Charcloth,

It sounds as if we come from two really different worlds.

"Check out any banjo tutoring book...And you will not find jigs until well into the intermediate level. So unless your education has been intirely Irish you just are introduced to jigs later than I think is proper."

This does not come close to describing the experience of the average American old time banjo player (like me). None of us approached banjo systematically in that way.

For one thing, it wasn't possible.

Admittedly, many boomers (myself included) started with a book, often Pete Seeger's.

But our goal was NOT to master the banjo in all its aspects. We just wanted to play like Pete (or Mike, or Peggy, etc.)

We just wanted to learn enough to be able to play for square dances and jam with other old time musicians. Once we got to the point where we didn't make fools of ourselves in a campground jam we stopped, as far as technique was concerned.

Even if the book covered different styles and traditions, and even if we worked our way more or less faithfully through the entire book, we tended to focus on whatever and however everyone else was playing. And in those days (and today) it wasn't jigs.

A fortunate few boomers learned sitting knee to knee with some of the deities of the old time banjo pantheon--Kyle Creed, Wade Ward, etc. They had even more of an incentive to focus. And their role models didn't play jigs either.

NOTE: I am aware of all the exceptions to the following generalizations but I am going to make them anyway.

The real reason American old time banjo players do what they do is that in American old time music the banjo is a backup instrument, not a lead instrument. Banjo players don't lead tunes, they don't start tunes, and they rarely even call for tunes in a jam. The banjo players are slaves to the fiddlers and their repertoire. Which is OK with us. So, if American old time banjo players don't play jigs, it is basically because American old time fiddlers don't (and didn't) play jigs.

We banjo players are happy with that situation because jigs are hard for us to play. It also means we have very little incentive to learn to play jigs. If I took the time and energy to learn some of Ken's jigs what could I do with them?

Which leads to the another point. Ordinarily, for an old time banjo player, playing means playing in an ensemble of other old time players, whether in a jam at Clifftop, or in a little amateur band at home, or a pickup band for a local square dance.

Unless I am in a band and the fiddler likes jigs or I like jigs and can talk the fiddler into learning some, the only thing I can do with my hard earned jigs is play them solo in the privacy of my living room. Or in a jam with Ken at the next Maryland Banjo Academy.

Not much incentive there.