Bluegrass banjo has boundaries.
It isn’t played with a flatpick and strummed. That’s part of the boundary; it uses fingerpicks.
Traditionally it uses rolls; however Earl Scruggs thought of them at the time, that’s what they are: right hand patterns that can vary infinitely according to the melody and chord structure of a song. Even melodic banjo [...]

While I agree that there are many ways to play a song, there is incredible value in transcribing and learning things note for note – especially from people like Scruggs or Crowe. The young boy J.D. did not become Mr. J.D. Crowe the butt-kicker in a vacuum; he learned Earl’s stuff note for note, tried [...]

Anyway, it’s important to maintain both sides of the paradox. Discipline and freedom. During practice time, I’ve usually focused more on discipline: drum machine, rolls, techniques, scales, playing with recordings. And during shows or recording I explore in freedom in my solos much of the time. But I’ve found myself engaging in more exploration on [...]

It’s possible to learn everything Earl Scruggs ever played, build a technique that is foundationally solid, and then grow into choosing to play it our own way. We can learn a great deal by studying other players; we can study them, do our best to master their style, their licks, their nuances – and then [...]

I use the software program Reason on  my laptop, which really is overkill. It’s a drum machine/synth and who knows what else. I’ve used it sometimes to put a bass part with a drum part to practice banjo, trad tunes like Fireball Mail, Big Country, and the like. I’m sure there are several drum machine [...]

Children love to learn – it is part of their psyche. That part is often deadened through “traditional” schooling, as in public school (quotes again because our form of “progressive” education really started back in the fifties). If anyone is interested in exactly what happened to education, read CS Lewis’ “The Abolition of Man,” written [...]

A reverence for the melody, in bluegrass banjo, means we don’t play long chromatic runs during “Blue Ridge Cabin Home.” It means we don’t engage in being so self-focused on playing the licks we just learned this week that we stick them in every solo no matter what the song is. It means we care [...]

Diligent imitation is very important to innovation. All the players that are currently lauded have spent a lot of time studying their favorite musicians, learning their solos, etc. Ron Stewart and Jim Mills are two examples. And now they can create and innovate for a living using the technique they have gained through disciplined learning. [...]

The stressed-out mentality comes from the way the world operates: “Your identity comes from the way you perform at your job, on the banjo, as a husband, as a father..” etc. Nothing wrong with a good work ethic – but working hard doesn’t have to be that kind of pressure thing we put on ourselves. [...]

The amount of time spent listening to a solo over and over ingrains it into one’s consciousness much more deeply than looking at a tab and listening to the solo a few times. In learning it ourselves we’re not only learning the notes; we’re learning the feel, the timing, the inflection, the nuances, the way [...]