Chords for Intro To Two Finger Old Time Banjo Style

_ _ _ _ Good afternoon today, we're going to work a little bit on how to play two finger style old-time banjo _
Before we talk about that and show you some exercises
You should know that you can print out a little sheet with tablature exercises and explanations off our website
Which is listed in the cup in the description of the video?
_ _ And let me just play a little [Ebm] bit so I can show you what I'm talking [G] about
_ _ So _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ [Cm] it's not called hammer, and it's not quite bluegrass _ and two fingers a little [N] bit of a misnomer because it's really thumb and one finger
_ The thumb plays the melody
While the first finger plays the first string as a drone and the thumb jumps up to play the fifth string as well
So the thumbs got two jobs first fingers got just one job in the basic style
_ Since the 60s claw hammer has been the most popular style of old-time banjo, but it certainly wasn't necessarily that way _ You know
_ _ Pre 1930 people just kind of played how they felt like it in this kind of thumb lead two finger style was pretty popular
_ I play a lot of the same
tunes that I would play in claw hammer two finger and I use a lot my string band where
The clamor style might be a little too quiet or not quite hard driving enough
But I'm not a real [Gm] bluegrass banjo player, so I don't play Scruggs style
So the two [G] finger is a nice compromise
And I like to wear picks when I do it
So to begin with if we [Ebm] look at this the basic role I have written down there
we're just going thumb one thumb one [G] thumb one thumb [N] one, but the thumb is alternating between the melody string and
The fifth string and of course the melody string changes all the time, so I have it written out in three different places
So first is just melody on the second string it would be [G] like this _ _ _
And _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ if the thumb was on the third string of the sound like _ this
Some _ _ _ _ _ _ of the fourth string would be like this _ _
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_ _ [Gm] So
Yeah, the thumb is bouncing to wherever the melody note is and the finger just [Gbm] keeps going on that first [G] string
The other thing besides that basic role that happens a lot is a pinch
And [A] that's the first and fifth string played [G] at the same time
So you might get a melody note and then a pinch and maybe a roll [Ab] after it.
That's what I wrote [G] down there
I think _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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on third string now _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ for a string _ _
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_ _ _ _ And then [A] sometimes you have to get more melody notes in [G] so you don't have time to get up to the fifth string
So you might just play thumb one thumb one thumb one with a melody in first string
So _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] just thumb one thumb one.
It's a [N] lot like double thumbing in claw hammer style _ and
Of course we can add in hammer-ons pull-offs and slides.
That's when it really starts to sound _
You know full-timey [Ab] so like maybe you hammer [G] on the fourth string [Em] that _ _ _ _ _
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_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ sort of thing maybe a [C] slide
[G] _ _ pull _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C]-offs
[G] _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [D] _ [G] _
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_ _ _ _ [Eb] So it still has the rhythm of claw hammer, but [N] it's got a little more drive because of the picks, but it's not quite so
_ Syncopated maybe is bluegrass style scrub style
_ [G] _ Wonderful for tunes and songs _ so _ I
_ Think I'm gonna put up a few [Gm] more two-finger style videos so you can hear some examples [Ab] of it
If you have [G] any questions feel free to email and make sure you go download this tab sheet so you can practice.
Thanks
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