The Melodic Approach to Clawhammer Banjo with Ken Perlman

Adult Group Class / Banjo Program

Learn and perfect the sets of skills that separate melodic clawhammer from “traditional” and “festival” styles. We’ll start with a thorough exploration of drop-thumbing & double-thumbing; develop the ability to drop your thumb to any string at any time, use your picking finger and thumb to play any combination of strings in any order, and to use double-thumbing both for rhythmic accents and for creating runs of melody notes. We’ll also explore fretting-hand fingering strategies and ergonomics, hammer-ons and pull-offs involving all fretted notes, "alternate-string" pull-offs (where you pluck one string and then pull-off another string), and basic strategies for achieving syncopated rhythms. Along the way, we’ll look at old-time and Celtic fiddle tunes that illustrate the skills just taught. Instruction is via demonstration, ear, and tablature.

Ken Perlman is a pioneer of the 5-string banjo style known as melodic clawhammer; he is considered one today’s top clawhammer players, known in particular for his skillful adaptations of Celtic, Appalachian, & Canadian fiddle tunes to the style. He has toured throughout most of the English-speaking world and in Western-Europe, both as a soloist and – for over fifteen years – in a duo with renowned Appalachian-style fiddler Alan Jabbour. An acclaimed teacher of folk-music instrumental skills, Ken has written such widely used banjo instruction books as Clawhammer Style Banjo. Melodic Clawhammer Banjo and Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo; he has been on staff at prestigious festivals around the world, and he is currently director of three music-instructional camps: American Banjo Camp, Midwest Banjo Camp, and Suwannee Banjo Camp. Also an independent folklorist, Ken spent close to two decades collecting tunes and oral histories from traditional fiddle players on Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada. His most recent solo recordings are Frails & Frolics and Northern Banjo; his recordings with Alan Jabbour are Southern Summits & You Can’t Beat the Classics; his latest books are Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo and Cape Breton & Prince Edward Island Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo.

Grouped with: Clawhammer