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Thanks for sharing your experience. I know Brian has a travel banjo that’s based on the mountain banjo, but it’s interesting to hear that you can break down the mountain to do this.
I absolutely love Nora Brown. 🙂 She has a great collection of old time tunes in both clawhammer and two finger styles. She’s certainly wise beyond her years in old time music.
Clawhammer is my go to style, but I got to know Matt Brown a couple of years ago and probably actually play more two finger songs than clawhammer these days. He actually has a new 2F book coming out really soon.
The Leftwich book is really good, in my opinion. It focuses specially on musicians from the Round Peak area in North Carolina, so many of the songs are familiar, but they’re regional variants of the songs.
I’m really curious about the sound of the 12″ compared to the 11″. I’ve built one of the older Americana kits and get comments all the time about how nice it sounds. With the 12″ option, I might consider building one more. I suppose I could just order it fretless and it’ll be different from the other no matter what. 🙂
Soldier’s Joy is one of my favorites (I’ve now learned it in 3 different styles), also Whiskey Before Breakfast. In a recent jam I discovered that Cripple Creek is actually the song I’m most comfortable playing, probably because it was the first I memorized, even if I play it rarely now.
You mentioned Brodie Buttons, which made me think of Blackest Crow. It’s a really simple tune, great for a beginner, but he plays it differently than you’ll typically find. Normally it’s a waltz, with 3 beats per measure, but he plays it in 4/4 (which is a bit easier to do in clawhammer). It’s another favorite of mine, but I usually play it like it’s written in Brad Leftwich’s Round Peak book, which is the more traditional 3/4 time.
What style are you learning?
Building my first carver kit changed everything for me. I had a banjo I bought at guitar center and I was trying to learn, but I really had to force myself to practice. Once I built my mountain banjo I had to force myself to put it down. Now my americana is my main banjo and people ask me about it all the time. Hopefully at least some of them have come to the site and bought one for themselves. Thanks for bringing attention to these forums.
