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Post by peddersway on May 12, 2011 8:56:23 GMT
Hi, I am a new clawhammer banjo player. I started to learn the basics on the uke having seen some of Richard Hefner's playing on ezfolk and utube. I now have an Ozark 5 string (cant remember the model) bought from Eagle Music for about £120. I have nothing to compare it with, but it seems a nice, sturdy, well made instrument. I have been learning from utube; Patrick Costello mainly and also rpeek (who is great fun) and David Holt. I also have a book by Ken Perlman which I think is very good and really well thought out. I have watched Ken playing fiddle tunes on utube. Wow! A bit soon, but I would like to know more about capos amongst other things. I am based in East Anglia (Norfolk). Sometime soon I might post a utube vid and would be grateful for any criticism (constructive preferably!). Anyway, I will finish my ramble now. Nice to meet you all.
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Post by scanbran on May 12, 2011 14:10:58 GMT
Hi peddersway, Great to 'meet' you Can't have enough clawhammer banjo players IMO, so welcome and keep pickin' The David Holt tuition DVDs are first rate - he's a superb player who makes the tunes fun and easy to learn. The Ken Perlman clawhammer method book is about the best instruction manual there is for the instrument, and Ken's playing is second to none - you'll do well out of it. What do you want to know about capos? I'm no expert, but I use one regularly with the banjo (and guitar). Some players tune their whole banjo up tot he key they want to play in (e.g. tuned to G, they tune up to A) whereas it can be quicker and easier on the strings/neck to capo at the 2nd fret. This of course leads to the issue of what to do with the short 5th string. I have model railroad spikes installed on my banjos at the 7th and 9th frets. You hook the 5th string under the spike and this automatically capos it at the 7th fret, i.e. two frets higher than the nut, making it in tune with your banjo capo'd at the 2nd fret. An alternative is to install a 5th string capo system (unneccessary IMO) or just tuning the 5th string up to pitch (can be risky in terms of breaking the string). Sorry for my own rambling there, but I hope it was of some use. If not, feel free to let me know and I'll help however I can. Martin
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ned
Full Member
Posts: 196
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Post by ned on May 12, 2011 15:01:28 GMT
Welcome to the gang mate! Pete
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Post by peddersway on May 12, 2011 16:04:31 GMT
Hi, and thanks. I am new to the banjo and what puzzles me is playing in different keys with respect to the fifth string. Am I correct in thinking that a rail road spike is an L shaped piece of metal that is driven into the fret board? Does it remain in1 position or is it "rotated" by 90 degrees to trap the string? As you probably gathered I dont know very much! Cheers.
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Post by Danny on May 12, 2011 16:39:18 GMT
Welcome aboard mate The fifth string 'spike' is just a very small L shaped piece of metal, model railways guys use 'em to pin the little tracks down, and us banjo players nicked 'em! They're really small, when installed correctly it'll be lower than the fret wire. It stays in place and you just tuck the string under it when you wanna 'capo up' Also check out www.mediafire.com/?x9tw2jjbw1y it's a zip file containing all of Patrick Costello's books (3 are for Banjo, 1 for Guitar) It's small free and Legal (they're under the Creative Commons License) I found 'em to be pretty good, give 'em a try Danny
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Post by peddersway on May 12, 2011 18:24:04 GMT
I see. So its so small that it doesnt cause a buzz against the string when not in use. So can I get them from a model shop? Though I would be a bit scared of driving them into the fret board! How many do banjo players typically add? I realise that this will relate to the commonist keys played when accompanying someone else. Many Thanks, Nigel.
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Post by Danny on May 12, 2011 21:15:12 GMT
Nigel It's usually installed with a very small hole being drilled with a VERY small drill bit to avoid hammering the thing in and potentially splitting/cracking the fret board. You best bet is to head back to Eagle Music or somewhere else that's closer to home if you bought your banjo mail order, and have them installed professionally. Frets 7 & 9 are most common, also fret 10 sometimes I think. If you don't know of any music/guitar shops local to you, grab the Yellow Pages or the Thompson Local, and hit the phones, a bit of research can work wonders mate. Also don't overlook Google Earth, type in the name of your town or city, followed by 'guitar shop, 'music shop' or similar and you'll probably find loads of people who can help you out. Also ask any friends who play if you can, word of mouth is best by far. Feel free to write back, but I AM in the process of moving house, So I might be a offline more than online for the next little while, but if I can't help, I'm sure someone else hereabouts will mate. As I said earlier, welcome aboard Danny P.S. Also check out www.frets.com a BRILLIANT online resource that's completely free. P.P.S. You could consider just sticking to playing in G
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Post by scanbran on May 13, 2011 9:01:07 GMT
Nigel,
Just to reassure you - installing spikes is not absolutely essential, particularly in the beginning stage.
They are only useful when you want to use a capo to change key, but this will generally only be necessary when playing with a fiddle player. If you're playing on your own or with a guitar player, you won't need to capo up, and can play in the normal keys of G or C (depending on your tuning) without a capo.
Of course, if you MUST capo up ;D, most of the time, it is just at the 2nd fret, which means that you can easily tune your 5th string up a whole tone using the tuners, which generally speaking shouldn't be enough to break the string.
I wouldn't get too worried about capoing or spikes right away - unless the situation demands it.
Martin
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Post by peddersway on May 14, 2011 12:29:20 GMT
I used to play with a uke club and really enjoy playing with other people. My local pub has a monthly folk evening and I would like to at some point go along and bum ditty to a few tunes. Which is why I ask about different keys. Having said that virtually everything we played at the uke club was in C or F!
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Wolfgang
Junior Member
Frailer from Kiel
Posts: 54
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Post by Wolfgang on Jun 4, 2011 21:03:20 GMT
Hi Nigel, I´ll try to build a new thread concerning railrod spikes
Wolfgang
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