Sue - I was really pleased when I got the hang of clawhammer, it is a really versatile technique.
Lisa - I totally agree that it is impossible to play banjo or MD and not notice an immediate lifting of the spirits!
I think banjos and mountain dulcimers make more people happy than any other instruments! 
learning this old technique of Clawhammer and love it !
well it has been a year since any banjo related news was shared.
I got me a very be-au-ti-ful new banjo a couple of months ago; a Wildwood Troubadour. It was just sitting there on Ebay with no one paying any attention, so I got it for about half what I would have paid for a new one, and got to see and try it too before sealing the deal. I have wanted one with a tubaphone tone ring so I was really pleased. It needed a little attention as the head was really loose, and I found the action a little low so I swapped the bridge for a 5/8th. And now I can hardly bear to put it down! Hve not got any recordings yet but will be working on that during the summer.
Sam thank you for the nice comments. 
Foggers, I look forward to hearing more on your banjo journey!
I got to play some banjo this weekend at a little oldtime festival in MA.
I'm glad that you and Brian can find time to play your music together. The music and chemistry make this one of my all time favorite vids to watch. I'd almost bet I've watched it more than the two of you!
Strumelia said:
I asked my husband Brian this evening if he wanted to play some music together after dinner- something we just don't make the time to do often enough! To my surprise out of the blue he asked if I would give him a banjo lesson. So I did!
He did very well. We had to get creative due to his lacking the use of his left index finger and thumb (he has learned to get around this quite well while fiddling). We started with a non-chord style approach in G modal tuning to take advantage of the open drone strings as much as possible. I was very flattered that he would actually ask me for abanjo lesson, considering what a wonderful fiddler he is! I'm very lucky to live with a good natural musician.
So it was an interesting and rewarding musical evening for us both.
Well, that's great! I came upon your post shortly after putting down the banjo.
I had a brief discussion with a musician, talking about fiddle (and banjo)tunes and their names and so on. This was on Friday the 3rd of June, after the rehearsal for our daughter's wedding (which, obviously, was on Saturday the 4th). The musician was the piper. The wedding was in Strathcona park in Ottawa (since no banjos were played, I'll give a write-up in The Drifting Thread). If you ever come across a banjo tab for "The Clumsy Lovers", please forward it.
I asked my husband Brian this evening if he wanted to play some music together after dinner- something we just don't make the time to do often enough! To my surprise out of the blue he asked if I would give him a banjo lesson. So I did!
He did very well. We had to get creative due to his lacking the use of his left index finger and thumb (he has learned to get around this quite well while fiddling). We started with a non-chord style approach in G modal tuning to take advantage of the open drone strings as much as possible. I was very flattered that he would actually ask me for abanjo lesson, considering what a wonderful fiddler he is! I'm very lucky to live with a good natural musician.
So it was an interesting and rewarding musical evening for us both.
I'm spending soooo much time on the banjo lately. Really, I should be sounding soooooooooooooooooooo much better, but I'm not.
On the 6th I celebrated my birthday by going to Toronto by myself and wandering around. Bought the great strawberry Danish at Bread & Roses, visited my old school and surprised a bunch of teaching colleagues, went downtown, and visited the Twelfth Fret. Unfortunately, they didn't have a head that would fit my old Orpheum. They did, however, have a fair selection of banjos which I took the time to try out. I started out on an 1890's Cole, and then tried the newer ones: Vegas, Gold Tone, Wildwood, and a terrific Nechville Atlas with a twelve-inch pot. I found the newer banjos easier to play, with slightly wider string spacing.
I took the Orpheum back in for its third repair of the year, some work on the peghead. It will be a couple of weeks waiting its turn in the shop. I'm thinking of relegating it to two-finger picking, but I have to save up for a new open-back. Maybe I'll try one of the "kits" that Bill Rickard puts together. The bonus is that he's just north of Toronto.
This Friday was our second jam of the new year. I raced up to Sunbury only to realize I'd left my music and instrument stands at home. I dumped the guitar, banjo, and mandolin and flew back home. I made it back with time to spare, which surprised some people. Marge signed me in second, my usual spot, and I did "Keep on the Sunny Side" and "Down the Road", both for the first time. Another singer said, when it was her turn, that I'd taken her song, so she had to choose another. Second time around I did "Pancho and Lefty", and I got a third turn and closed the evening's activities with "Goodnight Irene". A couple got up from the audience and joined in at my mic, while other musicians took the rest of the mics.
When Lorne, our steel player, had his first turn, he took so long trying to figure out his second song that I said, "Hurry up, or we'll get the hook!" And when Les thanked the audience for not running out on him during his numbers, I said, "It's cold out!" He replied, "I'll get you for that!"
Our fiddler surprised my with a banjo CD he'd burned just for me.
Well, gotta start gettin' ready for Friday's jam. So far I've narrowed it down to "Pack up Your Sorrows" (guitar), "Hard Times Come Again No More" (banjo), "Chased Old Satan" (banjo), and "So Long - It's Been Good to Know You" (maybe guitar, maybe banjo, maybe ...). But I've been working on "If I Needed You" by Townes Van Zandt, and I played a Ry Cooder CD (Into the Purple Valley) in the car when we went to breakfast this morning (and on the way back, with a newly purchasedantique table), so the list could change drastically by Friday evening.
Oh (said he, already having given waaay too much information for one post), bicycles and banjos (and other instruments) do mix. I've reserved the Portsmouth tavern for a Thursday evening in February for a Kingston Velo Club jam session. Exact date not set yet, but all cyclists (and non-cyclists) would be welcome.
I gave a 90 minute banjo lesson to a friend the other day, and boyhowdy but that toughened up my wimpy callouses in a hurry! lol! I taught him Sandy Boys, and he loved it.
Thought I'd bump this'n up....hoping to get a progress report from Ken & Foggers?....you got that banjo put together huh Ken?
I been playing Green Willis here a little lately. I had to put the noter aside a month or so ago and play dulcimer & banjo with my fingers....they were getting soft!... : )....
Best wishes,Mary Z. Cox www.maryzcox.com
All my other banjos that have gut or nylagut strings are low tuned on big thick strings--so this is going to sound quite different--but very warm and interesting. 
I joined BHO, too (partly from my experience here on FOTMD). It's a good source of advice - and you'll get loads of it!Noreen doesn't play, but in January she played host(ess) for a jam session - she cooked up a feast for the players. In fact, the jam was her idea. Years ago when we used to go to friends' places to make music, she'd fall asleep on the chesterfield, right beside me as I was playing banjo with fingerpicks. I guess that's a form of dedication!If I had the money I suppose I'd have BAS, but it's easy not to have it when you don't, um, have it. I have no allegiance to any particular brand/maker, except my long gone Neufeld, which was eminently playable and sounded clear and clean. That's what may, some day, get me to buy another banjo - first, it has to have string spacing that's wide enough, and it has to have a tone that I like, not what people say I should have.Then again, maybe I do have a form of BAS. I have the bluegrass banjo I got to replace the Neufeld. then I got the Orpheum to replace the fact that the bluegrass banjo didn't really replace the Neufeld (because the Neufeld was a frailer). I bought a basic wooden fretless even before I got the Neufeld, and someone gave me a cheap tenor - these two need repairs to become playable. Two other banjos were given to me but went missing from my school - an old Imperial tenor (with a painting on the head of three black jazz musicians) and an old Slingerland banjo uke. And there was my first, really cheap, banjo, now departed. My list of "the ones that got away" is huge.Tinker with my banjos? Only in the most basic ways - bridge and head. It would be a sacrilege to change the Orpheum, which is a hundred years old - although I did some simple artwork on the replacement head (wonder why we don't see more of that). However, the case is brand new.BHO members are fiercely loyal to their chosen brand of banjo, if you keep in mind two things.
One,that most have at least a fairly good case of BAS. Banjo Acquisition Syndrome is rampant.
And two, a great number have changed heads, bridges and tone rings, sometimes even resonators,hoops and necks trying to change the sound of the banjo they're so loyal to. In some advanced cases of Banjo tinker-itis, only the case is original. But, there are worse things a person could be doing. I intend to build a gourd banjo, mostly for use at Historical Reenactments. Or maybe Histerical ones. Not until I change all the woodwork in my living room. Mrs. Wanda thinks that should take priority. Since I don't pull sheets with my Reenactment friends, I'm inclined to let the Mrs. prioritize my projects. She sang & played ukulele on a couple songs tonight with me, in front of several people. It was her first time out of the house with her uke. Not exactly a gig, but I was thrilled. Nothing like having a jam partner in the house with me.
Paul
Yep I think that sums it up Lisa. I use Banjo Hangout sometimes for banjo hints & tips, and Deering is the make everyone seems to worship, but the GoldTone Whyte Ladie gave me most bang for ma buck.(Lawks I seem to picking up the lingo from associating with all you fine American chums in cyberspace....)Gold Tones have a good reputation as a real solid good sounding affordable banjo. Good choice!
