https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/nine-pound-hammer-build-a-break-guitar
Though this is the “advanced” version, it’s a useful learning tool for any level of player! Tabbed precisely from my best-selling instructional video, you can count on stealing some sweet licks from these pages!
Waitaminute.
EIGHT YEARS and nobody’s said nuthin’?
OK so since this song’s on the 2020 camp list, I’ve been watching this lesson over and over for a couple of months now. @BanjoBen is right! I’m gonna be “stealing some sweet licks” from this one for sure!
I really like how Ben manages to sneak in an intro like Tony Rice’s second solo (All Stars Jam stage version) stretching the first and second strings together for two beats like Heralding Trumpets announcing a Tony run. Except that Ben does it more like in the middle of the Lightning Round when he happens to be over the frets to pull it. I LOVED IT. Track’s last thirty seconds of fury is jawdropping crisp and probably technically unapproachable for me at least, but it’s a dense forest of Special that I can take a couple of runs at a time and try incorporating into a ton of stuff, albeit at a somewhat slower pace.
Even if I don’t learn all these licks, I’ve been learning a TON of technical just watching the video over and over, including Ben’s impeccable down-up picking engine and his masterful control of dynamics through the course of a thousand-rounds-a-minute-hail-of-notefire. If nothing else, the lesson’s worth that alone.
Little innocent smile as the end was catchy too.
I just can’t believe nobody else has commented on this lesson. This is gonna become my six-string hymnal for the next three months!
I’ve looked at a half dozen other versions of online instruction for this piece, and from what I’ve seen, nothing else comes close to what Ben’s teaching here. Thanks Ben!
I think a “dense forest of special” pretty well sums that up! 
what a hard lick, but so useful on a GDGG turnaround. Love it. See you in Kilgore!
Hi all… I’m hoping someone can help me with this. I’m working through lessons in prep for the camp this fall (first time!). I’m having the hardest time syncing up my playing of the second part of the advanced solo to the rhythm track. I’m always off starting at measures 10, 11, 12. I’m counting measure 10 bend hit as starting on beat 4, followed by 3 beats of letting it ring in measure 11… and coming back in on beat 4 of measure 11. Is that correct?
Hilarious… I’ve been working on syncing my playing of that solo for at least 4 days straight, and I finally figured it out minutes after writing. So, disregard previous message. Thanks
Do you use the TEF file? Great tool for the really tricky syncopated rhythm licks.
No, I’ve not tried the TEF files yet. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll give them a try.
I really like these build a break lessons, helps to keep from falling into the trap of becoming a tribute player, which was never really the point when playing a more wide-open style such as bluegrass. I’ll start by playing the lesson according to the tab, and gradually try and make it my own. I know I will never be Clarence white, Trey Hensley, or Dan Crary, but by employing the build a break technique you have presented, I can do what I do best, and that’s to be myself.