I came to banjo from flat picking guitar, and guitar from ukulele. I came to ukulele from finger picking guitar. One thing I learned over the years is that one thing isn't the other. It is like speaking two languages, you can't think in one and speak in the other. Playing clawhammer is not like playing Scruggs style. I have been jamming and playing Scruggs style in a band for several years, and I too just started learning clawhammer a few months ago. I think it helps if one just gets anything that isn't clawhammer out of the head.

As far as the bum-ditty, I think it is all just about the thumb and that's what you need to come out of it with. I got through the first section on the bum-ditty and moved on to drop thumb and was having a rough time with it and didn't know why. I went back to the beginning, started over and realized that I wasn't doing the thumb right. I was diving in with the thumb and picking like I was used to, and that was throwing the timing off when I got to drop thumb. I retrained my thumb to rest on a strings and was able to move on.

I'm still a rank beginner though. I'm doing an online course of videos done by Ben Dorning in the UK. I found him on YouTube doing an intoductory clawhammer series "Banjos and a Beer," He has a site called Banjo Adventures and a more comprehensive learning series called Path of the Hobo, which I am doing now. I've enjoyed his style of teaching. He does a lot of, "now play along with me and we will do it together" segments, which have really helped me understand what we are doing.

Ron , what a great and lonesome thread you have created

Most videos fail to show the hand from the side
A student of mine came back in a week playing 1-2-3, 1-2-3 and I quit that guy early

Bluegrass and claw or frailing or up-picking all have the same 4 beats.

It’s boom rest did he. 1 (2) 3 4

Or 2121 5215. Same 4 beats per measure

That’s why Lee said Diddy boom (rest)
Same math different dialect (kids played that for Roosevelt on film at Hoover dam! ) nobody plays it now, it got covered up by Scruggs and Charlie Poole and others . Hill Billy clowns like Roy Clark didn’t help none.

Hammering on or pulling off is Boomba Did he. With no rest same 4 beats per measure

My explanation is more clearer than 4 flat tires on a muddy road.

Boom gives you the Rest bringing your hand back up for another down stroke with your thumb now hitting the 5th string. Boom rest downstroke 5th string. (Did he)

I can now play claw, frailing, up stroke and bluegrass all in the same song if I want to. There are secret rests and passages in the six basic bluegrass patterns and you can learn those later

1 rest 34 as others have said. Go slow.


My number is 623 640 7213. Text me and I will make you a video that shows what I’m talking about

I’ve been critical of video lessons in the past because they don’t play nuthin’, they just want money. Charts and tabs are crucial to many people, not me, I’m a writer because we didn’t have a record player, I learned to sing from the radio. Feel free. ( ):)===‘== : :]