5 String Banjo Tutor Books

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!

A complete program which takes you from the beginning to advanced level. Easy to follow text and realistic demonstration photographs.

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 is designed to aid the novice attempting to learn the 5-string banjo using 3-Finger Style, where the strings are picked by three fingers (thumb,index and middle) of the right hand. Upon completing this volume, you will have learned how to combine left-hand notes with right-hand patterns so as to perform bluegrass style solos and back-up. You will also have the foundation needed to explore other styles of music, such as blues and jazz. No prior knowledge of music or any musical instrument is needed to learn from this method. Enough detail is given to allow the beginner to fully grasp each concept. In addition, exercises are designed to facilitate a gradual increase in the student’s understanding and dexterity. When a new concept is presented for the right hand, the left hand performs previously learned tasks. Likewise, a new left-hand technique is demonstrated with familiar right-hand patterns. This instructional technique is used throughout the text.

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.

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.

Finally! A chord book written for the young beginner (or even beginners of any age) showing a creative and simple way to learn and play banjo chords. Chords are taught beginning with the most essential to more advanced. Chords are presented with exercises that build upon each other and eventually lead the student to playing logical and common chord progressions. These progressions include I-iii-vi-ii-V-I and twelve bar blues in many different keys. Chords are shown in chord diagram form with photographs showing finger positions in relationship to the fretboard. Examples and exercises are presented in strum bar notation.

This chart provides the most used and needed scales for banjo in easy to read fretboard diagrams. Scales include major, minor, major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, harmonic minor and dorian. Scales are shown from the 4th and 3rd string roots. A must have for banjo players

Easy to play five-string banjo arrangements of twenty-four Children's favorites by banjo master Ross Nickerson. Not only are these songs fun to play but from an instructional standpoint they are perfect for helping you develop the ability to bring out the melody in the bluegrass banjo style. Accenting the melody within the steady rhythmic roll of banjo playing is one of the biggest challenges facing banjo students and these familiar melodies are ideal for your development of that skill. Each song is arranged and performed using proper three-finger bluegrass technique. The arrangements are carefully designed to bring out the melody, but easy enough for a beginner or intermediate player to learn quickly.

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.

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 is a book for genuine banjo lovers. Full of beautiful photos and hand-sketched tabs, this highly acclaimed text presents a systematic method for playing the unique "frailing" banjo style. "Old-time mountain banjo" is taught with clarity and expertise. In tablature only. Includes Online Audio.

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.

The Banjo Encyclopedia is a comprehensive, in-depth banjo instructional tool that covers the many intricacies of bluegrass banjo playing, including numerous topics that may have been overlooked in banjo instruction to date. The Banjo Encyclopedia can take a student from the beginning, to intermediate, and right through to more advanced styles of banjo playing. Online Audio included.

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

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

With this comprehensive method, you get 25 songs in standard notation and tab, an Online Audio with 77 examples, and detailed info from Banjo master Fred Sokolow.

Learn to play scales on the banjo with this comprehensive and easy to use book.

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.