5 String Banjo Tutor Books

Newly updated and revised, this easy-to-use beginner's guide is a continuation of the banjo basics and techniques taught in Book 1. The material in Book 2 not only reinforces and strengthens Book 1 instruction, but also features many new songs, techniques and rolls to learn and play.

Covers: right-hand rolls and patterns; playing back-up; melodic style banjo; fiddle tunes & reels; solos and licks; new hammers, pull and slides; banjo chimes; scales & modes; using a capo; and more!

The accompanying online audio contains 63 tracks of full-band demos for every song in the book!

Mel Bay's highly acclaimed, best-selling premium manuscript paper. Twenty-four sheets (96 pages) of 10-stave paper printed on beautiful, cream colored, high grade, heavy paper. Every detail in the production of this premium paper has been carefully planned and implemented. Probably the best value in manuscript paper on the market.

With this volume, the reader is pleasantly surprised with two books in one- Section One by Alec Slater, and Section Two by Lisa Schmitz. Alec's portion is intended as a guide for the clawhammer or frailing banjo player with some previous experience in this style. He stresses the fact that this style of music can be fully learned only from within the oral tradition in which it grew. The instruction included here is meant to provide a review, and not to take the place of qualified teacher.

A Clawhammer Christmas by Dan Levenson is a collection of 30 of the most loved Christmas songs transcribed in tablature for the 5-string banjo in the clawhammer style with chords provided for accompaniment instruments. Written in his clear and traditional style, Dan has finally made these holiday favorites accessible to all clawhammer banjo players with good basic skills. All songs have been written in one of the three basic old-time banjo tunings of G, double-C or G modal. This will allow you to find the tune in a fingering you know and easily capo to your preferred singing key. Build your skills as you entertain family and friends and maybe even yourself! Ring in the holiday season with the joyful sound of the 5-string banjo played clawhammer style and have a double-thumb, drop-thumb Clawhammer Christmas!

Early American Banjo by Tim Twiss provides complete banjo tablature transcriptions of the instrumental solos that first appeared in standard notation in Buckley's Banjo Guide of 1868. This modern tablature edition of over 100 mid-19th century jigs, waltzes, polkas, hornpipes and reels provides insight to the transition between the African down-stroke technique, which preceded claw-hammer style and the newer, more refined plucking technique. James Buckley (1803 ' 1872), sometimes referred to as the 'Father of the Classical Banjo,  was one of the most prolific transcribers of early banjo music. His compositions and arrangements were performed on the minstrel stage, andhis scholarly discipline produced a lasting record of banjo music of his era. This repertoire collection includes easy tunes as well as more complex pieces suited for the concert stage. The player will delight in discovering how fresh and unusual some of this music sounds, even today 'all in modern banjo tab. While best experienced on a period reproduction, gut-string fretless banjo in a lower tuning, any 5-string banjo in C tuning (gCGBD) may be used to interpret this collection. Includes access to online audio.

This book provides beginning banjo players with easy streamlined arrangements of 40 popular songs. Learn the basics of clawhammer style, strum and sing along, or pick the melody lines. Arrangements are a combo of tab, standard notation, chord grids and lyrics selected and prepared by renowned banjo guru, Fred Sokolow. Songs include: Ballad of Jed Clampett (Flatt & Scruggs) · Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe) · Cold Rain and Snow (Grateful Dead)· Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash) · Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) · Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead) · Gentle on My Mind (Glen Campbell) · Ho Hey (The Lumineers) · I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow (Soggy Bottom Boys) · I Saw the Light (Traditional) · I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash) · Jambalaya (On the Bayou) (Hank Williams) · The Long Black Veil (Lefty Frizzell) · Mama Tried (Merle Haggard) · The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band) · Puff the Magic Dragon (Peter Paul & Mary) · (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend) (Stan Jones) · Rocky Top (Osbourne Brothers) · Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Flatt & Scruggs) · Sweet Baby James (James Taylor) · Teach Your Children (Crosby Stills Nash & Young) · This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie) · Tom Dooley (Kingston Trio) · The Weight (The Band) · Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (Pete Seeger) · Will the Circle Be Unbroken (The Carter Family) · You Are My Sunshine (Traditional) · and more.

Fiddle Tunes for Banjo Made Easy is a collection of must-know, easy-to-learn bluegrass instrumental standards. Ross records each song at three speeds and also includes a rhythm backup track. The slow speed is ideal for hearing the notes clearly and being able to play along in rhythm; the medium speed is a perfect goal for the beginning and intermediate student while the faster speed demonstrates what the song can sound like with a hard, driving push. The tablature is large for ease of reading and includes accent marks for melody notes where needed. Ross also provides tips and suggestions for each song to save you valuable practice time. These are tips on the more challenging spots that Ross has learned firsthand from teaching these privately for many years.

This book approaches the five-string banjo as a musical instrument freed from the prison of specific musical genres. Old-time music, clawhammer, bluegrass and many eclectic adaptations of the banjo are utilized to demonstrate a variety of musical styles.

This Book & CD pack provides the intermediate clawhammer (5-string) banjo player with a fresh repertoire of 21 traditional and 5 original tunes as played by the author with the Boiled Buzzards Old Time String Band. The book briefly addresses clawhammer basics with a few pages of exercises and scales before presenting the tunes.

A complete tutor for the Intermediate and Advanced Player: a clawhammer encyclopedia for players of all levels. One of the world's top players addresses nearly every aspect of the popular 5-string banjo style known as clawhammer or frailing. Online Audio included.

Pete Seeger. The basic manual for banjo players, with melody line, lyrics and banjo accompaniment and solos notated in standard form and tablature.

Learn from the best. Grandpa Jones was a country music legend and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was very well known and respected for his own style of clawhammer banjo.

Ready to take your Banjo playing up a notch? Renowned teacher Fred Sokolow presents valuable how-to insight from which Banjo players of all styles and levels can benefit.

The text, photos, music, diagrams and accompanying CD provide a terrific, easy-to-use resource for a variety of topics, including techniques, ear training, performance, and much more.

Many folk banjoists draw influence from greats such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, The Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and many others. These folk musicians travelled the country singing the folk songs that many of us now know, some of which are still played in jam sessions. First Lessons Folk Banjo is a great introduction to learning these types of folk songs on this wonderful instrument. Included are lessons on singing and playing backup with the banjo, strumming and picking exercises, and many classic folk songs. The music is written in tablature. Includes access to online audio.

Fred Sokolow takes you from the beginning and shows you, basic strums, useful chords, how to finger correctly, how to read tablature and much more. Also features various styles of banjo playing. Clear diagrams and superb photographs back up the easy to follow explanations. Twenty eight famous folk songs are also included for your enjoyment and a useful discography.

The definitive text on playing harmonics (chimes) on the 5-string banjo in G tuning! In addition to traditional chiming methods, the author’s new T3N technique for creating banjo harmonics will add new dimensions to your playing. While particularly useful in the three-finger style, T3N can be used in other banjo styles and on other stringed instruments.

This insightful book is about sound perception and execution on the banjo. Its purpose is to shed light on simple aural connections unique to this instrument, including closed-position as well as open-string fingerings found throughout the entire fretboard. In notation and tablature.

Authored by Mac Robertson, Robbie Clement & Will Schmid, this innovative method teaches 5-string, bluegrass style. The method consists of two instruction books and two cross-referenced supplement books that offer the beginner a carefully-paced and interest-keeping approach to the bluegrass style. Covers easy chord strums for the beginner; learning tablature; right-hand rolls characteristic of bluegrass; techniques such as hammer-on, slide and pull-off. The book includes access to audio tracks and video tutorials for download and streaming.

Here is the Lost Heritage of the Irish-American Banjo!

The Irish-style Tenor banjo has become immensely popular of late, yet the roots of Irish influence on American banjo music extends right back to the 1840s, when the legendary Joel Sweeney picked up a gourd banjo from Black American banjo players, and proceeded to perform 'jigs, reels and breakdowns'. Other Irish-Americans played a leading role in the development and popularity of the banjo in America, and Rob MacKillop has collected 27 of their finest pieces in this collection, the first of its kind

Many musicians, including some that are technically quite advanced, never break away from the printed page to learn by simply listening and re-creating. The common name for this process is "playing by ear". With some basic guidelines, any musician with rudimentary skills can teach himself or herself to play by ear, adding a new dimension to their playing skills.

The Getting Into Bluegrass Banjo book and Online Audio by Alan Munde is the accumulation of successful teaching concepts developed in his 40 plus years as a professional bluegrass musician and teacher. Munde presents a straight-forward and well-founded course of bluegrass banjo essentials. Designed for those who have never played a stringed instrument to those taking up bluegrass banjo as a second instrument

More Easy Banjo Solos is a bluegrass/country supplement to the Hal Leonard Banjo Method Book 2. This volume contains 16 songs, including Abilene, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Jambalaya (On The Bayou) and more.

A selection of the traditional American folk songs and spirituals featured in the Coen Brothers movie in which three escaped convicts re-enact Homer's Odyssey as they roam the Deep South of the US. Arranged for banjo with guitar chord symbols. Includes 'I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow' and 'Keep On The Sunny Side'.

This is a landmark instructional text on bluegrass banjo. Written by the legendary Sonny Osborne, it presents the basics needed to successfully play bluegrass banjo (G tuning). A special bonus is the inclusion of seven favorite songs for banjo solo. In notes and tab.