Also, Don, once you've got the basic boom-titty boom-titty rhythm ("boom" is up pick with index finger; "tit" is strum down with all fingers, and "ty" is pick fifth string with thumb--in a ONE TWOand/ONE TWOand/ rhythm down pat and recognize how easy the up the neck chords are (particularly in C and double C tunings) it's quite easy to start finding melodies in the strings--particularly when you start adding the doublethumb: (ONEandTWOand/ONEandTWOand/.

In double thumbing, the down stroke becomes another up pick: UPthumbUPthumb, and both the up picking finger and the thumb (particularly the one after ONE) can move onto other strings.

If you want, I could send you some tabs for some simple songs--I think I started with "Hard, Ain't It Hard?" --along with a tape illustrating it, if you'd like (I have the summer off, and none of my independent studies students took banjo lessons from me--only guitar, which is my fourth best instrument after harmonica, banjo, autoharp--and I wouldn't mind at all putting together a beginning old timey banjo program, starting with up picking and moving into frailing/clawhammer and some slow three finger stuff.

seed