We filmed this video as one of several bonus features that will be included on my forthcoming clawhammer banjo instructional DVD. Jonathan VanBallenberghe from Open Lens Productions did the filming and editing. See www.hunterrobertson.com for more information about the DVD. The banjo’s tuned gCGCC (tuned down to B). Based on Tommy Jarrell’s recording with some additional lyrics.
I just recently finished the filming for an instructional clawhammer banjo DVD with Jonathan VanBallenberghe from Open Lens Productions behind the camera. It’s geared towards intermediate/advanced players and covers 10 tunes along with a section on technique and a few extras. Its aim is to not only teach those 10 tunes but to give the student the tools to learn and adapt tunes themselves from other sources. Jonathan is editing it now so keep your eyes peeled for its eventual release.
The tunes are:
Lonesome John (from John Salyer)
Candy Girl (from Uncle Bunt Stephens)
Boatin’ Up Sandy (from Wilson Douglas)
Unfortunate Puppy (from Elmo Newcomer)
Cripple Creek (from Hobart Smith)
Ducks on the Millpond (from Emmett Lundy)
Raleigh & Spencer (from Tommy Jarrell)
Leather Breeches (from John Salyer)
Ft. Smith Breakdown (from Luke Highnight’s Ozark Strutters)
I’ve read about 6 and 7 string banjos over the years (that is, banjos with 5 or 6 long strings and a short drone sting – not guitar-banjos/guitjos/banjitars etc.) and thought it would be good to have the extra range to be able to play the high part of a tune an octave down, or to give the effect of Tommy Jarrell’s ‘John Brown’s Dream’ tuning (with the low D tuned down to G). Well, after finally hearing a 6-string played, by Chuck Levy courtesy of the internet, I decided to get one. A little hunting and I got a 7-string beauty made by J. Viner, I’d guess from the 1880s or 1890s, which needed a little work. It was missing a tailpiece and bridge so I made those. Someone had glued a piece of an old bone domino in place of the nut but had never cut it down or notched it, so I worked it into something useful (and a good story!). I have it set up as a 6-string, you’d need pencil size fingers to play it as a 7, the strings would be so tightly spaced. The action is horrible but I’d have to recut the heel to fix it and I don’t feel like doing that yet. Here are some pictures, and below that a video of ‘Tater Patch’ on it, going down into the lower octave.
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
Here’s the video of ‘Tater Patch’ in the equivalent of gGDGBD (actually tuned down to around E with minstrel gauge Nylgut strings plus a classical guitar low E). The danger with it is I get so used to the spacing that going back to a normal 5-string discombobulates my hand! I end up drop-thumbing to the 1st string instead of the 2nd that I’m aiming for…
There are a bunch of videos up on youtube from my performance at Moseley Folk Festival earlier this year, here’s one, a clawhammer version of ‘Old Joe Clark’:
