Some Favorite Advice

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I’ve been teaching banjo almost 50 years now. Though most banjo teaching addresses typical technical challenges, I have some pet non-technical topics, to steer a player toward better music and more fun on the instrument.… Read More

Wernick Method Progess…and How YOU Can Improve in 2012

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This month I host my 28th annual Winter Banjo Camps, three weeks of full banjo-immersion in Boulder, Colorado. These are about the only Banjo Camps I teach any more, mainly teaching Jam Camps instead. I was recently asked why. Simple: At every Banjo Camp, I kept finding that most students’ main need was to play more music with other people…. Yet many of them rarely if ever did that, and some had no clue how.… Read More

It’s About Fun and Results… As Soon As Possible: Recommendations from a Lifetime of Banjo Teaching

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The following ideas have served my students well since I developed them in the 1960s and 70s. They have been presented in my “Bluegrass Banjo” book (1974), my ten Homespun instructional videos, and over 150 music camps I’ve hosted since 1980. The student evaluation forms I’ve used since the late 1980s give clear evidence that they work.… Read More

Jamming Fundamentals: Chord Changing Made Easy

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People sometimes wonder why a well-known banjo player/teacher like me has switched from teaching banjo to teaching mostly “bluegrass jamming”.… Read More

Teachers: Help Your Students More with Videos

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When a student hires me to teach, that is, to direct their learning program, I’m sometimes awed by the responsibility. Time is such a precious commodity, and the student is not just committing to spending classroom time with me, but also to many hours practicing what I recommend.… Read More

Sound Bites from Hollywood and West Virginia

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The word has gotten around that Hot Rize played at Steve Martin’s wedding, and as with about anything involving Steve, there’s a fair amount of curiosity. For the sake of brevity, here are some sound bites:… Read More