How to Play the 5-String Banjo

by Pete Seeger

Overview

Pete Seeger has sold many copies of his instructional manual How to Play the Five-String Banjo, and this recording provides some of the basics. Seeger notes that really all he has time to do here is, by analogy, teach the student how to mix and pour concrete, hammer a nail, and saw on the square, not give instructions on how to build an entire house. The banjo is a highly percussive stringed instrument, and Seeger concentrates on methods of getting sound out of it with terms he has invented himself, including "hammering on" and "pulling off," as well as strumming techniques. He is careful to point out which fingers on the hand should be used for particular sounds and how those fingers should be applied to the strings. Although the information is provided quickly on a disc that runs little over a half an hour, each point is one that the student will have to practice repeatedly to reach the speeds Seeger demonstrates. So, this is an album to listen to over and over, and Seeger even suggests ways of modifying a record player to get it to play particular sections of an LP repeatedly. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	05/30/2012
Label:	Folkways / Smithsonian Records
UPC:	0093070830325

Tracks

1. A Basic Strum
2. Now With the Left Hand
3. Now With the Index Finger
4. The Fifth String
5. Now Take That Same Song
6. Hammering On
7. Here's a Little Bit of The
8. Pulling Off
9. Well, Now, if You Study The
10. Double Thumbing
11. Now, for Just One More Time
12. Now, Not All Songs, Alfterall
13. Here's the Song, 'Hard Ain't It Hard'
14. Frailing
15. In the G Tuning, You Might Try
16. Now, Frailing Is the Best Way
17. Three-Finger Picking
18. Here's Another Devleopment Of
19. Here's the Song, "Cindy"
20. A Loud Strum
21. Here Is a Variation of the Above
22. Three Micscellaneous Postscripts
23. If You Ever Want to Play A
24. A Roll Is a Special Banjo Effect
25. 3/4 and 6/8 Time
26. Using This Method, and a Little
27. For a More Sustained Effect
28. Incidentally, This Type Of
29. Now 6/8 Time Is the Same
30. Blues and Jazz
31. Another Common Blues Guitar
32. Here's a Sample Blues Passage
33. Spanish and South American Guitar Techniques
34. Here's One Way to Get a Rhumba
35. Here's Still Another Way Of
36. This Last Pattern Can Be
37. [CD-ROM Track]

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Pete Seeger   Primary Artist,Banjo,Vocals