Banjo

5 Lucky Winners will be Selected to win a 2014 Banjo Calendar, which was created by one of Tony's banjo students here (Rob Lardie). We're excited to promote this since 2014 is the first year of Rob's official Banjo Calendar.

After years of wishing there was a calendar made specifically for banjo enthusiasts, Rob took it upon himself to make one himself. He's been working with a lot of top banjo makers to get some really great photos of some amazing banjos, plus the calendar includes many important dates in banjo. 

Just click on the link here and fill out the entry form to win a 2014 Banjo Calendar!

Please note: contest ends November 22

Read More

The following piece was written by the great fiddle player Casey Driessen on his website, who recently went on tour with the NY Banjo Summit. Be sure to click on the 'Read More' to get to the banjo jokes!

In the fall of 2013, I went on tour with the NY Banjo Summit. It was an unprecedented collection of banjo lineage—the catch being that the players had to have some association with New York State. The tour began with 12 people on a 12 bunk bus, plus our driver. There were 6 on banjo: Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Eric Weissberg, Richie Stearns, and Noam Pikelny; 4 in the band: Russ Barenberg, Jesse Cobb, Corey Dimario, and myself; and 2 crew: Richard Battaglia on sound and Peter Lesser as tour manager. But wait! there’s more! We were joined by banjoist and wife of Béla, Abigail Washburn, their 4mos. baby boy Juno, Béla’s mother and a nanny. By the end of the tour we were 17 (incl. driver) on the same bus. I know, it kind of sounds like a joke, but I’m not joking.

BUT! Going into this, I smelled all the ingredients for the perpetuation of a long standing tradition of banjo jokes. As one that enjoys being in the kitchen, I decided to bake up a batch, but with my own style—in picture. To prepare for this endeavor, I studied all 271 represented at the Canonical List of Banjo Jokes in addition to taking suggestions from my tour pals. The goal was to illustrate a banjo joke in picture, post it, and see if folks could figure it out. We had a fun time making these. 

Thanks to all for being great sports and for making fabulous music!
- Casey (@caseydriessen)

Read More

There are a few new banjo lessons that just went up, here's what we have:

In Beginner Banjo - Shortnin' Bread

In Intermediate Banjo - Bill Cheatham

And Also: Tony and Mike Marshall perform and discuss "Billy in the Lowground"

Click on the images to jump right to the new stuff!

Read More

Getting back to our interview with Tony Trischka. If you'll recall from Talking Banjo with Tony Trischka Part 1, Tony was telling us about the banjo scene in the Czech Republic and his recent trip there. In Part 2 we ask Tony more about the new banjo lessons he's recording for his students, meeting Mike Marshall [who teaches mandolin online at ArtistWorks], his new album, and more! 

AW:  Ok, so getting back to some fundamentals, is there a standard banjo tuning?

Tony:  In Bluegrass, the standard banjo tuning is G. So going from the 5th string (the short string) to the 1st string is G, D, G, B, D. But then there are other banjo tunings that are less common, I think  people just hate to retune. Especially since Bluegrass is more of a performance kind of thing, you have like 30 seconds in between each tune before the band leader kicks off the next tune…

Read More

In the Beginner Banjo Section:

• "Penny's Farm"

?In the Intermediate Banjo Section:

• Tuning to D
• Ruben in D Tuning
• Ruben in D Tuning Variations

• "Paddy On The Turnpike" Performance
• "Soldiers Joy" Performance
• Mandolin Ideas For Banjo - Lesson/Discussion
• "John Henry" Performance
• Tony's Banjo - Lesson/Discussion

In +Music Performances, Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers from RockyGrass 2011:

• "Pitkin County Turnaround"
• "Daddy Played The Banjo"
• "Go Away, Stop, Turn Around, Come Back"
• "The Crow"
• "Jubilation Day"
• "Knob Creek"

?

Read More

AW:  Thanks for talking with us Tony, it's great to have you here. Everybody in the banjo world knows Tony Trischka, and they know you not just for your banjo music, but because you've also been teaching people how to play banjo for a really long time. So I'd love to start by asking you, how long have you been giving banjo lessons?

Tony:  I've been giving banjo lessons since 1970. That's when I first started give one-on-one lessons, and in time I began giving group lessons, workshops, that sort of thing. Sometimes 3 day banjo workshops giving lessons, sometimes 5 day workshops, that sort of thing. And now of course I'm with ArtistWorks, doing the Tony Trischka School of Banjo, which is all online banjo lessons - beginner through advanced.

AW:  Is there a difference between giving someone banjo lessons online versus banjo lessons at your house?

Tony was recently in the ArtistWorks studio recording some more banjo lessons. Here's a new beginner banjo lesson on "Straight Time Vs. Bounce Time", just click on the picture to jump on in!

Read More

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to Banjo Live with Tony Trischka and Bill Evans! We got to hear from some of Tony's students who were on the panel along with Eric Schlange, the founder of Banjohangout.org and it was a great time to talk about all things banjo and hear some awesome playing from Tony and Bill! If you missed it, you can watch the full recap here. 

Read More

Hello out there to everyone in Banjo Land!  We got some more banjo lessons for you, praise be! Just added "Red River Valley" to the Beginner Banjo Lessons, and "Soldiers Joy" in the Intermediate area. Click on the pictures below to jump on in!

Read More