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 Basic Clawhammer Right Hand Motion
The Brush Stroke
Left Hand Techniques
Double Thumbing
Triplets
The "Cluck"
"Personalizing" your play, or "How to create your own style."

Clawhammer banjo uses a lot--no, a whole lot--of left hand technique. While we are busily striking down on each beat with our basic motion, there are several ways to slip notes in between those beats through use of left hand techniques.

First, let's discuss the whole notion of "between-the-beats." In essence, we have said that the beat is kept by our downstrokes; you'll recall:

To count notes played between those beats, we simply say "and" after each beat. Thus, we can have eight notes per measure, counted as shown in the next piece of tablature. Note that consecutive eighth notes are connected by a "beam." In the second measure below, we've mixed quarter notes and eighth notes (which gives us the same rhythm you hear in the children's song One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians):

Pulling-Off

Simply put, this technique is nothing more than picking a string with one's left hand. The easiest way to do this is to strike a fretted note with the right hand's downstroke, and then a half beat later, snap the fretting finger off the string, thus sounding a different, lower note:

Note that in the first measure, we're then playing the first string open as a single note on the next beat, while in the second measure, we're using a brush. This technique can be--and is--used on any string, of course.

We also play pull-offs on strings that have not been struck with the right hand. Consider this rhythmic lick that Pete Seeger called the "Rufus Crisp Lick" in honor of the man from whom he learned:

For ease, I usually use my middle finger for the pull-offs in this lick.

Hammering-On:

In this technique, we use the left hand to strike a string down against a fret wire, using enough force that the string vibrates hard enough to be heard:

Again, we've mixed the tab to show both single string play and alternating brushes. When playing it slowly for the video, I have exaggerated the motion; try not to move so far from the fingerboard when playing!

Similar to pull-offs, hammer-ons are done on all the strings:

Now, Let's mix some hammer-ons and pull-offs:

Sorta simple & cool, eh?

Sliding:

A "slide" involves quite literally sliding a finger of your left hand from fret to fret. Just as you would do with a hammer-on or a pull-off, the left hand moves on the "and" between beats:

Now let's mix some pull-offs, hammer-ons, and slides together! Here is part of the well known tune Cripple Creek: