Clawhammer - I find that quite simple, even if my friends say it sounds more like monkey wrench when I do it. Frailing - now, I spell that failing. PUT THE BANJO IN THE DUMPSTER AND BUY A CLARINET, or spend all your life in a state of frustration. You can never really achieve excellence on an instrument which can be played so many different ways. If you get good with your fingers, somebody with a plectrum will shock you into silence. ANd if you spend forty years learning all the styles, arthritis will set in just as you think you could beat Earl Scruggs and Shep's Banjo Boys all at once. A bottle of whisky will do more good. Ask Geoff the Duck ( and he plays Mrs Duck better than the banjo).