Mark, I am so impressed! You are doing great! Your claw hand has got the moves down, - you’re zeroing on on the 2nd and 3rd strings when needed, and your thumb action looks great. Also, I really like the way you’re choosing fingers for the fretting work, - very smart! You may feel a little “stumbly” now, but the will iron out with time and practice. As you practice. try relaxing your hands a little bit, - you’re driving them hard into all the right places and moves, but the sound and rhythm will open up as you start to relax them. Glad you’re enjoying it all!
Intro to Clawhammer: Banjo Ben Live Course!
Thank you Dave and Ben for doing these live courses. Tuesdays were a bit dull before! 
. I have a regular banjo and the arm rest seems to give me a slightly different angle on my strike. Is the Clawhammer style of playing easier without the arm rest in the way?
Glad your Tuesdays are looking better. Mine too! Some clawhammer players like an armrest, some don’t. Personally, I don’t like one because I feel it locks me in to play at a certain angle with my arm at a certain place. That can change for me based on standing vs sitting, or just the mood of the song. You might want to try it with the armrest off and see what you think. Ot just get another banjo without an armrest, - I know a nice fellow who can build them : )
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Is there any way to get the chords to Cold Frosty Morning? They are not listed on the tab for the song.
Good question. Clawhammer banjo tab typically does not include chords (for guitar or other accompaniment), but this sure is a fun song to play along with others. I’ll check with Ben this coming Tuesday and see if we can get the guitar chords. I do know he has a lesson on his website where he teaches this same song for guitar (https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/cold-frosty-morning-guitar-intermediate). If you’re member, check it out. Thanks!
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Ben’s lesson is played in Am (Gm capo 2)
If I recall correctly, there was a plan for a livestream tonight @ 7pm CDT. If so, will the link for this be the same as for the lessons?
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Getting it in late this time, but here is Cold Frosty Morning.
Thank you for the lessons and looking forward to this evening and more lessons down the road!
Steph
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Hey y’all, I have reuploaded all the tabs to include the chords in both the PDF and TEF files. Enjoy!
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Looking good Steph, nice and clean handling of the melody. But I want you to work on one important thing: Your thumb is just hanging out and resting on the 5th string while your finger strikes the single notes. Instead, work on having your thumb come down each time to land on the 5th string, concurrent with each quarter note, whether or note you are going to “pop” a note out of the 5th or not. That way, your whole hand will be acting as one unit each stroke, versus the thumb doing something different each time depending on what the fingers are doing. Let me know if you have any questions, and try to send a video of that once you work on it a bit. Thanks!
@ClawhammerDave, I want to thank you for including the Spotify playlist in the course materials…it’s been a wonderful discovery process to learn more about what’s going on (now and in the past) out there with clawhammer banjo. Some of that music has a magical kind of quality found in very few places in the instrumental world.
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You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m always adding new songs and players whenever I find or hear something new that catches my ear. Yes, the clawhammer sound is indeed magical in a way…
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@ClawhammerDave or @BanjoBen
Do either of you have some more songs that you can point me towards? I like that double C tuning. That was the first time I changed the tuning on my banjo.
If I come across a song that is written for three finger style, how would I convert it over or play it in Clawhammer style?
Great questions. If you join us for Clawhammer Christmas LIVE, we’ll be learning some more tunes, maybe a couple in C tuning. And starting in 2023, I hope to be teaching a new song each month using the LIVE format and hopefully launch a full set of lessons and songs on Ben’s website. If you’re ready for more at this point, I would say look up any of Dan Levenson’s books and CDs. He is published by MelBay and his material is well-selected and fun to learn.
Regarding converting 3-finger to claw style, there’s not really a “formula” for that, - but if you pick up the simple melody note with your “finger strike” and fill in the “strum-5s” with the corresponding chord shape, it might come together enough to be passable on the back porch. - Dave
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I signed up for the Clawhammer Christmas LIVE the day it opened up!
Going to look at MelBay and see what I can find.
I started to play a bit with that on some old summer camp songs we use to sing… going to have to play with that a bit more…
Thanks @ClawhammerDave !
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