Hooks & Nuts

You have likely heard about the Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers, a global series of events in small cities and towns around the world. It began in 2012 when ...

Beginning musician’s struggle with this concept: play the music how you “feel” it. What does that mean? How can that be quantified?

I have a number of students who have trouble understanding the difference between the key of a song and the tuning of their banjo or they feel they can only...

The world class clawhammer banjoist David Holt took the time recently to review our new Vega Old Time Wonder banjo that features a 12 inch rim.

I was in a conversation the other day where a musician said to me, “I decided not to play banjo in our band because we don’t want to ‘look like’ we’re...

As most of us know, standard tuning for a 5-string banjo is an open G tuning (G,D,G,B,D). Open G tuning means that if we strum all the strings without fretting...

The next Gentlemen of The Road Stopover this summer in the idyllic Midwestern town of Waverly, Iowa is upon us. Happening this Friday and Saturday June...

New Orleans guitarist John Rankin plays and talks about his new Deering Goodtime Solana 6 banjo and why it is the perfect 6-string banjo for him.

I don’t think over fretting is a commonly used term, but what it essentially means is:  Pushing strings harder than necessary on fretted instruments.