Clawhammer Guitar Techniques

[Skarsaune]

Originally Posted by Norsepicker

If you look on the Dream Guitars site under videos Al Pettaway has one on claw hammer (free), and you might consider his route - which I have done and like a lot. If you get a banjo and learn claw hammer (admittedly pretty hard) it is easy to transfer to guitar, for some reason I’ve found it easier than banjo, but I think that’s just because I learned to do it on banjo. I live on the New River, and so I’ve played a lot of New River Train and found it to be a good claw hammer tune for both banjo and guitar.

This post sent me down the YouTube rabbit hole, where I ran into Al's video you mention. I also like his method. Tried it out a little yesterday, needs more exploration. I can really see it working on songs like Shady Grove.

How far downstream are you? We floated a section of the New by the state park in NC this summer and have some friends that live on the beginning of the North fork.

[Social Exodus]

Originally Posted by bfm612

Just throwing it out there: you can book a 30-minute lesson with Molly through Topeka.live. You're asked which songs or techniques you want to work on. It's not cheap, but you'll get tips from the woman herself. What a world we live in.

Actually, $150 for a 30minute session with her seems pretty reasonable to me, considering everything. Thanks for this.

[Doug Young]

Steve has a number of free lessons on You Tube. Here's one we filmed at my place:



But search on Baughman Clawhammer, and you'll find lots. Here's one he did for his short-lived "Rhythm Strummer" site:



He also has some books on the approach, including his old Frailing book from Mel Bay, which is a bit different, but related.

FWIW, I imagine Molly was doing banjo clawhammer before, but I think she started playing clawhammer guitar after taking a workshop from Steve. I remember him telling me he'd never seen anyone pick it up so fast.

[Andyrondack]

This technique sounds amazing, but I'd like to get straight I understand whats going on here. So with Al Petteway's method the melody is played exclusively (?) on the bass strings with the thumb, while the three fingers frail a drone accompaniment on the 1st and 5th scale tones and that drone does not change throughout the tune.
With Steve Baughman's/Molly Tuttle's approach the melody is played by the fingers while the thumb plays a drone on the root and 5th but sometimes the thumb has to play a melody note, so is one style better able to cope with complex melodies than the other? Some things Molly Tuttle said imply that not all tunes are suited to the method?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

This technique sounds amazing, but I'd like to get straight I understand whats going on here. So with Al Petteway's method the melody is played exclusively (?) on the bass strings with the thumb, while the three fingers frail a drone accompaniment on the 1st and 5th scale tones and that drone does not change throughout the tune.
With Steve Baughman's/Molly Tuttle's approach the melody is played by the fingers while the thumb plays a drone on the root and 5th but sometimes the thumb has to play a melody note, so is one style better able to cope with complex melodies than the other? Some things Molly Tuttle said imply that not all tunes are suited to the method?

Al once described to me that he plays clawhammer in a way that mimics the sound of clawhammer banjo, even tho his technique is different, while Steve uses the actual technique of clawhammer banjo, resulting in a different sound (because the guitar doesn't have the high drone string on the bottom).

I'm no expert on this, as I don't use this technique (Maybe Anton will chime in here), but I think with any technique, you use it when it works and skip it when it doesn't. In teaching Steve emphasizes how you never depart from the pattern, but in his actual tunes, he frequently does - the music has to come first. He's also developed his approach to the point that he has a bunch of variations that can handle different situations, and intersperses it with whatever he needs to do. He even gets into some tapping and harmonics at times.

[Doug Young]

BTW, if you want to hear some beautiful clawhammer guitar, slightly different touch, check out Alex Stone Sweet.

[Andyrondack]

Thanks Doug,
can any other instrument be played in quite so many ways?
Enjoyed this from Alec Stone Sweet
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a6xVtFXzAX4

Martin Simpson has another take on this, says in one of his videos that he learned clawhammer banjo as a child but with no teacher he missunderstood the technique thinking that he should flick down on the treble strings with the back of his nails, transferred to the guitar he gets a very percussive sound.
In this video about 2 mins in on Long Steel Rail.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VY6Axpd1tyY
All great stuff.

[Norsepicker]

I live in Blacksburg, if you go down McCoy Road I’m right on the water with a nice meadow in between and the train tracks about 20 feet from my deck (I do a lot of train songs and a lot of river songs), I’m just south o Big Falls rapids if you know where that is. One of things I think is fun about claw hammer guitar is you can bounce around to whatever works,some songs do, some don’t. The fiddle tunes of Appalachia seem well suited to it. I’m trying to learn a claw hammer style on banjo specific to this area, Round Peak, and then see if it has guitar application. It’s amazing what you can get up to in a lockdown.

[anton]

As far as Steve's technique, he is playing clawhammer guitar exactly as you would play clawhammer on a banjo, like Doug said.

His older book, Frailing the Guitar, uses his previous technique, which is an upward pluck with the index finger, downward brush with the middle, and then the thumb plays on the "and" of beat 2.

Once you get the basic clawhammer "bum ditty" pattern down it opens the door to alot of tunes, and is super fun.

There are departures from the pattern, both in trad clawhammer banjo and this guitar style. The fretting hand will hammer on to fill in melody notes, the thumb will come down to play consecutive eighth notes, "drop thumbing". Sometimes the fretting hand will snag a melody note by pulling off on a string that was not sounded previously. Banjo player Adam Hurt does this alot. So it can get pretty tricky. But all you need to get going and play a ton of nice tunes is the basic bum ditty pattern.

I tend to play more clawhammer on banjo. I find it hard to get a clean sound like Steve does, probably because I don't practice it enough. Here is a tune I learned from Steve first on guitar, then on banjo.

[Andyrondack]

Hello Anton, enjoyed both your renditions of Falls of Richmond, a really infectious tune, they may not have had rock 'n roll back in the day but they still had a good time.
So as far as guitar is concerned what is it that make some tunes work well with the technique, is it mostly used with modal tunes that don't need any chord changes?

[anton]

I usually play old time tunes on Clawhammer guitar, which inherently don't have many chord changes. So yea, I think traditional type tunes work best for this style, but I would say try anything that catches your ear.

The 5th or 6th string generally functions the same way as the high drone string on the banjo. So you could use Double Drop D to play tunes in D. I'll use CGDGCD and play tunes in G, using the 5th string as the drone. CGCGCD works well for C, or D with a capo at II.

[Andyrondack]

Thanks anton, happy frailing.

[joeld]

And Steve would say, "If you have an extra guitar lying around, High-5 it!", replace the 5th string with a 1st string. Totally fun!

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by joeld

And Steve would say, "If you have an extra guitar lying around, High-5 it!", replace the 5th string with a 1st string. Totally fun!

Steve also puts a "railroad spike" in the fretboard at the 5th fret, so he can hook that string and really make it more banjo-like.