It really depends on what you want to do with the banjo.

If all you want to do is own a banjo that you can occasionally drag out of the closet, fumble through half a song and then post endlessly on banjo forums about the music you would make if you had any skill (all while handing out definitive advice on music you don't understand on an instrument you can't play)then go right ahead with your own home-brewed version of frailing.

If you want to make music - not a style or genre but good old fashioned all-around "music" - then you need to sacrifice a few hours to learn basic frailing and then have the intestinal fortitude to practice a little bit (less than half and hour a day will do) every day for a few months.

I know the above probably sounds a bit cynical, but I am typing this with a straight face. The internet is chock full to the brim with bozos who can't play a lick but are convinced they can find some sort of shortcut around the basics of frailing - and the comedy of it all is that frailing is so bleeding simple that there is no need for the workarounds and downright stupid alternatives.

If you want to frail, here is literally everything you need to know all free for downloading:

Videos:
Old Time Banjo
Frailing Banjo
Frailing The Blues

Audio Workshops:
Virtual Frailing Banjo

Books:
The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo
A Book of Five Strings
The Outlaws and Scalawags Songbook

Plain Text:
Basic Frailing Banjo
Easy Bluegrass Banjo
Calloused Ears
Frailing Banjo Backup

In addition to all of that, there are 188 workshops (mostly 5-string banjo, but there is also stuff for guitar, ukulele, tenor banjo and harmonica) on my Youtube page (my YouTube handle is dobro33H) and you will also find a lot of student-generated workshops and performances on my blog: http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/. http://ukfolkies.proboards107.com/index.cgi.

For face-to-face help in the UK, post a note on the UK Folkies forum. THe group is less than a year old, about 100 pickers strong and having a lot of success stating up jams and workshops to share music.

If you pick up the basic frailing skillset as it is taught and spend some time practicing faithfully you will be a strong banjo player in a pretty short period of time. Playing whatever you want with whoever you want without being bound by the moronic nastiness of any given genre or "scene".

-Patrick