There is a misconception that learning bluegrass banjo is very difficult. It is not. If you learn these 10 steps (foundational skills) you'll be playing your first song in under 30 days (at Banjo Mountain we guarantee it - assuming you practice 😁)

Clawhammer banjo can also be learned quickly and easily with some of the same skills and some very different skills. But this article is on how to learn bluegrass banjo, so let's begin! 

1. Learn How to Hold the Banjo

This is the foundation of your banjo playing, and you don't want to skip it. 

You want to keep the banjo from slouching away from you at an angle. This often happens if you are slouching on the couch as opposed to sitting upright with the banjo close to your midsection.

You don't have to wear a strap, but a strap can be useful in keeping the banjo neck up and angled closer to your face (which is good for many reasons). At Banjo Mountain our very first lesson is Holding The Banjo because everything will build on this foundation.

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• Proper banjo position on your lap.
• How to handle an open-back banjo vs a banjo with a resonator.
• Avoid traps that will cause poor fretting.
• Proper sitting position.

2. Learn the Picking Hand Position

If you're a bluegrass banjo player, it all starts with the anchor. Proper positioning of your anchor on the banjo head, whether it’s one or two fingers, all play a part in consistent and clean picking. Proper anchoring will keep you from scratching the banjo head and give you consistent picking (which over time, will help with increasing the speed of your picking). Whether you use one finger or two fingers will depend upon several considerations, including whether or not either of those options causes pain/discomfort. But once you find which one is for you, stick to it!

What You'll Need to Learn:

• How to anchor your picking hand ( and the importance of the anchor).
• One or Two Finger Anchor (the age-old question).
• Tricks for a proper anchor.
• Avoid scratching the banjo head.

3. Understand the Picking Basics

Picking is part of what makes the bluegrass banjo seem like magic. In truth, it’s simply clean mechanics that have been drilled over and over until they are second nature. The thumb will pick downward and will play the 3rd, 4th, and 5th strings. The index will typically play the 2nd string, but will sometimes play the 3rd string. The middle finger will typically play the 1st string, but occasionally play the 2nd string as well. As you learn rolls (coming up), you'll see how this all works together to make banjo magic. 

This may sound complicated, but it's not. You just need to learn how it works and then drill it.

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• Which fingers pluck which strings?
• Direction of plucking: thumb vs fingers.
• Directions for specific rolls.
• Exceptions to these rules.

4. Learn Which Finger Picks to Use

Bluegrass banjo players use very different picks from most stringed instruments. The thumb pick is typically a plastic pick, while the index and middle fingers use metal picks. There are many types, including different thicknesses and sizes. While a person CAN play bluegrass banjo without picks, one shouldn't. This is for several reasons, but the main reasons are volume and speed.

What brand of pick isn't as important as having the right-shaped picks made specifically for bluegrass banjo playing. 

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• What kind of picks do you need? Plastic? Metal?
• Sizing of picks (more than one for swelling).
• Thumb picks vs finger picks.
• Finger pick gauges.
• Angling metal finger picks.

5. Learn the Fretting Basics

The magic of an advanced bluegrass banjo player, fretting up and down the neck at lightning speed, is incredible to watch and looks like an impossible feat. The first step of this journey for a new bluegrass banjo player is learning what a fret is.

On a banjo, a fret is a thin, metal bar that is positioned at specific intervals on the neck. The standard banjo (used to play bluegrass banjo and clawhammer banjo) has 22 frets. By pressing down near (but not on) the fret, you have changed the length of the string to create a note. Thus as you press down near different frets you create different notes. And of course an "open" string is it's own note that you then change as you press down on different frets, creating different lengths and different notes.

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• Open Strings vs Fretted Strings.
• Going Up the Neck vs Down the Neck.
• What is the nut?
• How to fret a string.
• The importance of rolling out the wrist when fretting.
• The importance of arching your fingers when fretting.

6. Learn the Right Hand Basics (Picking Basics)

Moving back to the picking hand and now looking at the actual mechanics of picking and the foundational skills you need to be a great bluegrass player. Before we even get to rolls (we're almost there), you'll need to learn how to have steady, controlled picking motions as well as a steady hand (the more the hand moves about on the anchor, the less consistent your bluegrass picking will be). 

You'll want to start with some basic plucking drills before even getting into your first roll. 

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• How to pick!
• Controlling the movement of your hand.
• Authoritative plucks.
• Fingers close to the strings at rest.
• Avoiding wild movement.
• How the thumb commands multiple strings
• The Pinch (used throughout bluegrass picking).
• Beginner plucking drills.

7. Learn How to Tune the Banjo

The banjo is an interesting instrument in many ways. Contrasted to the guitar, which has 6 strings (all of which can be fretted), the banjo has 5 strings, but only 4 are fretted (the 5th string is a drone string that is shorter than the other 4 by over 25% - it starts on the 5th fret).

It's also unique in that with most stringed instruments, the lowest (pitch) note is closest to your face, and the highest (pitch) note is closest to the floor (the notes moving from lowest to highest going away from your face towards the floor. With the banjo, the 5th string, which is closest to your face, is the highest (pitch) note, and then it immediately jumps to the lowest (pitch) note (the fourth string) and then continues on down.

Lastly, while the banjo has five strings, they only make up 3 notes. This is because you have two G note strings and two D note strings, plus the 2nd string, which is a B note. So you have two pairs (the G in octaves and the D in octaves), which gives it that droning sound. 

What does this have to do with tuning the banjo? Well, all instruments need to be tuned or they sound bad, regardless of how many strings or notes. The banjo is no exception! But the drones can make it even more odd sounding if it is not in tune.

So, as a new playe,r you want to learn how to tune your banjo immediately so as not to develop a bad habit and a "bad ear".

The tuning for a standard banjo is "G tuning" which is often refered to as "standard tuning" on the banjo. It goes as follows

• 1st string = D
• 2nd string = B
• 3rd string = G
• 4th string = D
• 5th string = G

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• Which tuner to use.
• Do you need to tune every time you pick up?
• Notes of the strings.
• How to tune with a tuner.
• Muting strings while tuning a string.
• Open G Tuning.
• Tuning the Banjo to itself (with no tuner).

 8. Learn How to Read Banjo Tablature

When people think of music theory and standard musical notation they typically think of something both boring and impossible. This is for good reason: music theory and being able to read standard musical notation are like learning another language and complicated math at the same time (let's mix in difficult terminology: dissonant harmony in a chromatic scale with diatonic chords, anyone?). It is challenging.

Banjo tablature, on the other hand, is simple. It's basically just a picture of the banjo with a dot on which string you should be fretting and where. 

Do not be afraid. Tablature is your friend. You will come to love it. The simplicity (in comparison to standard music notation) is quite wonderful. If you practice for a week, you’ll be able to read it easily, and doing so will make learning new banjo songs very easy. 

What You'll Need to Learn: 

• Is tablature like standard musical notation?
• Is it easy to read?
• Do I need prior musical experience?
• What is tablature?
• How do I read tablature?
• How to use the binding and the fretboard inlay as a roadmap.
• Using “T, I, M” to know which fingers pluck which strings.
• What do the numbers on tablature mean?

9. Learn How to Play Rolls

Rolls are the engine of the bluegrass banjo. A roll is a pattern of picking that repeats over and over. The combinations of patterns are infinite from a creative standpoint. But as a beginning bluegrass player, you only need to learn about seven rolls:

• Alternating Thumb Roll
• Forward-Backward Roll
• Index-Leading Roll
• Middle-Leading Roll
• Foggy Mountain Roll
• Forward Roll
• Backward Roll

You'll drill these and drill these rolls until they are second nature. You will then find that many songs use almost one roll, primarily, with the occasional addition of a second pattern for variation. These rolls will unlock many songs. Further, you can play these rolls over chords to play along with hundreds of country, pop, blues, and rock songs. Similar to fingerstyle guitar. 

10. Learn Chord Basics

A chord is three notes (or more). We could go deeper into the theory of it, but we won't. 😁 Many bluegrass songs only use three chords. The three chords you need to learn to start off as a bluegrass banjo player are G, C, and D (also known as the 1,4, and 5 chords, but you'll have to wait until you become an intermediate player to get into that fun and powerful concept). 

Having learned the G, C, and D chords, the 7 key roll patterns and understanding all above mentioned foundational skills, you are ready to learn you first song. There are MANY bluegrass songs that only use these chords but at Banjo Mountain, the first song you'll learn is....

Bile 'Em Cabbage Down is simply the Forward Roll with an occasional "pinch." A "pinch" is when you pluck the 5th string with your thumb and the 1st string with your middle finger at the same time (typically the 5th and 1st but can be other strings as well). To be more specific, Bile 'Em Cabbage Down uses the Forward Roll over the open strings (which is a G chord) and then fretting the C chord. That's it! It's incredibly simple.

At Banjo Mountain, we guarantee people that they can learn how to play bluegrass banjo in 30 days!

You can see from everything above that it's really not difficult if you simply follow the lessons in order.