dj0qs
Verified buyer
06/29/25
Phantastic material and impressive teacher, as in all her banjo and other courses!
Clawhammer Banjo: Intermediate Module 2
A Comprehensive Method Series For Clawhammer Banjo: Intermediate Module 2
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About this course
Cathy steps up your clawhammer banjo game with more cool tunings, chords, scales, insight and of course more songs for your repertoire, each filled with additional key techniques that you can use in hundreds and hundreds of songs. You'll learn Flop Eared Mule, Puncheon Floor, Cluck Old Hen, Twin Sisters, Cold Frosty Morning, Little Betty Ann, Cumberland Gap Tuning, Shoes and Stockings, Sail Away Ladies, Cumberland Gap, Reuben's Train, and Leather Britches.
Everything is demonstrated and broken down note-by-note in full living color. The interactive lesson player equips you with handy tools for zooming, looping and for calling up charts, tab and notation with a single click. Slow and at tempo playalongs get you in the clawhammer groove quickly and accelerate the learning process. You will play your way through the course - no tedious theory or boring exercise to struggle through!
Skip the time travel and genetic splicing -- pick up Cathy Fink's Clawhammer Banjo full series and treat yourself to one of the most enjoyable and musical learning experiences you will ever encounter. Oh, and start thinking about that cool stage name!
Everything is demonstrated and broken down note-by-note in full living color. The interactive lesson player equips you with handy tools for zooming, looping and for calling up charts, tab and notation with a single click. Slow and at tempo playalongs get you in the clawhammer groove quickly and accelerate the learning process. You will play your way through the course - no tedious theory or boring exercise to struggle through!
Skip the time travel and genetic splicing -- pick up Cathy Fink's Clawhammer Banjo full series and treat yourself to one of the most enjoyable and musical learning experiences you will ever encounter. Oh, and start thinking about that cool stage name!
What you'll learn
- Use hammer-ons in melodic context
- Use double thumb technique for bass notes
- Create melodic variations while maintaining the tune
- Internalize melody through singing before playing
- Understand when to prioritize musical flow over technical perfection
Release date: 09/13/2012 • 4h 27m runtime
Sample lessons
Puncheon Floor: 1
Performance
Cluck Old Hen: 2
Modal Tuning
Twin Sisters: 3
A-Part Breakdown
Cold Frosty Morning: 4
B-Part Breakdown
What's included
76 lessons • 13 charts
Clawhammer Banjo
Welcome and thanks for joining me on the 2nd intermediate module of Clawhammer Banjo.
We'll have new tunes, new tunings and techniques to turn you into a first class player with lots of versatility and interesting music.
I have been playing old-time banjo since 1974. I have listened, watched, listened, practiced, watched, jammed, listened over and over again. The old time music repertoire has been a constant sound track in my head.
My playing style is influenced by so many banjo players and recordings that I can not honestly say that it emulates any one player. In fact, it is my own way of playing with lots of influences starting with my first banjo teacher, Barry Luft of Calgary, Alberta. Through the many years I was able to hear and watch great players at festivals and concerts such as Mike Seeger, Tommy Thompson, Tommy Jarrell, Lily Mae Ledford, Ola Belle Reed, Reed Martin, Bob Carlin, Pete Seeger, Hedy West, and many, many more.
That said, I am not teaching here the "Tommy Jarrell" or the "Don Stover" or any specific version of any tune or song. I instead have chosen to teach relatively generic versions that are true to the musical form, but do not quote directly from any musical source. As you listen to contemporary and traditional players of clawhammer banjo, you will develop your own tastes and from there can choose to study more detail of specific regional or personal styles. My hope is that with this and my other courses, I've prepared you to do that, and to play along in jam sessions, and to learn to work out banjo tunes and arrangements on your own.
Every teacher has their own way of teaching and every player has nuances to their own playing. Whatever works and makes the music you want to make, go for it!
Enjoy the banjo-the practice time, the jamming time and the adventure of taking up this amazing instrument. And thanks for studying with me.
A special note to guitar players expanding your horizons at the banjo: Guitar playing, especially fingerpicking, uses the same left hand techniques as clawhammer banjo. That part will come easily to you, but the right hand will be a challenge, using completely different techniques and creating all new muscle memory. Try to spend enough time on the drills and early exercises so your right hand will be solid before you start adding your "guitar" knowledge to the left hand. Think of banjo as a completely different instrument instead of "another fretted instrument". There is crossover in left hand technique, but the right hand will take some time to get comfortable and accurate. Once you get it, it’s like riding a bike, it'll be with you forever.
Let's get started!
We'll have new tunes, new tunings and techniques to turn you into a first class player with lots of versatility and interesting music.
I have been playing old-time banjo since 1974. I have listened, watched, listened, practiced, watched, jammed, listened over and over again. The old time music repertoire has been a constant sound track in my head.
My playing style is influenced by so many banjo players and recordings that I can not honestly say that it emulates any one player. In fact, it is my own way of playing with lots of influences starting with my first banjo teacher, Barry Luft of Calgary, Alberta. Through the many years I was able to hear and watch great players at festivals and concerts such as Mike Seeger, Tommy Thompson, Tommy Jarrell, Lily Mae Ledford, Ola Belle Reed, Reed Martin, Bob Carlin, Pete Seeger, Hedy West, and many, many more.
That said, I am not teaching here the "Tommy Jarrell" or the "Don Stover" or any specific version of any tune or song. I instead have chosen to teach relatively generic versions that are true to the musical form, but do not quote directly from any musical source. As you listen to contemporary and traditional players of clawhammer banjo, you will develop your own tastes and from there can choose to study more detail of specific regional or personal styles. My hope is that with this and my other courses, I've prepared you to do that, and to play along in jam sessions, and to learn to work out banjo tunes and arrangements on your own.
Every teacher has their own way of teaching and every player has nuances to their own playing. Whatever works and makes the music you want to make, go for it!
Enjoy the banjo-the practice time, the jamming time and the adventure of taking up this amazing instrument. And thanks for studying with me.
A special note to guitar players expanding your horizons at the banjo: Guitar playing, especially fingerpicking, uses the same left hand techniques as clawhammer banjo. That part will come easily to you, but the right hand will be a challenge, using completely different techniques and creating all new muscle memory. Try to spend enough time on the drills and early exercises so your right hand will be solid before you start adding your "guitar" knowledge to the left hand. Think of banjo as a completely different instrument instead of "another fretted instrument". There is crossover in left hand technique, but the right hand will take some time to get comfortable and accurate. Once you get it, it’s like riding a bike, it'll be with you forever.
Let's get started!
Flop Eared Mule: 1
Flop Eared Mule has the A part in one key (G) and the B part in another (D).
It's a POLKA and way fun!
It's a POLKA and way fun!
Flop Eared Mule: 2
The A part has G and D7, the B part uses D and A or A7
Flop Eared Mule: 3
You'll find this A part to be pretty easy.
Flop Eared Mule: 4
It takes some left hand strength to hold the bar chord on the 7th fret down strong enough to get clean notes for the B part. If it's hard at first, be patient.
It'll come!
It'll come!
Flop Eared Mule: 5
Practice along at a slow tempo with Marcy Marxer on guitar. I'll drop out once in a while so you can have her accompany you on your own.
Practice with this over and over again until you can keep up FLAWLESSLY, then try the next practice.
Practice with this over and over again until you can keep up FLAWLESSLY, then try the next practice.
Flop Eared Mule: 6
Practice along at a faster tempo with Marcy Marxer on guitar. Over, and over, and over again.
If this is too fast, go back to the slow play-along until you are ready for this one.
If this is too fast, go back to the slow play-along until you are ready for this one.
+ 69 more lessons
Reviews
9 results
cbeale
Verified buyer
12/08/24
Cathy Fink’s Clawhammer Intermediate
Cathy is a wonderful teacher. She does a great job of teaching the song and in addition talking about ways she embellishes it. Good solid Old Time songs I’ve wanted to learn.
AlanL
Verified buyer
11/30/22
Excellent follow up course.
Dollarite
Verified buyer
03/31/21
A Well Presented Tutorial
A well set out and presented lesson plan. Follows on from Module 1 which gives a good grounding. The ability to slow the speed of the playback is very handy for those that are a wee bit slow at picking things up on the first pass!
Lotharius
Verified buyer
04/08/20
Questions answered
Nearly all questions I had were answered
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