Quote:
Originally Posted by George Henry
After having played guitar for 30 years and bluegrass banjo for 20 years, I became enamored with the sound of old time music and clawhammer banjo in particular.................Little did I realize how different clawhammer was from three finger. I had great difficulty transitioning from up-picking to down picking!.............
|
Your story is my story too.
Coming from many years of guitar playing to clawhammer banjo was an incredibly difficult transition for me to make also. Fretting hand skills transfer directly to banjo, which helps, but the picking hand starts from square one learning a new skill that is totally foreign. Throw drop thumb into the mix and you suddenly remember what it feels like to be a beginner. It sucks!
But of course, as we already knew from learning guitar, there are no shortcuts, and, with a lot of persistence and work, we did it.
I've been playing a Deering Americana open back, but will likely upgrade one of these days. Glad you found your sound, though!
