where you feel your rhythm is through your thumb when you're playing banjo. Now, we've done that. We've done the bum part of the Bundy. Remember it's bom, bom, bom, bom, DAD. So we've done the bom, bom, bom, bom. Let's change it up a little bit narrower. Gonna go Diddy. And we're gonna go like note or the bomb. And they were gonna go Strom. And leaving our thumb right there, right. So we're gonna do is we're gonna take our entire finger. Now. We're gonna take our finger. We're gonna strum all the strings. And look what happened. My thumb caught it right there on the top right. Stood again. Do it again. Now of course my hand has flexed a little bit because when I'm doing the bum, I'm hitting stream number three. And then I'm strumming And all the strings. But each time my thumb catches movement. We've gone Note, syndrom. Note, note, strong note. So from o, you got this note, strong note. From note. Strom hidden the third string, then all the strings, third string, for all the strings, third string of the string is third strength all the strings. This is bom, bom, bom, bom, bom kid. Okay, and keep that rhythm steady. I'm gonna put up a metronome for an exercise. So I want you to do the bomb did exercise. Remember, I said if you can count to four, you can play the banjo. So this is what we're gonna do. Beat Number one, I want you to hit just one note. Then beat number two, Strom, all of them. Beat number 31 note. Beat number four, strum all over. So we're alternating. Note, song, note, note, strong, note, strong note. And every time your thumb is laying there on top of string five. And that's a little fast, but I just wanted to show you how to do it. So let's do it slowly together. Still aiming for string number three. If you just can't get string number three, you can maybe do string number one for now. I've had people say that that's easier just until we get the rear them. Okay, so let's do that slowly. Let's practice string three. If you can pull it off. And then strong, and let's do it slowly. Ready? Here we go. Note strong, strong, strong, note, note. Note. If you're having trouble, just go back and just practice hitting that note. Go back and practice hitting guests. Strength rate. Okay. And then start alternating it when they hit strongly. Hit strong. That is no small accomplishment, My friend, let's go onto the third step.
10. Strumming Thumb Toss: Now on 13, you are getting a single note, one and on two and four-year strumming, 234. Okay, so here we are at the third step of the bomb, Diddy, or the boom Chaka, or the run pony, whatever you wanna call it. Most people call bounded, even playing the banjo. And, you know, it's the exact same thing as the bum, bum, 1234123 for n. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go note. Then Strom and says your thumb isn't right place right, because you always leave non-string N5. We're just going to flip that thumb. So let's practice that a little slower. 123 of that thumb is the end. So we're looking at 123 for n. So note strummed, note, Strom, note, Scrum, note, strong. Note, Scrum, note, strummed. Note, Strom, note, strummed. Note. No strong thumb node, Scrum. Note. Now, strum, thumb node, strong thumb node, strong node, strong thumb node, strummed thumb. 1234123434123 for n n1 to N3. For N1, N1, N2, N3 for an OH off GitHub. That's all there is to it. 123 for n, 123 for n Note strong thumb note, strong thumb note, strong thumb note, strong thumb node, strong done, no, strong thumb note. That's playing friends. Your Huayan.
11. Faux Bass Line on the Banjo: So knock Strom or no, strong DOM or Obama, or Boom, chalk or Ron, Tony, whatever works for you. Okay. So we've done that now let's we're going to, because a lot of times you'd be playing by yourself or you're just playing with a guitar. Where's my hat? Oh my gosh. Not a real, not a real musician with that, uh, 19 thirties had on who I feel better. Okay, so this is what we're gonna do is we're going to, since we're going to alternate the base a little, play a faux base if AUX, okay, foe or fake base. Hit the third string. And then I'm going to close my hand just a little bit and hit the fourth string. And then third strength, fourth string, 343434. I want to do that. I'm only doing now on beats 13, right? Because beats 24 are Strom. So I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna go note strummed on for three or four. Yeah, it kinda gives that faith-based norm in their analyse ad that thumb.
12. Chords Music Theory for the Banjo: Now what is a chord? Well, it's a group of notes that sound good together. That's a G chord. Cords aren't, are named a, B, C, D, E, F, G. And then there are modifications on that. There's a sharp or a flat or b-flat. That's a sharp flat natural, you know, a, well we start with a flat, there's a flat and then there's a, then there's a sharp, and then there's b. Well, a sharp and B flat or the same note. And then there's B, and there is no B-sharp. The B-sharp is actually a C. Then you go from C to C sharp to D to D sharp, E. And there is no sharp for E, So F, And then there's F, and then F sharp, and then G and then G sharp, which is the same thing as the A-flat, right? So ABCDEFG each has a sharp and a flat, except for B does not have a sharp, which means C does not have a flat. And E does not have a sharp, which means f does not have a flat. Or if you, if you play F flat, you're playing an E. That's more than you need to know. Do, do not let that discourage you. We only kind of tangentially need to know about that. And this is why some notes sounded together. Those sounded together. Those don't sound quite as good together, right? So that's just pushed down just randomly. I just pushed down to notes. They just didn't sound well. But you know what? Those five notes sound good together. That's because they're in the same chord. These notes sound good together because they're in the same chord. And those notes sound good together because they're in the same chord. Just as some notes sound good together in a group and make a cord. Some chords sound good together and make a key, alright, and we're not really going to delve into this too deeply if you're really interested in that there's a zillion people out there on skill share who can explain it much better than I. So here we go. The first court on a band o. And to, to play a song, you generally need you. There are some songs with one court nm, some songs, two chords in them. Some songs with three chords, a zillion songs with three chords in them. A bunch more with four. And some have 567 and you get an jazz and there's just like, you know, they can do variations and end in intonations and inversions and all sorts of stuff of the same things. And add fifths and add ninths, NADH, and just they go crazy. That's not what we're doing. We're play an easy stuff and we're basically going to be plan to chord and three chord songs and maybe some more. So we have to learn some chords. The first chord we want to learn is a G, because it's the easiest to play on the banjo. You ready? I'm gonna play it right now. What should I do with my fingers ready? Nothing. I did nothing with my fingers. This is the banjo is tuned to a G. So you wanna saying earlier about a, a sharp B, C, all that. So if this is a G, If I lay my finger across all of these strings right here, and this is G sharp, which is the same thing as a flat, right? So if I wanted to play a G chord, I just played a G chord. If I wanted to play an a chord, if I wanted to play a B chord, well that's B flat. So that would be B. And if I want to play a C chord, because remember there's no, there's no B-sharp that makes at sea. And you're thinking what did matter? So just remember, there's, gee, there's a, there's B, and fret number five is c. Well, that makes fret number six C-sharp, and fret number seven is D. Now, why did I tell you that? Well, because coincidentally, G and C and D sound good together. So open on a banjo. Then the fifth fret on a banjo. And the seventh fret on a banjo. Or sound good together, these are fresh. These, these wires that go right here. And if you put your finger behind one, they're pushed down a string. It changes the sound on that string, right? So if you're hitting all these notes, That's a G chord. There's a C chord, and there's a D chord, and back to G. So we could indeed play a song like that. Let's, let's try one. Well, let's do Jim Hall grew. My buddy. Wants with them are testified. Right? They say right hand and block. And then I hit home with this bar. Now you've seen countless people play like this Dolly Parton, which he has those big nails. She can't, she can't make chords. So what they do is they tune her guitar. I think they usually do it to an open E chord, but they could do it to an OpenGL and open a or whatever. And then she would just have to count the frets up to play the other two chords or whatever it is and that song that make it sound good. Okay, but we're not gonna do that. I just wanted to show you that bit of information from playing. This is the G shape, straight up, straight up and down is often called the G shapes. So we play the G shape up two frets. You got two half-steps. That makes it an a, 2.5 steps. That makes it a, B go up 1.5 step that makes it a, C, G, C, and D. Now I can keep going up to, I can go, What's that? That D, E, F. And when I got here, the 12th fret, I've got an octave up. That's a G and S of G. So you can already, using your you can plate, you can start playing the music. But we're going to do better than that. This is your G chord. Remember, you do absolutely nothing to make a G chord. There are other G's up and down the neck. We'll get to those maybe.
13. Your Finger Anchor And D7 Chord: Some people call these the cowboy chords right up here in the first position because they're easy to play and you can sit around a campfire and singing songs. And that works well. Okay, so let's go on to the next, lets go on to the next chord in our set of three chords that we're learning. Accord number two that we're going to learn is going to necessitate that we finger the strings. Putting a thing is called fingering when you put a finger on a string. Now as we said earlier, this is a fret right here, and this is a fret, and this is a fret, this wire going, this thick wire going straight up and down, right? And the way you make a note is by putting your finger behind that fret. Now, if you want to say, let's say I want to hold down this note right here on the third fret. I'm going to make sure that my finger is as close to the bridge without the or offs far away from the nut as I can get it just right up to the back of that side of that fret, right? That makes it, that makes it sound better if I hold it down here in the US, sometimes buzz or won't will hold all the way. And if I put it right up against back of the fret before I go into the next space here is going to sound better. Ok? So we're always going to want to try to get our fingers as close to up against that Fred as we can. Let's take our index finger. And I'm going to show you a note that I call the anchor note for making chords as because it just seems to be if this node is or you know where that finger is. You can make cords because we wanna make chords by shapes. I don't wanna say, okay, we're gonna play a song in the key of G, which means g, c, and d are going to be the chords sound good together and that's most of the musical gonna play. But I don't want you to think, okay? Okay, I'm going to be own all going to be changed into D7. I'm going to change to D7, OK. That's finger number one behind fret number one on string number two. And then that means string, that means fingered number two is in fret number two on String Number three. Yea, got it. But by the time you get it, thinking like that, the music is passed you by him, a friend. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna think about shapes. Ok? So we're going to look for the anchor note. The anchor note is this finger. Take this finger, your index finger. Put it in the first fret on string number two, and we count from the bottom right, that string number one, that string number two. So that's our anchor spot. And I'm going to call that the anchor spot. So, but if I say grab your anchor, that's what I mean. Put your index finger on fret number one, string number two. Ok. So grab your anchor. Take it off. Grab your anchor. Don't even think about all of those that fret number one or is that string number two and what finger me using? No, we're thinking shapes. Okay, grab your anchor. Okay. Put your finger on the anchor spot. Okay, grab your anchor. Okay. Index finger on your anchor spot. Okay. That again. Take it off. Do it again. Take it off. Good. Again, take it off. And when you're making a chord, you want your fingers curl because you want to like this. Because you want to come with her camera. When you're playing, you want your fingers curl because you want to come down on top of the string. If you, if you bring them up from the bottom and you kind of flat, you get a lot of that, that noise. We don't want that, okay. Anchor. Anchor and wartime anchor. Okay, so now you should never have to think about that anchor. Just to refresh. Fingered number one, fret number one, string number two, that's your anchor. Anchor. That's half of your D7 chord. Okay? So this is how we make the, this is how we make the D7 chord anchor. And then what you're gonna do is take the next finger, which is your second finger or your social finger. Go into trying to show you gone to fret number two that go up when String to String Number three, so 123. Okay, so you've got, you've got this configuration. I've only got 22 fingers on the board. One is the anchor, and the other one is the next threat. One string closer up towards your nose, right? So that's your D7 anchor. And then that's our string. Your middle fingers on string number three. Because remember this part of the, this part of the banjo only has four strings. So anchor, anchor. Take it off. Anchor. Alright, now let's put our other finger on the next fret, one string higher. And that makes our D7 see how nice that sounds. There's a G chord and there's a D7 chord. How do you make the D7 anchor? And then the next figure goes one fret up and one string higher. G is all open. And then we're gonna go to D7. So throw your anchor on there and then put that other finger on. So do that. D7, gs and golf. Delta seven. G hasn't guard Goyal, D as in David, seven, g as in girl. And how I making that D7 so fast? Well, I'm throwing my anchor on it and I just put the next finger and that's my shape. Can we do any songs with that? Yeah, let's do fireball male. I'm playing G And I'm playing my hammer. Right? Notes from Tom denotes No, no. Look at her role. There. She'd go. Letter by, by, by fireball. So we now know a song. Great homemade herbal tea. I love this stuff. There's your g. There's your D7. How do you make your D7? Throw your anchor on and put the next finger than that next fret. As you just saw, you have to make that chord between beat someone 1234. You've only got the distance between 12 to make that chord. So if you're thinking first finger, first fret, second string, second finger, second fret, third string. I'm already on the court and the song is already changed back to the first fret. So by the time you get there, you're already back to here, over here, right? Okay. So there's your GI and your D7. Ready for D7? Do your anchor on and put that finger. And the next right, just think of the shape. Get that shape in your head. You've got your anchor though that next finger up. Don't even think about it. Where is your anchor? That's all you have to think about as the anchor and the shape get that muscle memory. Okay, that's your G and your D7. Practice that now. A way I was learning to play guitar the first time, and I bet maybe I was ten years old. And I struggled with it and struggled with it. And it wasn't until I started playing in the dark. I was I remember I was laying. I was awake one night and I was just so not angry and frustrated. And just, you know, I don't know how you're self-taught goes, but sometimes I can self talk myself into a, you know, I hate myself frenzy, You know, I guess we can all do that. And I said I ought to be able to play that, change that chord. And so it was pitch black, I remember and I grabbed my guitar laying in bed. I just turned to try and to make it in the dark. And I realized it looked to me as a second or two or three to get it. And since I couldn't see where my fingers were and I wasn't counting frets in my head or whatever. It is. It became really quick and almost instant I can play the guitar almost instantly. I can play the guitar after that. So anchor and then put the finger in your D7, right? And there's your G anchor. I'm not even looking at it. You see that my eyes are closed? As because I know when I put my finger here at the neck, I can feel the shape of the neck right here. And I've done enough times to where now I know where that anchor is. I'm not even looking and look, look, I'm looking this way. Right. Because I know that anchors there. That anchors there. And then the next fingers right here. So the anchors here. There's the anchor and then the next note. So I should D7, j0, D7. And just practice taking that on and off in a dark room with your eyes closed or looking away for a while, you might have to until you get the feel of that anchor is anchor. And this is your D7. That's gonna be, that's important because your first five or six or seven chords are all going to, with maybe one exception, are all going to depend on your anchor. D7. All right, you got that. Ok, practice that until you've got it and don't move ahead until you can do with anchor. Right? All right, I'll see you the next lesson.
14. Cowboy Chords on the Banjo: The next chord that we want to learn is the sea anchor. And then you remember how you made your D7? Because we're learning to play by shape. We're not doing all that ridiculous stuff or we're remembering which finger goes on which string. So Anchor. And now you know your D7, right? Anchor. D7 to make a see, you take your, your middle finger, your social finger, move it up to string for, and then take your ring finger and put it on string one and that same fret. Okay? So I'm doing is I'm, I'm putting it here and here. I got pin, right? Okay, so this is holding down three strings. So I'm going to hold down my anchor, the anchor right there. And then I'm going to hold down string number one in fret number two, and I'm going to hold down string number four in fret number two. So this is going to be like here, here and here. So now I've got my anchor and then I take the next few fingers and go top and bottom string was 14. Okay, so anchor and then the next two strings are the next two fingers go top 14. Anchor. The next two fingers are on top and bomb strings, that's your c. So anchor. And then fingers number, rear ring finger on the bottom on string number one. And then your middle finger up on string number four. And your anchor, of course, that's a C. And when we got there is anchor and then top and bottom of the next fret, okay, so anchor and make the rest of the chord for C. And if you make it a D7 anchor and one finger, D7 To make a C from a D7, just take your middle finger, put it on the string number four, and move your ring finger up to string number one. So what we have now is g. Go onto D7. I might do that by hitting my anchor and then the next string back to G. Now I'm going to hit c by hitting my anchor and then throwing those other two fingers onto the next fret on the strings 14, then gained back to D7. And, and the reason I can do that is because I'm playing by shapes and so are you now Baker? I guess I should do that. My all my fingers get in the way. Anchor. Ready? Anchor. Anchor. Just get that fingered of where, you know where without even looking at it. If you if you watch me, I rarely, rarely look at this up here. Anchor. So I'm gonna make a D7. And I'm gonna make a C. D7 is two fingers, your anchor. And then C is strings number 14 with your ring finger and your middle finger. And then hold your anchor down. So all there is to it. Now we can start working on some music. We can work on some songs. Now, a good, a good thing to do is to practice. You've got your you've got your claw hammer going, and then start practicing taking one court on one court off the D7. Rebecca Gee. And I'm gonna do D7 again, F to G, O, D seven. Now we can also do the same thing with g, which is open and see Charlie, Right. You remember how to do that, right? Charlie is your anchor. And then top and bottom strings in the next spread with your, with these two fingers going top and bottom on this fret. And then your anchor. So you've got your anchor here and then top and bottom. That's your Charlie, that's your C chord. So you want to go Gee, and practice, see this practice taking them on and off. Okay. So that's your, that's the way that's the way that you do that. That's the way you practice. That is not thinking about where your fingers are going to go and sever anchor. Anchor, right? So your anchor up there and then everything builds off that anchor and there's your Charlie. Do your anchor up, and then there's your delta seven. Alright? So you actually know, you actually know quite a few chords now. You know g, a You know, be, you know, two c's, right? There's a C. And then listen to this. There's a C. There's a C. Then here's a C. There's a C. And then a G. Very good, very, very good. Now, you know how many, how many how many? How many courts was that? A, B, C, of which, you know, two. And a D7. Yeah, you do. Alright. I'm gonna show you one more quarter right now. It's because it's so related to what? To the music we play your play it many times, especially as you advance a little bit, you will see that that you'd like this and you can use this court a lot and and you kind of already know it. Ready? It's the E minor is the minor. So let's go back. We know your G right? Now. Let me ask you this. How do you make your see your C as in Charlie? Well, you're going to throw up your anchor. And then you're going to take your ring finger and put on string number one, right? And the next fret, you're gonna take your middle finger and put on string number four in the, in that fret, that next fret, that SF fret number two. That is your Charlie, you know that one. Okay, this is how you make an E minor echo mine already. Pickup that finger. And so now we just have this note, this note, this note in this note. So now you just picked up you got your see Charlie, just pick up that finger. So now we're playing as we're playing this note. And we're playing this note, the string number one and number two, and strep a string number four and fret number two, right, just those two. And I'm going to continue to use these two fingers, my ring finger and my social finger right there. That's an E minor. G minor. E minor. Alright. That's gonna come in handy because we're going to basically put, but we're basically going to be playing three chord songs. But whenever we spread out to four chords were from the key of G, in the key of G, which is what we're learning. We're always going to go to the a, here's honky tonk women manage in some barroom quaint and Memphis. When it Charlie Take me it goes to the to the a. There's four. Goes to the five, which is the D7. What did I just say?
15. Chords Patterns 1-4-5: So one musician also to another. Alright, we're gonna do 145 song in the key of G. Or what's a 145 song? Or they'll say also 14x five, but it goes to two. What? Okay. This is, this is what they mean. And you can do it on your fingers, right? Because music is a, B, C, D, E, F, G, and then there is no h. So it starts over again, a B, C D E F G, a B, C, D E F G. If you look at a piano, that's how the keys are all laid out, with the sharps and flats being the black notes. And if you look on the piano, there are a couple of spots where there is no black key. That's between, as we talked about earlier, the b and the c where there is no sharpen flat or the E and the F where there is no sharpen flap. Okay. That's not germane to what we're talking about right now. Was what we are talking about is, I'm going to do a song with you again. Jim Hall wrote just the first verse of Jim hog road. First verse and chorus is a song in the key of G, And it's a 14x five. Meaning, if I put my fingers up like this, one is G, right? So want g, then it starts over again with a. So if it's a 145 song, I know it's G, a, B, C, and D. So I know that the other two cords in that key of G are going to be 145, right? 1-2-3-4-5, and they're going to be G, a, B, C, D. So they're going to be G, c, and d. So if somebody says, hey, we're gonna do a 14x five key of G. And I don't know what the other two chords are. I can do this quickly on my fingers are, and I can come up with a, G, C, and D, and all the other two corners are now and that song, and I know if the guy says, Oh, and we're gonna go to to, I know that he's gonna go to 12 GA. So I know he's gonna go to a. So as a, G, C, and D song with occasional going to the two, which is the a, that makes sense to you. 145 is gcd. And then the two would be the a. If you wanted to go to the I don't know what the six that will be, G, a, B, C, D, E. So we're gonna go to the six. So we're gonna go one, 16241625, I think is a or 6251. Wherever there's, there are different patterns for different types of songs. There are country songs and folk and jazz and six hundred, five hundred, six hundred for one I think is a big jazz one. Don't quote me on that. But one 45 I know is country my friends and hillbilly and bluegrass and folk, and a lot of Rock and Roll. So we're gonna do a 14x five and g, one will be the coordinate, G, four will be C And then five will be d. So if I say to you, okay, we're gonna go to GTE, we're gonna start in G. This helps a lot when you're on stage because you can go, I go for well, you can here for but if I see you can't tell if i said C or D, or E or G right now in a crowded stage or whatever. So 14x five, that's the shorthand that they use. And now you know what? Okay, let's do a 145 song in the key of G. Jim hog road. Okay, so you know the one is the gi. Put this down so you can watch the, the interesting part of this show and not me or not my, not my face. But what's going on over here? Because you've already got this part right? So this is what we're working on, appear now. G, You don't have to alternate between 34. You can just do three if you want to suggest that you can even do one. Wherever it takes as long as you just hitting one note. And then strumming, thrown that thumb off. Okay. Go jihad road again, it's a 145 in the key of G. Starting number one because not all songs start on one, but this one does.
16. F Chord: But let me show you, let me show you the F chord. You ready? Anchor. Okay, and actually anchor D7. Ah, look at that. And you remember what we did when we made the, okay, there's kind of a combination of two chords. You kinda know before. There's the D7, remember that's just two notes right there. And you remember how we made the sea with anchor. And then top and bottom on strings 14, right? And we also, we did, we did the E minor, which is just a c with your, your anchor finger lifted. Major E minor right? Now, this is kind of a combination of both lists have using these two fingers, you use your, your pinky on string one, your ring finger a string for, and you slide them up to fret number three, and then you make a D7 behind it. So basically you've got your anchor, make a D7 and then take these two fingers, go to fret number three and go top and bottom. That's your F.
17. Jim Hogg Road: We're going to take it slowly and you can play along at the speed. I'm sure. These curves, they go at night. Out was with the OMOP test. Five in law is a right. That claim a flaw. Swoop dragged in and block the moon. Then it hit on spotlight. It was Brad is midday. Well, it's some dome up into that craft demand and any spin, they were dry. And this part of the stories where mob starts to cry. They was poked in, they was plotted, drew some blood loss, some skin. Any asked him laugh, make when Aliens was sand? Well, I don't know if this just store was told. The tale gave my pickup truck on Jim Hall. There you go.
18. Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Here's another one for
five that you may know. I saw.
19. Polly Wolly Doodle Key Of C: Now, everything we've done so far is in the key of G, right? It's been 145 in the key of G. Let's do a song in the key of C. Now, you might, you might be tempted to think that it's in the key of G because it uses only two chords, uses the sea, and it uses the GI. The thing is it starts on the sea. Because if we're using, we're doing 145 in the key of G. G is 12345, G, a, B, C, D. So the song poly Wally doodle all the day, If I said Okay, we can do it in the key of G is a 14 song, right? G and c, 1414. That's all it is. Okay. You can get the point across and people can follow you with that. But since it starts on, songs usually are in the key, not always, but are usually in the key and which the song starts and ends. So Pauli, Wally doodle all the day is actually, you know, uses only two chords, both of which are in the key of G. They are also in the key of C because it uses C, a, B, C, C, C, C, D, E, F, G. So it's a 1515 song in the key of C. So the one chord is the scene. Remember that merged to make the C chord. So the five chord in the key of C is the G, which is open. Bum, bum, in the key of C. Here we go. Well, with down south or to see my tag Gaussain and Pauli was only due to all the day. She's got curly as and laughing hair, St. Paul, a wall, a doodle all the day. Fair thee well, fair thee well, fair thee well, fair. We fade form. Louisiana far to see my Susie Anna saying and Pauli, Wally do all the day. There's a grasshopper citizen on the railroad track saying and Pauli, well we doodle all the day, is pick in his teeth with a car bit tech saying in Pali while all the day. Fair thee well, fair thee well, fair the well MAF fairy Fei, form gondola, Louisiana, just to see my suit and a saying in Pali, the day I went to the river, but I couldn't get across saying Pauli Wally, due to law, the day jumped on a gate or a thought it was a horse sitting and poly while they do all the day. Fairly well. Fair thee well, fair the well affair a Fe, or on go onto Louisiana gonna see my Susie Anna, same Pali while they do all the day. Bear the well. They're the well, fair thee well, fair. A farm dawn to Louisiana for a C massage the NSABB and poly. A. As you do how you do on that. Remember the class project is for you to either play a song or play a song, to sing a song, or play the banjo while playing along with other people who may be singing or playing themselves. And post that in the area so that we can all in the class projects area so we can all enjoy it. Alright, very good.
20. Sitting On Top Of The World: Well, here's a, here's another one. Sitting on top of the world. It was n the spray. I need to show you G7. Alright, now let me show you a G7. You know your G, right? Let's see, let's do the g. Very good. Now to make it a G7. Just going to put one finger right here on the third fret, string1. And I suggest you use your ring finger because very often you go from G to G7 to C. That's very often the progression. So you gotta go, gee, G7. To see. It was in the spring. K. Why sweetheart left me. Oh, she went away. And now these guys are not o our ratings. Sit on top. Then she can go to Cana combat baby. Oh, so now she is not o for rain because I'm sit atop. Oh, oh, of course there's more to that song. What you'll find is especially like in bluegrass. Bluegrass is very much a musician's format, right? Or a musician's bailiwick, or a musician's What am I, what's the word I'm looking for? Forum. Something around along those natures. Musicians really loved bluegrass because they really get to play. Now you're coming in during the fault versions because they're slower perhaps or slow bluegrass. And that song really it was, and the spring. And then they, they do one verse that right, one person, one course of that. And then they play it with no, no lyrics because the fiddle player wants to take a break, and the banjo player wants to take a break, and a guitar player wants to take a break, and the accordion player wants to take a break or whatever. And so you'll do one verse and chorus usually. And then somebody, I'll take a break. And then you'd do another verse, another course and somebody else to do it break. Now, if you're playing with people and you don't feel like you're taking you want to take a break. You know, you tell him no breaks for me. I'm just I'm just here to I'm Warren and I and everybody respects that. So that's not a problem. But usually what happens is one person is in charge of that song, right? So let's say you and I, and four or five other people sit around in a circle. We got a couple of guitars, we've got somebody playing the bass, we've got somebody playing the banjo. So my playing the fiddle. So by playing the trumpet or whatever, and the group and assert in the circle and you're jamming along and somebody says, I want to do sit on top of the world in the key of G at N45, but it goes to the E minor in there, or whatever they are. The C, that would be the six, the six minor in the key of G, right? Remember how it worked? G, a, B, C, D, E, And it's the minor when it goes to the sixth, usually, but not always. So that's, that's what they would say. And so there's an alright, so that person's kind of in charge of that song. They're playing lead or they're leading the vocals. And then everybody else in the circle. And they'll get to the point for a break. And the guy who's leading the musical look around, who's making eye contact, who wants to take a break? We'll fiddle players going. And so he'll just, so the guy who's leading the song will not have the fiddle player and off we'll go to you and then they'll come back around and they'll do the next verse and hillock around. The guitar player is ready. They'll signal to the guitar player. He'll, he'll take a liqueur too, right? It's all real informal. You'll have to worry about, you know, don't, don't worry your sweet little head over it. Okay. It's a lot of fun and there's no judging going on. And everybody's just thrilled that you're there and you're learning. Because the more people who are learning means the more people we have to play with. What else we've gotten my, my song book here.
21. Summary: Well, you've done it, my friends now you've got it. There's not much to it. You've already got in other boundary, right? That's the claw hammer Strom right there. You got that, you know, a whole handful of chord, you know, uh, the G, the D7, right? Because you've got your anger and you've got that finger there. So that's your diesel. Then you know C because you've got your anchor and you as your C. And then you've got your E minor, which is the C without your, without your anchor. A, which is just barring everything right there at the second fret. B, because as barring everything at the fourth fret. And you'll another C, because that's barring everything at the fifth fret. Which means you also know a full d delta by borrowing everything at, was that 1357 threat? Yeah. Oh, you also know the f because your D7 and then that makes it an F, Right? Well, in closing, there's your F slided up one fret. That's an F-sharp and slide it up one more thread. There's a G, So there's a G, and there's a G, G, G. You can even move up to here and make it an a. And then move it up two more for it and make it a b. And then make us see, oh my gosh, it, you've created a monster. There you go. Alright, you got it. Good luck. And maybe we'll do an advanced on this. But really you're, you're really on your way. You can now play. You can play now remember, practice slowly to play fast, okay, the slower you practice, the faster you play. Don't rush. Don't get ahead of yourself and make sure you got those foundations exactly right. Alright, best of luck.
Dan Harville, Life is Good!
