The Issue Most banjo players struggle a bit with the strength and dexterity of the fretting hand pinky and ring fingers.  These two difficult digits tend to be a little less easy to command and to compensate, we tend to focus mostly on the index and middle fingers to do most of our fretting work. Read more…

The great thing about instructional material today is that you can find it in whatever format you enjoy using! With the advent of the stop/go DVD, you can back it up and listen to whatever portion you need to, innumerable times! It’s like having your own personal workshop instructor who never tires of showing you Read more…

Admired and feared, improvising has sometimes been shrouded by mystery and misunderstanding.   New banjo students are often baffled by top players who pick beautiful streams of notes but never the same way twice on a given song. The Secret Probably the most important “secret” of improvisation is “familiarity with your instrument.” The player who Read more…

These days we all have limited time to do the things we like. We always have to make the most out of our time. If you are reading this, one of the things you like to do is to play the banjo, with one of your goals to always be a better player. We often Read more…

This post is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on the Disc Makers blog – Echoes .  Reprinted with permission. Echoes’ Andre Calilhanna talks with producer/engineer/studio owner Jon Marc Weiss for insights on how to make your home recording audio mixing sound better. What is busing? Technically, a bus is a combining amplifier that takes Read more…