Category Archives: 4-Finger Style

Learning to play in a totally new style using 4 fingers.

Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Applying it to a Song

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song Finally, here’s a concrete example of how I’m approaching the whole four-finger banjo process. This is a four-finger … Continue reading

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Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Getting Started Yet More

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song Now let’s try some exercises such as the following, which are simply four-finger equivalents of some well-known three-finger … Continue reading

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Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Getting Started

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song For starting starters (apologies to Dr. Seuss), it is best to make use of a little-known fact about … Continue reading

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Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Benefits & Challenges

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song Benefits A new sound. Skillfully playing a four-finger roll can give you a completely new cadence to add … Continue reading

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Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Some Observations

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song Now move forward in time to today. A few banjo players, seeking new boundaries to push, have started … Continue reading

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Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Background

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song Last blog, I gave a brief introduction to the topic of playing bluegrass banjo with four (right hand) … Continue reading

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Playing Banjo 4-Finger Style – Introduction

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song Have you heard of this yet? Picking a 5-string banjo with 4 fingers instead of the usual 3, … Continue reading

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A Taxonomy of Banjos

This is just a fun excursion into different types of banjos. Some of you know all of these variants already, but here they are for all to see: all the different types of banjos that I am aware of. I’ve … Continue reading

Posted in 2-Finger Style, 4-Finger Style, Banjos in General, Dulcimers, Mandolins | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When New Skills are Like a Magnet

When you learn repetitious musical techniques, it can also be human nature to resist things that are very close to what you already know. Continue reading

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