ZEPP Country Music, Inc.

P.O. Box 306
4 East Third St.
Wendell, NC 27591-0306
Local: 919-365-5189 or Call Toll Free within USA: 866-365-5189
Fax: 919-365-5179

The "Cluck"

On 08 Mar 2007 I recorded a "how-I-get-the-clucking"-noise when I play for a workshop I did a few days later.

I did the first part as a ClearHead™ video, i.e., it's shot through a transparent banjo head from the bottom. I exaggerated the motion to demonstrate what was going on. On the "brush" beat, instead of striking the strings downward using a single finger, I drop my right wrist so that the fingernails are almost perpendicular to the strings and directly over the 19th fret. Then, instead of striking the string with the usual finger, I begin the brush with the next finger: i.e., if you usually play with your middle finger, strike the strings first with your ring finger. (If you play with your index finger, you'd begin with the middle finger).

I then follow through immediately with the usual picking finger. In this way, the initial strike sets the string in motion, and the following finger cuts the sound off, leaving a harmonic "cluck." To further emphasize this sound, the heel of my right hand is immediately dropped onto the vibrating strings to mute them, producing a chopped sound to the cluck. While the ClearHead™ video shows these motions ( I reiterate that they are much exaggerated for this demo), it cannot reflect the correct sound, as playing over the transparent head makes my hand miss the harmonic spots up over the neck! Thus, look at the first part of the ClearHead™ video clip to see the technique, but listen to the sound achieved in the 2nd part of the video, when my hand is up over the neck (Right click here to download the wmv file so it can be played at slower speed in Windows Media Player):

Double (Drop) Thumbing

On 06 Feb 2007 I recorded a few introductory ClearHead™ videos of the basic "Drop Thumb" motion, as seen from below. Notice that I've used black strings and painted my playing nail white in an attempt to improve the contrast. In the first clip, I'm simply dropping the thumb onto the second, then the third strings after each down stroke. In the second bit, I'm alternating the thumb on the 2nd and 5th strings, a common rhythmic device. In the third bit, I'm doing a simple and common end lick::

Right click here to download the wmv file so it can be played at slower speed in Windows Media Player

Up and Down or Back and Forth?

As part of a a discussion about moving ones hand up and down the neck versus across the strings, I made this clip 15 Jan 2007. It shows me playing the A part of Kitchen Girl using the same notes, but first traveling up and down the neck, and then playing the same notes using adjacent strings, and thus much less hand motion.

You can right-click and download this clip directly if you like (e.g., to play it slower in Windows Media Player). Here's the tab of this clip.

The "Galax Lick"

On 11 Oct 2006, I recorded a ClearHead™ video of the "Galax Lick" as seen from below. Notice that I've used black strings and painted my playing nail white in an attempt to improve the contrast. The first time I played the lick in this video, I do it as two eighth notes, playing the 2nd and first strings. The 2nd and 3rd time, it was played as an eighth note triplet, where I start on the third string and drag across it, the second and then the first strings (my preferred way to do it). Right click here to download the wmv file so it can be played at slower speed in Windows Media Player

S-L-O-W Clahhammer right hand

On 04 Oct 2006, I recorded another short Clearhead™ video, similar to the one described below, but played much slower, so that beginners can easily see how the right hand functions in clawhammer, especially the way the thumb comes to rest on the 5th string after each downstroke.

Right click here to download the wmv file so it can be played at slower speed in Windows Media Player

As I do teach, I have had many inquiries about my style and right hand movement, so in 2005 we used my still camera to shoot a video of my right hand motion. Now, there's lots of such video out there, so what we did was to install a clear head on a Goodtime banjo, and shoot the video from the inside out.

Here's the video of my clawhammer-style right hand motion. There are three versions:
A .avi file that works just fine for my Winamp
A .wmv file for Windows Media Player users, and
A .mov file for Mac and other Quicktime users.

More "helpful tips" (at least I hope they're helpful for someone!) and suggestions can be found on my cleverly named "Helpful Tips" page

Setting Up The Original "ClearHead™ video" Goodtime

In order to get the banjo playable, we removed the coordinator rod and just put another nut on the lower lag screw.	(Click on image to enlarge)
Then, as I wanted to use a No-Knot tailpiece so the standard tailpiece wouldn't obscure the view of my wrist, we needed something to hold it on (the tailpiece, that is; my wrist came firmly attached), I mounted the coordinator rod backwards, i.e., outside the pot.	(Click on image to enlarge)
Of course, the rod got in the way of the tailpiece hanger, so things were a little catawampus:	(Click on image to enlarge)
So, all-in-all, it made for an interesting package...	(Click on image to enlarge)