Actually you don't have to pick one. Stu Jamieson sat me down at the Smithsonian Festival in '76 and showed me a whole bunch of different techniques he'd learned over the years, including brushes he gotten from Rufus Crisp.

One thing he showed me was to hold your hand like you were cupping a toilet paper roll, but instead of just brushing down, holding your fingers perpindicular to the strings and frail a tune by striking all the strings at once. A lot of tunes (Old Joe Clark works well with this technique)lend themselves to this rhythmic, percussive style. And it works well in a situation where the banjo has to play the melody and the rhythym at the same time.

Mark Ross