Anyone play clawhammer style Banjo?

[septic_shock]

Been really thinking about trying my hand at clawhammer-style old time banjo. Any one here play it?

For those that aren't familiar with clawhammer/old-time banjo, it is the style that people played way back before this Earl Scruggs/Bluegrass style. Easier to pick up and learn than the typical three finger, bluegrass, 90mph that you normally hear.

Also, anyone know of music stores here in Oklahoma that have a large selection of banjo's?

Thanks!

 

[aestus]

In Feb, I picked up a banjo online to teach myself to play. I've always been a bit non-traditional when it comes to learning new instruments. I've always fiddled with it and learned to play things by ear with a mix of melodies I know or hear in more contemporary music. It's only after I teach myself the basics the "wrong way" do I then go back and learn the classics. Because of this I tend to skip a whole lot of the basic fundamentals and then go backwards.

I started to document some of my progress but have gotten lazy and stopped recording my progression after the summer. Won't let me embed more than 1 video, so here are the direct links

3 days after I received the banjo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cye-SAzSbDc

Day 37
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyI9zdDJxjk

Day 116
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq2uEL-83GY

Day 117
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v91lGtu22g

You can hear how I progressed by learning to play more contemporary style chords and melodies and then went backwards to learn the fundamentals and classic clawhammer style old timey songs. Some of the really old-time songs are just so melancholy and sad and just soooo great! If it has strings on it, I can pretty much learn to make some tunes out of it. Currently in my collection, I have various guitars, violin, mandolin, accordion, hammond organ, sitar, and now banjo plus other crap like irish tin whistles and various digital / midi keyboards.

Last time I seriously practiced, I was trying to incorporate some drop thumb techniques. One of these days I'll start on the road to learning the Skruggs style 3 finger pick and roll... but for now, clawhammer is where it's at.