Recorded Oct 5, 2020

Based on a very simple element called a "skip-stroke" or "ghost brush", here's a step-by-step method that covers everything from shuffle endings and pushing the beat to complex rhythmic patterns, the "Turkey in the Straw" lick, and full-fledged ragtime. If you already own or have an interest in Ken's new book Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo, this is the clinic for you!!

Includes unlimited access to clinic video plus an 8 pp. pdf with tab for all tunes, exercises and musical illustrations.

Recorded Oct 19, 2020

Ken presents strategies for getting comfortable venturing up the neck with impunity: position playing, understanding the fingerboard, "trick" fingering strategies, "Keith-picking," movable chord shapes, and melodic fingering shapes. Fretting the 5th string and using movable shapes incorporating a fretted 5th string will be front and center.

Includes unlimited access to clinic video; you will also receive via email a 10 pp. pdf with tab for all tunes, exercises and musical illustrations.

Recorded Nov 9, 2020

Playing pull-offs properly is a real art, and mastering this skill is absolutely essential to becoming an accomplished clawhammer player. Ken starts by breaking down and analyzing the movement itself; he'll then explore open string pull-offs; pulling-off from one fret to another; obtaining multiple pull-offs from a single plucked note; mastering triplets and ornaments; and playing alternate-string pull-offs (plucking one string, then pulling off another - usually higher - string).

And yes, we also encounter and discuss hammer-ons along the way!

Includes unlimited access to clinic video; you will also receive via email a 9 pp. pdf with tab for all tunes, exercises and musical illustrations..

Recorded Nov 21, 2020

A lot of people say you can't play 6/8-time tunes in clawhammer style, but - having mastered that art decades ago - Ken shares with you the system he developed. He'll break down 6/8 time and show how basic clawhammer techniques can be adapted to play it, teach some very simple jigs, and then explore a series of increasingly more challenging ones. By the end of the session you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Includes unlimited access to clinic video; you will also receive via email a 9 pp. pdf with tab for all tunes, exercises and musical illustrations.

Learn how to play all the common rhythmic figures you'll encounter in 3/4 time tunes. We'll try them out on a few simple melodies, then learn some beautiful waltz tunes in a variety of tunings. If you can count to three (and restrain yourself from continuing on to four), you shouldn't have any technical problems playing waltzes; you just have to jettison the idea that "bum-diddy" is the foundation of the style (in other words, you don't have to follow every downstroke with a brush-thumb).

Level: Intermediate & Up

Prerequisite: at a least one year playing experience; you should be pretty good at drop-thumbing, hammer-ons and pull-offs

Drop-thumbing is the art of using the thumb (T) on the long strings of the banjo (as opposed to using it on the 5th string). In double-thumbing, T moves alternately between one of the long-strings and the drone-string. In this clinic, you'll learn foolproof methods for mastering drop-and double-thumbing, and learn to perform both of these techniques on every string and in every possible string combination. You'll also learn fretting-hand adaptations that make passages calling for drop- and double-thumbing come out more smoothly. Prerequisite: roughly six months playing experience; you should already be relatively comfortable with the basic clawhammer motion.

Ken explores several strategies for embellishing a melody, creating interesting tune variations, or coming up with a good, solid break. Among areas explored are triplets and grace notes; changing octaves; applying rhythmic "push and pull" (syncopation), and using arpeggios and major-scale based formulas guided by the underlying harmony/chord structure, converting diatonic melodies to pentatonic, and more.  Level: Intermediate and up. Prerequisite: at a least one year playing experience; you should be pretty good at drop-thumbing, hammer-ons and pull-offs.

The aim of this workshop is showing you how to capture the authentic hard-driving sound of Celtic and Canadian reels with special attention to tunes from Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. Ken works in detail "The Black Mill" and "Pigeon on the Gatepost" and also illustrates a few others - "Homeward Bound," "The Northside Reel" and "Brenda Stubbert's Reel." Level: Intermediate to Advanced Prerequisites: drop-thumbing, hammer-ons and pull-offs

Fiddlers on Cape Breton and PEI play lots of jigs that originated in Scotland and Ireland, but there's as whole class of whimsical, happy-go-lucky 6/8 tunes that is unique to the region. You'll love these! Ken teaches "Belfast Jig" in detail; also featured are Jackson's Jig. Tea Gardens Jig and John Dan MacPherson's Jig. Level: Intermediate to Advanced Prerequisites: drop-thumbing, hammer-ons and pull-offs

You can't play a Cape Breton style medley without understanding marches and strathspeys. We'll learn how to play the Scotch snap and some characteristic rhythmic figures from strathspeys on banjo, and try some simple examples of both genres. Particular attention is paid to the Scottish strathspey, "Cutting Ferns" but we'll also look at the Marches "Glencoe March," "George V's Army" and "Stella's Trip to Kamloops," and the strathspey, "Glengarry's Dirk." Level: Intermediate to Advanced Prerequisites: drop-thumbing, hammer-ons and pull-offs

Although in clawhammer we generally change tunings for each key, there are times when you might not want to do this – say, if a tune has an internal key change, or if you want to play a medley that features tunes in different keys. This class shows you how to play in alternative keys for both G and double-C tunings. In G-tuning, we’ll look at how to play in the keys of C and D. In double-C tuning we’ll look at how to play in the keys of G and F (if you customarily tune double-C tuning up two frets and call it “double-D”: note that the keys you’ll be learning to play in are A and G). Level: Intermediate to Advanced Prerequisites: drop-thumbing, hammer-ons and pull-offs

Analogous to crosspicking on guitar or mandolin, in the arpeggio technique you obtain a series of two or more notes by dragging the picking fingernail from string to string in a controlled manner (think like of it as a broken brush in which you stop on each successive string for a full beat, half a beat, or some other time interval). We'll look at several useful applications of this technique, including the Galax lick, arpeggiated triplets, the full clawhammer roll, certain types of syncopation, and upwardly moving runs of notes. Level: Intermediate and Up Prerequisite: Drop-thumbing; hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Henry Reed (1884-1968), grew up in Monroe County, WV, spent much of his adult life just over the state line in Glen Lyn, VA, and - over the course of a lifetime - amassed a huge repertoire of great tunes. In the mid-1960s, a young would-be folklorist and budding fiddler named Alan Jabbour collected well over 200 tunes from Reed on tape, and these tunes – popularized by Alan’s Hollow Rock String Band, the Fuzzy Mountain String Band and others – launched the old-time music revival. During the roughly 15 years that Alan and I toured together, he taught me dozens of Henry Reed tunes note-for-note and I’ll now share some of them with you. Among the tunes we’ll look at are Reed’s exquisite version of “Shady Grove” (not at all like the entry-level banjo tune), “Ducks on the Pond,” (a totally different tune than “Ducks on the Millpond”) “Texas” (AKA “New Castle”), and “Christmas Morning.”

Bluegrass fiddle tunes have a flavor all their own, which can be hard to capture in clawhammer. This clinic will unlock the secrets of playing such favorites as “Jerusalem Ridge” (played just like Kenny Baker), the John Hartford version of “Squirrel Hunters,” “Leather Britches,” “Dixie Hoedown,” “Clinch Mountain Backstep” and others. Some techniques I'll draw upon are alternate-string pull-offs, fretting the 5th string, and clawhammer "Keith-picking" (obtaining runs of consecutive melody notes across the strings instead of up and down on the same string). Levels: Intermediate and Up Prerequisites: Drop-thumbing; willingness to venture above the 5th fret!!

There are at least a dozen way to obtain triplets in clawhammer. We'll start by looking at triplets and graces obtained via a downstroke (M) plus two "slurs" - that is, hammer-ons (H) and pull-offs (P) - such as MHH, MPP, and MHP sequences. Then we'll look at triplets that are "clawhammer-specific," such as the "M-P-T" (a P inserted into a drop-thumb pair), and several that involve use of the "arpeggio technique" (→) - that is, obtaining notes by dragging the picking finger from string to string as in the Galax lick. Some examples are M→→, M→T, M→P, and M→H. I'll then demonstrate how many triplet types can be transformed into grace notes, or ornaments. And of course I'll illustrate how each triplet or grace note type can be used in particular tunes.

Following Pete Seeger’s terminology, double-thumbing is using the the thumb alternately on long string and 5th string. If you substitute “skip-strokes” (some call them “ghost-brushes”) for one or more down-strokes in a double-thumbing sequence, this results in compelling syncopated rhythms – an effect enhanced by the fact that there are at least a dozen different kinds of double-thumbing sequences that can be brought into play. In this workshop, Ken goes over several double-thumbing types, shows you how to create syncopated rhythms from them all, and then illustrates how these rhythms apply to both “traditional” and melodic clawhammer picking styles. One important corollary: syncopated double-thumbing patterns also make for a very effective accompaniment approach, akin to Travis-picking on guitar.

This series of 2-string & 3-string fingering configurations, or shapes is your gateway to playing the full melodies of most key-of-G fiddle tunes. You’ll learn the shapes and how to integrate them into drop-thumbing and double-thumbing patterns. Then you’ll learn how to create musical phrases by surrounding or interspersing the notes in these shapes with adjacent open or fretted long strings, the open 5th string, or – once we get above fret 5 – the fretted 5th string.

Best known as the decorative “flourish” that serves as the heart of Tom Ashley’s intro to “The Cuckoo,” the clawhammer roll is a highly traditional technique that has largely fallen into disuse in the contemporary old-time banjo scene, but is well worth reviving. Essentially, the clawhammer roll is a slow, controlled brush-thumb. The brush – played on a weak beat of the measure – leads seamlessly to a prominent 5th-string note that falls on a strong beat. We’ll learn two alternative ways to create a roll, then use it in a variety of traditional and contemporary banjo arrangements. We’ll learn Ashley’s “The Cuckoo” of course, along with Hobart Smith’s “Arkansas Traveler” and Wade Ward’s “Polly Put the Kettle On”; you'll also learn how to incorporate clawhammer rolls into your own arrangements.

Focusing on such noted players as Clarence "Tom" Ashley, Rufus Crisp, Hobart Smith, and Wade Ward, we'll look at how their highly distinctive approaches to such clawhammer techniques as drop-thumbing, double-thumbing, alternate-string pull-offs and syncopation created a sound that captivated three generations of banjo enthusiasts. Learn banjo versions by these players of such classics as "Cumberland Gap," "Last Chance," "June Apple," "Little Sadie," "Arkansas Traveler," and much more.

This series of 2-string & 3-string fingering configurations, or shapes is your gateway to playing the full melodies of most key of C, D, G-modal, and A-modal fiddle tunes. You’ll learn the shapes and how to integrate them into drop-thumbing and double-thumbing patterns. Then you’ll learn how to create musical phrases by surrounding or interspersing the notes in these shapes with adjacent open or fretted long strings, the open 5th string, or – once we get above fret 5 – the fretted 5th string. Ultimately, you'll be able to play full fiddle tune melodies without venturing higher than fret 10 (for many tunes you won't need to range higher than fret 7, and for some no higher than fret 5!). You'll even be able to take some tunes an octave up without venturing any higher than fret 10. Note: what folks call Double D tuning is simply Double C tuning raised up two frets in pitch; fretting-hand finger usage in both tunings is therefore fully identical.

Emanating from the Mt. Airy region of North Carolina, the " Round Peak" banjo style has become one of the most popular and influential approaches to clawhammer. Putting aside the various myths and urban legends that have grown up about it, we'll take a look at what the style was actually all about. You'll also learn some note-for-note transcriptions of recorded performances by such Round Peak greats as Fred Cockerham ("Last Chance" and "Roustabout"); Kyle Creed ("Ducks on the Millpond" and "Darlin Nelli Gray"); and others.

Learn series of simple two-string fingering shapes, or double stops, that let you harmonize any note with a third or sixth interval. Guaranteed to make even simple melodies sound gangbusters!! FYI, thirds are the building blocks of chords and sixths are inverted thirds (turned upside down). So in the key of C Major, for example, a series of thirds is C-E, D-F, E-G . . .; while the corresponding series of sixths is E-C, F-D, G-E.

Playing fast dance tunes with lots of densely packed notes on banjo - what could go wrong? We'll look at how understanding and projecting the phrasing, or shape of reel melodies makes for both authentic and powerful performances. We'll also look at how basic and advanced clawhammer techniques can be harnessed for projecting tune phrasing. Among the tunes we'll probably work with are "Wind That Shakes the Barley," "The Black Mill," "Far From Home" and "Drowsy Maggie."

Broaden your knowledge of the fingerboard and musical knowhow by learning to Play in the key of D Major from Open G Tuning (gDGBD). We'll look at full and partial chords around the neck, useful accompaniment patterns, scales, melodic fingering shapes, etc. Playing cross-tuning in this way can be useful in several ways - playing tunes that switch keys mid-stream; negotiating medleys with tunes in different keys; and participating effectively in Irish and Scottish jam sessions (where switching keys from tune to tune is the rule).

This is a "soup to nuts" approach on how to take a simple tune and come up with an effective and interesting clawhammer version of your own. Among the topics covered are creating a schematic version of the melody; arranging by formula; single-time vs. double-time approaches; spicing up the arrangement; filler licks; intros; endings; and breaks.

Borrowing from the legendary bluegrass "Melodic" banjoist Bill Keith, Ken created series of up-the-neck "shapes" that yield powerful runs of notes when played with Clawhammer-style picking patterns. Many of these shapes incorporate the 5th string - sometimes open but usually fretted. We'll work on exercises to learn these shapes, and try out numerous examples that occur within the context of actual tunes. You'll leave the class convinced that using these shapes is by far the most efficient way to navigate the fingerboard above the fifth fret.

Bluegrass great Bill Keith is associated with a style of 3-finger banjo playing in which adjacent melody notes are played “across the strings” rather than up and down on the same string (in other words, when running up and down a scale the same string is never played twice in a row). The mechanics of drop- and double-thumbing also makes Keith-picking effective in clawhammer; these mechanics can be readily harnessed to play scales, complicated phrases, or even entire melodies in clawhammer style. Keith-Picking in clawhammer offers a readily available way to play upwardly moving phrases and adds a resonant ambiance to any musical passage.

Learn all Major and Minor Chord Shapes in several positions around the neck for double-C tuning (identical to "double-D" tuning in terms of string relationships and fingering shapes). We'll look at "I-IV-V" (Tonic, Dominant, & Sub-Dominant) for common keys; chord scales; the Circle-of-Fifths & common Circle-of-Fifths progressions; and playing Chord Melody (each melody note is the top note of a full-chord or partial-chord shape).

Some of the prettiest and most interesting fiddle tune melodies you'll encounter are hornpipes. Hornpipes were originally played at a slow-to-moderate tempo and in a “dotted,” or exaggerated swing rhythm conducive to ornamenting with lots of triplets and grace notes. Although many hornpipes nowadays are played just like reels (that is, at fast tempos and with a relatively straight rhythm), the original hornpipe style is still quite popular - particularly in the British and Celtic traditions. In this workshop we’ll take a look at, and learn several hornpipe-style tunes: “Lamplighter’s Hornpipe,” “Bonaparte Crossing the Alps,” “The Boys of Blue Hill,” “the Plains of Boyle,” and “Kitty’s Wedding.”

There's a lot of misinformation about modal music these days in the old-time music scene (for one thing, the so-called Church Modes - Dorian, Mixolydian etc. - are only the beginning of the story). Learn a practical, thoroughly no-nonsense approach to "modal" music, and how to approach modal tunes in your playing. Some tunes we may look at are "Greasy Coat, "The Route" "Squirrel Hunters," Henry Reed's "Shady Grove," and Edden Hammons' "Sandy Boys."

Sometimes called "Baroque Variation," this is a sure-fire method for creating interesting variations and breaks on song and fiddle-tune melodies. We'll start with scale-formula exercises, then look at how you can apply these principles to creating your breaks and variations.

This class breaks down the myths surrounding tunes that don't follow a "four-square" metric format. We'll look at tunes with extra or fewer measures than standard; and those that have measures with extra beats or fewer beats than called for in key signatures. We'll also examine theories about how crooked arose (are they intentional or simply "mistakes" memorialized by collectors?). Among the examples we'll look at are "Ship in the Clouds," "Clinch Mtn. Backstep," "Tennessee Mountain Fox Chase," "The L&N Rag" and "Five Miles to Town."

Based on a very simple element called the "skip-stroke" or "ghost brush," here's a step-by-step method that covers everything from shuffle endings and pushing the beat to complex rhythmic patterns, the "Turkey in the Straw" lick, and even full-fledged ragtime. If you already own or have an interest in Ken's latest book, "Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo," this is the workshop for you!!

Fiddle Tunes with a Ragtime Flavor, Clawhammer Style. Learn about characteristic ragtime licks and rhythms and how to adapt them to clawhammer. We’ll then take a close look at clawhammer settings of such classic “raggedy” fiddle tunes as “Ragtime Annie,” “Pig Ankle Rag,” “Dill Pickles, ” “Colored Aristocracy,” and “The L & N Rag.” All registrants receive a tab booklet on the day prior to this workshop; a recording that features Ken playing all musical examples, exercises, and tunes discussed in class will be made available to all registrants within a day or two after it takes place.

The style pioneered by Creed and others in the Round Peak region of North Carolina during the middle third of the 20th century can be regarded as the foundation for a lot of the clawhammer picking around today. Learn the characteristic techniques that went into Creed's distinctive sound and several note-for-note versions of his best known banjo arrangements. Among the tunes we'll look at are his classic versions of "Cluck Old Hen," "Old Joe Clark," "John Henry," "Liberty," and "Darlin' Nelli Gray."

How to string together such fundamental clawhammer elements as double-thumbing, the skip-stroke (ghost brush), double stops, slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs - and work with such musical elements as pushing the beat, harmonized scales and appogiaturas - to create killer arrangements of iconic songs. Among the pieces we'll look at are "Home Sweet Home," "Auld Lang Syne," "Grandfather's Clock" "Darlin' Nelly Grey," and Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More."

Here are some helpful hints, perspectives, and exercises to help you establish a personal backup-banjo style. We’ll look at several rhythm patterns from bumm-titty strums to syncopated patterns akin to Travis-picking on guitar; chord shapes and partial chord shapes around the neck in G Tuning and Double C Tuning; how to use chords & patterns when you know the chords or have a “lead sheet”; or – if you don’t know them - how to go about establishing the key and the selecting the proper chords for accompaniment.

Mel Bay Publications

This book features 136 tunes from these two distinct but related fiddling traditions, collected by the author directly from master fiddlers, and arranged note-for-note for clawhammer banjo with as much flavor and nuance as possible. These settings of reels, hornpipes, jigs, marches, strathspeys, airs, and other fiddle tunes are all eminently playable and fully benefit from the author’s half-century of experience playing banjo, arranging for banjo, writing banjo instruction books, and researching fiddle-music traditions.

Click for more information.

West Virginia & Eastern Kentucky were ground zero for traditional old-time fiddling throughout most of the 20th century. Learn some great tunes from those regions collected directly from iconic roots fiddlers by two of my musical colleagues - fourth-generation West Virginia fiddler Bobby Taylor (founder of the Clifftop Festival) and the incomparable Alan Jabbour (one of the founders of the contemporary old-time music scene). I learned these tunes directly from Bobby and Alan, then translated them to banjo. Among the tunes we'll look at are "Folding Down the Sheets," "New Five Cents," "Martha Campbell," Henry Reed's version of "Bonaparte Retreat," and "Quince Dillion's High D."

The key of C minor and related key-of-C "modes" create a truly compelling sound in double C tuning (gCGCD) but are often under-explored by contemporary clawhammer players. In this clinic you'll become fluent with the C minor, F minor, Bb, Eb, and Ab chords (easy to play in this tuning); and also with characteristic licks and turns of phrase. We'll then use these chords and licks to play classics like "Sally in the Garden," Pretty Polly" (AKS "Pastures of Plenty" ), and "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger." We'll also explore methods for transposing to the key of C some well-known minor and modal tunes usually played in other keys - such as "Shady Grove" "Cluck Old Hen" and "Little Sadie." **Note: Everything in this clinic also applies to "Double-D" tuning (aDADE); just tune all your strings up two frets and use the same fingerings.**

Review the common major and minor chord shapes in G and Double-C tuning and learn about the three basic principles that you can draw from when creating chordal harmonies – Diatonic harmony, the Circle-of-5ths, and voice-leading. Diatonic harmony centers on the chords you can build from the notes of a major or minor scale (Tonic/Dominant/Subdominant, or I-IV-V, etc.). The circle-of-5ths focuses on the relationships among Diatonic chords from different keys (it also serves as an musical “abacus” that helps you calculate nearly every musical relationship). Finally, voice-leading is your harmonic wild card; it allows you to go almost anywhere provided a couple of simple parameters are in play. Finally, we’ll look at how to determine what chords to use for harmony when you don’t know them in advance.

Learn how to play effectively in the key of F in five different banjo tunings. We’ll start with three “namesake” or tune-specific tunings. Learn “Sandy River Belle” and “Wild Horses at Stony Point” in Sandy River Belle Tuning (fCFCD); “Last Chance” in Last Chance Tuning (fDFCD); and “Cumberland Gap” and “Little Satchel” in the Round Peak version of Cumberland Gap Tuning (fDGCD). We’ll then look at how to play effectively in F in two of the most common tunings; we’ll play “Girl I Left Behind Me” in Double C Tuning (gCGCD), and “Hull’s Victory” in G Modal Tuning (gDGCD). Note that you can apply everything in this workshop to the key of G by capoing at the 2nd fret, or by tuning up the banjo the equivalent of two frets. If you tune up the banjo two frets, you get these tunings: gDGDE (Sandy River Belle); gEGCE (Last Chance); gEADE (Cumberland Gap); aDADE (Double D); and AEADE (A Modal).

About Ken's new book, Cape Breton & Prince Edward Island Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo. The island of Cape Breton & its close neighbor, Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada are home to two of the oldest, strongest, and most vibrant fiddling traditions in North America. Cape Breton gave rise to a professional Celtic-based fiddling scene to rival anything coming out of Scotland & Ireland. Prince Edward Island’s traditional fiddlers developed lively, idiosyncratic styles every bit as musically compelling as anything you’ll hear on archival recordings of iconic American old-time fiddlers from the Appalachians. This book features 136 tunes from these two distinct but related fiddling traditions, collected by the author directly from master fiddlers, and arranged note-for-note for clawhammer banjo with as much flavor and nuance as possible. These settings of reels, hornpipes, jigs, marches, strathspeys, airs, and other fiddle tunes are all eminently playable and fully benefit from the author’s half-century of experience playing banjo, arranging for banjo, writing banjo instruction books, and researching fiddle-music traditions. Among the tunes we'll look at are "Brenda Stubbert's Reel," "Homeward Bound," and "Glencoe March."