Clawhammer Banjo
by Miles Krassen

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Book Summary Information

• Published by Music Sales America 80 Pages
• Book with Record arr. Miles Krassen
• Arranger: Miles Krassen

Book Reviews of Clawhammer Banjo

Book Review: [Clawhammer Banjo Review]
Summary: 5 Stars

Be that as it may, this is a wonderful book to develope a basic repertoire of Appalachian mountain tunes on the banjo. If you're a beginner, get this, but don't use it until you've worked from some of the simpler books such as Muller's "Frailing the 5-String Banjo."

The clawhammer style of playing a banjo is essentially single string frailing. It's origins lie in the old fiddle tunes from the Appalachians. The primary focus of Krassen's book is the clawhammer style centered around Galax, Virginia/Mt. Airy, north Carolina/Bluefield, West Virginia.

Once you've learned a little about the basic banjo strum and other essentials, Krassen's book is the place to go to get a feel for some basic arrangements of old-time standards. What I particularly like about Krassen's arrangements is that each tune is set out in a very simple to read tablature; each tab in turn lays out a basic bare-bones structure for each tune. These arrangements in turn are perfect for allowing the banjoist to incorporate sundry other techniques to flesh out a tune when accompanying a fiddle player.

Krassen emphasizes two important themes regarding clawhammer banjo playing: (1) the primary rhythmic aspect of the banjo, rather than melodic and (2) the importance of using the banjo to highlight only essential notes of the melody and letting the fiddle do the talking.

You won't find very much in terms of instruction here. That's done much better in other books. But if you've developed some competence in the basics of playing...it's a resourceful place to go next in your development.

Summary of Clawhammer Banjo

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