Great thread. I wasn't here when this discussion began. Glad you brought it back WYSIWYG (Susan isn't it?) I don't play clawhammer, I play two finger style. Most of the things I do are common to clawhammer only I pick up not down. This is the true way as it was ordained by god. Banjo "picking" is what it's called. Clawhammer players call themselves "pickers" but they're doing it all backwards. This is why banjoists are thought of as backwards. As clawhammer was once the predominant banjo style in the southern mountains we who live here have long been thought of as a backwards people by the rest of the world. It's a terrible load of guilt that frailers must carry for all this.

Aside from that..............Friday night Tish & I were listening to a fiddler play one tune after another in 6/8 time. I became fasinated and started working things out as soon as we got home. This ain't too easy with a two finger style! Anybody else doing this either clawhammer or two finger style? I love the sound and feel of 6/8.

I have it on the best authority that God made the fingernails grow out past the end of the finger so that strings could be "picked" upwards as was his plan from before the foundations of the world.

Chip A.