Howdy folks,

[Joshua Lawn]

Hey yall, hows it going?  

   My name is Josh and I am a brand spanking knew banjo player.  I bought a Rover standerd 5 string banjo about 9 months ago.  I messed around with it but didn't get far so I set it down for a couple months.  

   I wanted to find something other than blue grass style picking as I didn't really care for finger picking (I don't like not being able to feel the string with a finger pick on).  I stumbled across claw hammer and have been messing around with that.  

   Rescently I ran across the Oldcermona and I really like the songs they play.  I really like Civil war era music like Bonnie blue flag and Camptown Races to name a few.  

   I really like the minstrel style of banjo that I have been watching on Oldcermona, and I would like to peruse that style of music on banjo.

  1.  My question is, can I learn minstrel on my 5string Rover?

  2. What is a good way to start learning minstrel?

  3.  I am considering building my own minstrel banjo, do you know any good books, web sites that could guid me in the prosess of building a banjo?

 

 Well thanks a lot, I hope you all have a great day and hopefully talk to yall later.

Regards,

   Josh.

 

[Ian Bell]

Hi Josh,

Welcome to the group. You can get started on this stuff with just about any 5-string banjo. Lots of us did. You'll just sound little "twangier" with the steel strings. When you get into it a little more might want to consider getting a set of nylon strings for your instrument. From there it's all downhill and you soon find yourself out looking for gourds and goatskins!

Some of us got started with the Joseph Weidlich minstrel banjo books (available online from Elderly instruments and other places too) They're a good toehold. This site is full of videos that will give you an idea of how (we think) the stuff is supposed to sound, and which will let you to watch players' hands as you listen. There are lots of 19th century tune books and audio samples at Tim Twiss' Banjo Clubhouse (see link at top of this page)

There are a number of blogs online that will tell you about building banjos. I found this one useful. http://rutlandhs.k12.vt.us/jpeterso/banjo/make1.html They all tell you slightly different things, but sorting through it all is part of the fun.

Finally - you come down to Antietam in June to spend a weekend with us playing tunes on the threshing floor of a barn and your indoctrination in the cult will be complete.

Good luck!

[Ian Bell]

If you want something to do now, go to the video on this site called "Briggs' Movements" and do what Tim does.

You'd have to tune your banjo way down to get it to match his in pitch, but steel strings will be pretty floppy down there. If you want to leave it in modern pitch you should tune it to "C" tuning gCGBD

 Tim (bless 'is heart) has also posted the tablature for these in the photo section - off you go now...

[Paul Certo]

Welcome to Minstrel Banjo! If you're like me, you want to build your own banjo just because. If you want to build just  save money, you may find it's almost as cheap to find an economical fretless for sale, there are several makers on the web.  You also may want to try nylon strings on your Rover, and see if that gets you closer to the sound you want. As for fingerpicks, I do most of my banjo finger picking with bare fingers. Bluegrassers seem to favor picks, but follow your own muse. It's your banjo, play it how you like.

Here's a few sites to look at, but if you type building a banjo into your browser, there are others as well.

http://www.datatransform.demon.co.uk/index.html

http://clawhammerbanjo.com/instruments/gourd/gourdbuild/gourdbuild....

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageOB1.html

Good luck, and make sure you ask all the questions you can think of. Some folks on here build, and may be able to advise you.

Paul

[Steve Jeter]

Check this out

http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/forum/topics/getting-started

 This has starting strokes ,  tunes to get going & you can see the videos to the tunes by searching in videos for Harpers Ferry, this is what Im doing , and Im  just getting started myself.

 Ita good stuff

 Steve

[Joshua Lawn]

Thank yall for the help.  Yall have been very helpful.  

I think this is going to be fun any how.