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Basic Frailing Banjo
A few years ago I started messing around with the idea of putting together a plain-text introduction to frailing the five string banjo that I could use to answer the almost endless series of, "how do I get started?" posts on mailing lists and the Usenet.
Finding a way to explain the frailing stroke without pictures or sound files was a fun project to mess around with on rainy afternoons. After a while a couple of drafts started floating around the Internet. I decided that enough was enough and went on to other projects.
But some ideas take on a life of their own. I kept going back to the text file to tweak something. After a friend saw the file and asked if he could use it for an after school project he was involved with I wound up writing The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo.
The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo was (and is) a success, But the idea of a free document to introduce people to a way of making music that means a great deal to me wouldn't get out of my head. So I sat down for one more Sunday afternoon of work and put the following document together.
This is by no means a compete overview of the art and craft of frailing the five string banjo. It's just enough to get you started. Like any other art form old time banjo can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
What This document covers is picking up a five-string banjo, tuning it up, learning the basic strum and playing a couple of songs. If you want to go beyond that you can pick up a copy of The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo, read the full online version of The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo, order one of our video workshops- or just do what I did and live with the basics for about twenty years.
That's enough talking. Let's pick.