Art Rosenbaum (1) (1938–2022)

The Art of the Mountain Banjo tries to cover a lot of ground. It's an introduction to "mountain banjo," which really has several styles (finger picking and clawhammer among them). The book is ostensibly a guide to playing the various styles, with about thirty songs written in tablature. It is not a guide for beginners; the notation is explained far too fast for someone new to the instrument. Along with the thirty songs is a bit of history -- sometimes a history of the songs themselves, but show more more often a story about how the author first heard someone playing the song. There are some very good hints peppered throughout (like "Watch for the spots where the thumb hits the 4th rather than the 5th string for a drone" and "If you prefer, you can discard the slide effect altogether and use the tablature as a basis for an arrangement in which all the notes are fretted with the fingers"). The book does include a CD so if you're unfamiliar with the tunes or the particular style, you can have an always-available tutorial (note, however, that not all the songs in the book appear on the CD, and there is no correlation between the songs in the book and their track number on the CD). If you're a banjo player with some experience, this is a handy book. If you're a beginner, start elsewhere.

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LT Haiku:

Tablature to let
Intermediate banjo
Player pick the tunes. show less