Banjo Care Tips After playing, wipe the fingerprints and smudges off the metal parts of your banjo with a clean cotton rag. After playing, wipe your strings with a clean cotton cloth by running the cloth up and down the strings and fingerboard. Remove the capo when you are finished playing. The pressure of a capo for long periods of time may hurt the finish of the wood on the banjo neck. Try not to bump the fifth string peg when you are taking your banjo in and out of your case (it is fragile). Keep your fingernails clipped on your left hand. Long fingernails may hurt the fret board. Don t ever clean the wooden parts of your banjo with furniture polish! If you ever spill water or another liquid on your banjo, clean it off immediately with a clean cotton rag. You can use 409 cleaner and a clean cotton rag to wipe the head of the banjo. Try to keep your banjo out of extreme hot or cold temperatures; try to keep it in the car rather in the trunk when traveling in cold weather so that it will be warmer; keep it out of direct sunlight when outdoors in hot weather by covering it with a blanket or putting it under a vehicle, etc Occasionally, the banjo head may need to be tightened. You can do this by tightening the brackets around the head with a ¼ or similar size wrench. Tighten each bracket just a fraction of a turn. Ask your teacher or an adult banjo player for help if you need it. Strings should be changed every couple of months or more often depending on how much you play your banjo. You can tell they need changing if they start to sound dull or become a different color. Change the strings one at a time; never take off all of the strings at once unless you are changing the bridge. When changing strings, put a pencil mark where your bridge sits in case it moves. Sometimes, adjustments must be made to the bridge and tailpiece if you hear a buzz when you play. Ask your teacher or an adult banjo player for help. Adapted from The Goodtime Banjo Maintenance Manual by Deering String Instruments 157 2013 JAM, Inc
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Student Banjo Diagram - Labeled 159 2013 JAM, Inc
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Student Banjo Diagram - Blank Banjo Parts String Names: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 161 2013 JAM, Inc
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Banjo Chord Diagram chord 163 2013 JAM, Inc
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Banjo Posture & Finger Positions Having good posture is not only important for the fiddle, but for all of the instruments you play! Sitting up straight and holding your hands correctly while playing the banjo will help make you a better banjo player! See how straight she is sitting while playing? Notice how her right elbow is not resting on the banjo head and how her left elbow is pointed away from the neck. This clawhammer style is named because your hand should look like a claw while you are playing. If you are having trouble keeping your hand in the claw, put a short pencil in the space between your curled fingers and the palm of your hand. The thumb needs to stay steady at home on the 5 th string. Notice how short the fingernails are! Long fingernails get in the way of playing an instrument, especially on your chord hand. The wrist should not rest against the back of the neck while making chords and notes on the banjo. 167 2013 JAM, Inc
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169 2013 JAM, Inc Credit: Ray Chatfield
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How to Read Banjo Tab Banjo tab (short for tablature) is an easy way to read music. Tab is always read from left to right, just like we read words and sentences. Similar to guitar tab, banjo tab tells you which fret to note and what strings to play. It does not tell you which finger to use only which fret to go to. Always remember to put your finger right behind the fret to make it sound the best. There are 5 strings on the banjo and each line represents a string. They are listed from bottom to top, starting with the 1 st string and ending with the 5 th string (g -- the short string). Banjo tab will always list the strings in this order, no matter how the banjo is tuned. In this example, the banjo is in standard G tuning. D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- g ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are many open notes when playing the banjo. 0 = Open. Anytime you see a 0 in the tab, you are supposed to play that string without noting it. Only play open when you see the 0, but keep in mind that you will see a lot of 0 s for the banjo! This is the basic clawhammer banjo lick for an open G chord. Try it and see if you can do it right! D --0----0-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- g ---------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This line is part of the clawhammer bum ditty lick. You can see the line starts at the first string and ends at the fifth string. Anytime you see a bracket like this, it means to play the notes together in a clawhammer movement. Sometimes, the line may have different arrows or be in the opposite direction. Pay attention to directions on each type of banjo tab that you use. 173 2013 JAM, Inc
There are other symbols used for special skills, like pull offs. p is for pull off. This pull off would start on the second fret of the first string (D). When you note the second fret, quickly pull off your finger to also hear the sound of the open D string. A hammer on will may have an h instead of p. p D ----------2--0-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- g ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the note has a line coming down from it, this means it is a single note stroke. D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G ----0--2--4--5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- g ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you play all of the strings at the same time, the numbers will be in a straight line. This is a D chord, and a good example of when you can play all of the strings at once. The 0 on the g string comes last with a bracket because in the clawhammer lick, it comes last. It may look like this: D -------4-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B -------3-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G -------2--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D -------0-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- g -------------0-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The last thing that is most important is the curved line you will see with an S. This means to slide from the first numbered fret to the second numbered fret. There are a lot of slides in clawhammer. D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B -----S--------S------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G ----2--4----2--4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- g ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 174 2013 JAM, Inc
Some banjo tab will write out the rhythm of the song by using numbers for the count or the beats. The numbers are usually written below the tab. If the song is in 4/4 timing, you will see the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and then they will start over again. A measure is made up of four counts. Just like reading words, a measure is a sentence and the beats, or the count, are the words. To separate the measures, there will be a line that is called a bar. An example of this type of tab might look like this: D ---5-------------0---------------2--------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------- B ---0-------------0---------------1--------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------- G ---0-------------0---------------0--------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------- D ---0-------------0---------------2--------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------- g --------0-------------0---------------0---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 175 2013 JAM, Inc