Adding Banjo To Your Pedal Steel Playing?

admin · Post by **b0b** » 3 Dec 2014 9:29 am

Pete Burak wrote:Of course this being Portland, they also played some Jerry Garcia with Old An In The Way!!!

I've heard it said that Jerry Garcia was the World's Greatest Banjo Player.

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 3 Dec 2014 9:48 am

Here is a great article specifically about Jerry's Banjo years:
http://www.thebestofwebsite.com/Bands/J ... _Years.htm

"I think the first attraction is the thing of the incredible clarity and the sparkling, the brilliance of it... For me the banjo is kind of the gateway to music."
-Jerry Garcia-

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 3 Dec 2014 10:42 am

b0b wrote:...I've heard it said that Jerry Garcia was the World's Greatest Banjo Player.

I've heard it said that he was also the world's greatest pedal steel player, the world's greatest singer, and that the Grateful Dead were the world's greatest group. How thankful we must all be for such a discerning audience. $:\$

Chris Grotewohl · Post by **Chris Grotewohl** » 3 Dec 2014 4:05 pm

Yeah,

For a long time. Roy Clark was noted as the greatest banjo dude on banjo. Not quite so, Bobby Thompson usually played guitar on HH back in the days and was great. Typical novice opinion that speed make you great. Been playing 5-string for 43 yrs now, PSG for 25 off and on. They are different for shure, yeah, you wear picks but that's it. Both are as complicated as you make it. Some of the greatest stuff I've heard is on banjo and PSG...both equal. I supposed I maxed out on banjo, play all styles except clawhammer..still exciting to get my Stelling or Rich and Taylor out and start playing chops..the steel takes a lot of my time these days after getting a Rittenberry. BTW the 7th and last steel I'll own. It's equivalent to an original pre war Gibson RB-3 5-String My humble O Chris

admin · Post by **b0b** » 3 Dec 2014 4:49 pm

I've always wanted to play a banjo with a clawhammer.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 3 Dec 2014 6:41 pm

b0b wrote:I've always wanted to play a banjo with a clawhammer.

Here's a video I found of B0B playing the Banjer. Now the truth is out.

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 3 Dec 2014 7:38 pm

I'm playing a 2 set gig tomorrow night with a modern country band. We're going to play 24 songs. Here's the breakdown:

pedal steel guitar---------10 songs

lap steel with overdrive----3 songs

5 string banjo-------------11 songs

The banjo is very popular with the guys in the band and the audiences. And I'm really just a beginner on the darn thing.

It's awful hard to stay useful to a modern country band if all you play is sweet, pretty sounding pedal steel.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 4 Dec 2014 8:38 am

I've always wanted to play a banjo with a clawhammer.

Possibly the funniest thing I've seen from you, b0b. Thanks!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 4 Dec 2014 11:03 am

It's good to see the banjo coming back. It was very conpicuous in old-time country music, but has been in decline until recently except in bluegrass and folk circuits. I've always thought of it as an inherent country instrument.

Bud Angelotti · Post by **Bud Angelotti** » 4 Dec 2014 1:17 pm

I played piano first, the clarinet, then banjo in my sordid teenage years, then steel.
I now use the banjo with brushes as a snare drum.
Works great for that! I'll post a sample soon.

Chris Grotewohl · Post by **Chris Grotewohl** » 4 Dec 2014 1:46 pm

I've always wanted to play a banjo with a clawhammer.

Agree with Mark, that really has made me chuckle the last couple of days...great b0b, it's a keeper...CG

Jake Hoffman · Post by **Jake Hoffman** » 5 Dec 2014 5:21 pm

I started with 5-string banjo in 1959. Heavily influenced by the Kingston Trio. I was then turned on to Earl Scruggs and was lost in the vibe. I started playing PSG in 1972. But years of banjo affected my right hand (Focal Dystonia - look it up). I now play with just a thumb pick on steel but get around OK.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 6 Dec 2014 11:36 am

I played banjo along with lead and pedal steel back in the '60s. Having the banjo allowed for more authentic attempts at "Rocky Top", "Ballad of Jed Clampett", and a few other songs that were hot back then with the country crowd. Now, I don't even own a banjo, but I can still satisfy the urge by playing banjo rolls and banjo songs on pedal steel, using whatever dingus is available as a bar. (Sharpies and pens do a decent job of giving it those "plink-plunk" sounds.)

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 6 Dec 2014 2:17 pm

"Focal dystonia is a neurological condition that affects a muscle or group of muscles in a specific part of the body causing involuntary muscular contractions and abnormal postures. For example, in focal hand dystonia, the fingers either curl into the palm or extend outward without control. In musicians, the condition is referred to as Musician's Focal Dystonia, or simply musician's dystonia. In sports, it is commonly referred to as (the) yips."

Jake, our years are in sync. But no muscle problems for me yet. They will come with an hereditary problem. I was a good 5-string player, and a good guitar finger-picker when I started on steel in '72. I felt that was a huge benefit to my steel playing! A real leg up that got me playing so much quicker. Didn't have to concentrate on my right hand at all.

Phil Husted · Post by **Phil Husted** » 5 Jan 2015 10:25 am

I started playing banjo in 76 and quickly moved on to dobro. Pedal steel came a couple of years later, but I had already laid down the finger picking foundation. Every one I knew wanted to sing and play guitar, forcing me to decide to be a sideman instead, and the more instruments I could play, the more work I'd have. Even now I'm equally at home in a bluegrass jam or playing classic and/or modern country. Currently playing 100+ gigs a year with a modern country band playing 50+ tunes every night. I play the 5st banjo on the following:
East Bound and Down - G
Country Girl Shake it for me - E
That's My Kind of Night - E
Wagon Wheel - A
Save a Horse - E
5150 - F#
Who wouldn't Want to be Me - D
She Cranks My Tractor - G
How Bout You - B
I tune the banjo to an open F#, play the B tune with a drop tuning, and capo up for everything else. Almost all of the modern songs recorded using a guitar banjo. Keith Urban's songs "sound" Australian, aboriginal like a didgeridoo. The lower tuning helps. In earlier bands we used to do Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Take it Easy, Gone, Gone, Gone and even Gentle On My Mind.

I've been using the same 1935 Gibson banjo all these years with a McIntyre pickup, and now play it through the same amp as my steel, a Roland Cube 80GX. Simply... simplified.

Bill C. Buntin · Post by **Bill C. Buntin** » 5 Jan 2015 4:16 pm

So what exercises work well, for someone with 20 plus years with pedal steel? I always thought the pick angles would be different.

I keep watching Doug Dillard, Earl Scruggs, Steve Martin etc etc and am fascinated more and more.

I'm really looking seriously into to this. I haven't bought a banjo YET. Actually wish I could rent one until I'm sure but I don't know exactly where to start. I don't think it would be a big jump back and forth between PSG and Banjo. Any exercises, advice and essentials, seriously, would be welcome. Thanks.

~Bill

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 5 Jan 2015 8:44 pm

I resolved when I decided to try to learn Scruggs style banjo less than a year ago that I was not going to change my finger picks. Pedal steel is the priority and if I can't play banjo with the same picks that I use for PSG, then I won't continue with banjo.

So far it hasn't been a problem. I took banjo lessons for awhile from Allen Hendricks, a player, teacher, and banjo builder from my area, and he was OK with my stated position on the subject, He never told me I should change my picks.

Bill C. Buntin · Post by **Bill C. Buntin** » 6 Jan 2015 2:12 am

Donny, I've tried sharpie and bic cigarette lighters. There was a pedal steel guy I used to know who played some breakdown stuff using his comb and he would put his right hand right over next to it and it sounded fairly close to banjo.

I tried it quite a bit using the Goodrich Matchbro rig. The matchbro bar actually worked pretty well, again moving the right hand up close to the bar.

As Paul stated, pedal steel still being the primary focus, I didn't venture too far away from the norm.

Nowadays, I'm not working, just picking for my own pleasure and such. but I've been thinking I might try to get a local opry job maybe or something of that nature, maybe twice per month or something. Carrying around a 5 string, 6 string and PSG might make me a bit more "marketable"??

I do think there is some benefit to being a "utility" player.

George Seymour · Post by **George Seymour** » 6 Jan 2015 3:22 am

Bill "Brad" Keith....

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 6 Jan 2015 4:06 am

John Billings wrote:"Focal dystonia is a neurological condition.... For example, in focal hand dystonia, the fingers either curl into the palm or extend outward without control.

Finally, an explanation for claw hammer banjo.

[John: can you give me the source for your quote?
In Musicophelia, Oliver Sacks devotes a chapter to focal dystonia.
He's an excellent writer and covers many cases about strange aberrations concerning music and hearing.]

Clete Ritta · Post by **Clete Ritta** » 16 Jan 2015 4:53 pm

Haven't played live with it yet, but got a Deering Goodtime 5-string to fool around with at home. Its inexpensive and sounds great. I'll take it out one of these days to break the ice so to speak.

Olaf van Roggen · Post by **Olaf van Roggen** » 17 Jan 2015 12:08 pm

Gerald Turnbow · Post by **Gerald Turnbow** » 11 Feb 2015 11:15 pm

I started on piano in second grade, switching to violin in fourth grade through high school.

In junior high school, I learned to play guitar by listening to my dads Merle Travis album that was literally an album - a bound book with 78 RPM records inside. That helped me when i took up the banjo when I was in college, and having the Travis picking/banjo skills has been a big help in learning the PSG, which I took up a little under a year ago at age 63.

I would imagine that for someone who started on the steel, the same would be true, if not easier transitioning from 10-12 strings to five or six.

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