Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Singing with rolling backup

This is a pretty common topic around here, so I figured I’d share this video, which is an excellent example

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great Gunner thanks for sharing

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Here is a singing with no backup… just recorded it today… :slight_smile: Hope the link works.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/YdumphsxXQijVhWQLUSn3fB8Qh0xGHh80FpmQF655wB

Mike Lilley was pretty fair at backing himself up on the five.

This performance is classic Mike

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Just found this one. This girl is better than me :sob:

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Rocky Top must be a good song for this singing & rolling banjo backup you speak of… this video (yes a video this time & not audio clip lol) is my two sons about 3 years ago (ages back then 13 & 15) doing Rocky Top with the rolling backup. Most of the songs he picks & sings he does this way, so I never really took notice of it before. (Plus I know nothing about playing banjo…) Hope you enjoy…

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It’s one of the few I can play backup and sing at the same time.

I watch Katy Lou play and sing and I’m just like

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I think Sydney is just using an alternating thumb for her backup. I could hear the constant, bom, bom, like a bass

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Yeah, I think it was just a basic square roll, but that’s impressive at her age. It’s a great place to start. Throw in some forward and backward rolls and you can make it sound very full.

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