Best books about banjos according to redditors

I was actually in this exact situation when I started playing - was a highschooler with free time and just wanted to learn banjo.

1. Get a banjo: If you don't have one already, then this part is sort of a requirement. A standard 5-string is the best place to start. This Deering is a fantastic beginner banjo (and not too bad for performing either), but if price is an issue, I've heard that Gold Tone's work just fine as well.
   
2. Get some books/material: This book is by the master himself (Earl Scruggs). It's sort of an essential for anyone looking to play classic 3-finger (Scruggs style) banjo. If you're looking to play Clawhammer perhaps, this is a very good book for learning.
   
3. PRACTICE: It can seem difficult at first, but I recommend practicing as much as possible. When I first started, I practiced for about 1-2 hours everyday for a solid month. I was able to improve very quickly. And the best part is that I enjoyed every bit of it. That's another thing, if you really enjoy playing, then practicing shouldn't be verry difficult for you.
   
   Good luck, and have fun!

I've tried a bunch of books and the best one I've found is Ken Perlman's Clawhammer Style Banjo, which I see recommended pretty often. https://www.amazon.com/Clawhammer-Style-Banjo-Ken-Perlman/dp/0931759331

I used YouTube videos until I could get the motion down, now I'm learning via the book.

If you are wanting to learn clawhammer style, I recommend Clawhammer Style Banjo by Ken Perlman. I've been teaching myself with this book so far and it's very helpful.

Bluegrass Banjo for Dummies. I'm usually not a fan of the "dummies" books. But Bill Evans is the author of this, and he is an excellent banjo player and teacher.

If you're looking for a book, I highly recommend Ken Perlman's Clawhammer Style Banjo. It starts with the basics but goes into intermediate methods. I'm still making my way through it.

I also have Clawhammer Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus. Use that in combination with Youtube videos on frailing technique and you're golden. Once you outgrow that book pick up a copy of Clawhammer Style Banjo which will cover advanced stuff too.

1) Banjo Lessons - The best thing you could do is get a banjo teacher. My local Sam Ash store had one who I took lessons with, he was great.

2) Reading Music - My other suggestion would be learn music theory. It will be easier to learn if you have a teacher, but you can always pick up music theory books for beginners and learn on your own. I used to split my banjo lessons in half; 30 minutes on music theory and 30 minutes on banjo.


3) Apps - Whether or not banjo lessons are an option there are tons of great banjo apps that will teach you many different rolls and exercises. Some will also teach you how to read banjo tab. I would practice those until they are second nature to you.

4) Tab - You don't have to learn how to read music to play banjo thanks to music tablature or "tab." It's basically a way to write down how to play songs on an instrument without using notes or having to know how to read music. Many people learn to play using tab. There are tons of banjo books and pdfs for all sorts of songs that use tab. So you won't be limited in the songs you can learn to play. Again, tab is great, but I really recommend learning to read music. You don't have to choose one or the other and sometimes tab can be used to help with reading music.

5) Clawhammer or Scruggs - There are different ways to play the banjo, the two most common are clawhammer and Scruggs/bluegrass/three-finger. Often people starting out learn one style over the other because learning both at once could be difficult. Clawhammer is more frailing/strumming the strings with your nail(s) and Scruggs style is played with finger and thumb picks which you use to pick the strings. You could be limited to a particular style depending on the teacher you have. My teacher only knew Scruggs style, which was fine because that's what I was mainly interested in learning.

Also, the style you choose will narrow the scope of tablature/music available when you are starting out. Clawhammer banjo songs are usually more traditional/folk/old-time genre. Scruggs banjo songs are typically more folk, bluegrass, and everything else. Ultimately, once you're proficient enough neither style will limit the type of music you can play.

Additionally, different types of banjos are commonly associated with specific styles of playing. Open back banjos are usually used with clawhammer and closed back banjos are associated with Scruggs style. But this isn't really a big deal. My favorite banjo to play on is a small open back because it is much lighter and I mainly play Scruggs style.

6) Happy Banjo Dude - He is a youtuber who makes videos where he breaks down how to play songs. He sells books that have great exercises, lessons, and tabs for players of all levels. He has a bunch of free tabs on his website as well, most of which have a corresponding video on his YT channel. I would really recommend his books. I'm pretty sure most of his stuff is with Scruggs style playing. *There are some other people who do similar things as HBD, but I personally like his stuff the best.

7) Books - If you plan on getting a music teacher they will most likely have suggestions for which books they want you to buy. If aren't getting a teacher and you plan to learn Scruggs style on your own I highly recommend this book.

These are all great suggestions. These were all some of the songs I learned to play guitar to as well. May I suggest these songs as well;
"Sitting On Top Of The World", "Whiskey Before Breakfast", "High on the Mountain", "Old Home Place", "Whitehouse Blues", "Me and My Uncle". Or better yet, just buy the Bluegrass Fakebook. (http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Fakebook-Favorites-Gospel-Mandolin/dp/1893907376)

I'm not sure why everyone is always recomending the How and Tao book.. I have just about every clawhammer book you can get (i can get them for free so why not) and there are much better books out there.

I would suggest either this one or anything by Ken Perlman, maybe this one: or this

the first one is really good for beginners, but you'll quickly outgrow it, but it'll teach you the right hand motion. The second and third are more intermediate to advanced stuff but really really good stuff.

Pete Seeger Banjo Pack: Includes How to Play the 5-String Banjo book and How to Play the 5-String Banjo DVD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423496922/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QqnYCbNPWCQC8

If you're going to learn Scruggs style, you might as well learn from the Master, Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo. Its a great book.


Janet Davis also has some excellent teaching material. My personal favorite is Splitting the Licks which really breaks down how song are built.

There are tons of other resources out there, but those two are my favorites and the ones I've gotten the most from.

Here is the Geslison book I talked about: 50 Tunes for Banjo https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786691980/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4tItDbETC26MT

That's a whole other kettle of fish :)

It mostly depends on whether you learn better from watching videos or from books. I haven't really dug too deeply into Celtic style, but a quick google search turned up this:

• "Learn Irish Banjo Series" on YouTube that looks very beginner friendly. It starts with How to Hold the Instrument, goes through tuning (it's worth getting a tuner app on your phone as well), then plucking and picking exercises, the D-scale and finishes with Twinkle Twinkle. Following lessons move a little faster.
  
  If you prefer books, something like this, "Absolute Beginners - Irish Tenor Banjo: The Complete Guide to Playing Irish Style Tenor Banjo" would be my suggestion. It contains both tabulature and musical notation, starts off very basic and progresses. It also comes with a download code so you can download the tracks you will be playing so you know whether what you are playing sounds right.
  
  From either of those places, once you've learned a couple chords and a couple simple songs, it all comes down to practice. Practicing the chord forms, switching between chords, strumming/picking patterns, etc.
  
  Once you get to this point it's worth downloading a chord chart and just learning all of the major, minor and 7th chords in your main tuning. You don't have to memorize them all at once, just add one or two new ones a day, and practice fretting and strumming them while switching back and forth with other chords you already know.
  
  A couple other things I would suggest are to actually count out the rhythms right from the start. It'll make things a little trickier right now, but it'll save you a lot of hassle later when things become more complicated.
  
  The other thing I would suggest is if you ever intend to sing along with your playing, it is best to do it right from the start. It doesn't matter if you sing well, or are just saying the words, but if you wait until you can play before you start singing, you'll have to overcome quite a bit of frustration as suddenly dealing with the pitch and rhythm of the vocal line can totally throw off your strumming/picking.

There's also a book on theory for the banjo player, though I've never read it.

won't teach you anything about playing, but a lot of history:

https://www.amazon.com/Banjo-Illustrated-History-Bob-Carlin/dp/1495011240/

Learning a fretted instrument will make you think that everyone else has the right hands for it except for you. There will be entire chords that seem physically impossible to do, but there are pros out there with mangled hands that are gods (like Django Reinhardt, Jerry Garcia).

A great book for beginners that I can't recommend more is Janet Davis' "You Can Teach Yourself Banjo." She does a fabulous way of subconsciously teaching techniques and tuning your ear through songs without you even realizing it. You can start it with zero musical understanding whatsoever.

I'm quite surprised that you've come across anything for banjo in standard notation. Outside of the minstrel tutors (which are from the 19th century) I've never seen banjo materials written in anything except tab. Especially for old time, where the so many tunings are used, reading standard is almost useless (unless you want to read out of fiddle books).

Anyway, my favourite resources would be Ken Perlman's Book and Art Rosenbaum's. Rosenbaum's comes with a fantastic CD which makes it worth the price alone. It's not really a beginner book, but it's still a great resource which covers a range of old time styles (clawhammer, 2-finger, and 3-finger)

Clawhammer style banjo by Ken Perlman. Best $20 you can spend on clawhammer knowledge.

http://www.amazon.com/Clawhammer-Style-Banjo-Ken-Perlman/dp/0931759331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426131101&sr=1-1&keywords=ken+perlman

Honestly, I started with some of the stuff online. A guy has some good beginner level songs in tab in pdf here. they are pretty easy, and you can play them slow and still hear the melody. The first song I ever learned was amazing grace.

I also went through some of the beginner lessons from Banjo Hangout

There's lots of tabs there too, you can search for beginner difficulty.

Here's an online banjo tuner, if you can do it by ear

After I got through a lot of the easier tabs I could find on the internet, I got The Ultimate Banjo Songbook. It has a wide variety of difficulties in it, some are slow waltzes that you'll be able to play soon, and there's a couple that I can't play after 8 months.

And like I mentioned before, I'm in no way an expert, but since I recently went through the same ordeal, I wanted to give you some pointers.

Banjo-wise: Don't let your strings get too old, they'll start sound dull and you'll get a lot of pick noise. For awhile I thought I was getting worse, turned out I needed new strings.

Second, get picks that fit. I did not get picks that fit, and they were constantly shifting and falling off my fingers. With metal picks, you can adjust them a bit with hot water.

For books a Google search will turn up some great stuff. I find the early evolution from an African instrument really fascinating - Google 'ankoting' for some great info.

This is a classic on that topic: http://www.amazon.com/African-Banjo-Echoes-Appalachia-Publications/dp/0870498932

I was once at a concert of some great African musician playing an native instrument. When I looked closer I realized he was playing with the backs of his fingernails like the clawhammer style - so very likely that style of playing, not just the instrument, has African origins as well.

You might want to watch Bela Fleck's video, Throw Down Your Heart. It's basically following Fleck around as he meets and plays with musicians around Africa. While I was a little disappointed by how it's much more about Fleck than it is about Africa, there are a couple sections that are wonderful. Watch for the explanation of what the title means.

There is of course more to the history of banjo than its African origins, but it's definitely an important aspect.

Books;
Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo: Revised and Enhanced Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634060430/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_H.ArDbGBY9Q57

The Complete 5-String Banjo Player https://www.amazon.com/dp/0825603552/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_laBrDbDE9THKJ

Or

Tony Trischka Master Collection of Fiddle Tunes for Banjo https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0109O79WS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EaBrDbRF753TS

Videos:
YouTube BanjoBen
YouTube Homespun banjo lessons

Site:
Banjohangout.com for lessons, info about banjos, tabs, and more.

Technology:
TablEdit is a free tab editor where you can find lots of downloads for songs on the previously mentioned website

I came from a similar position and started learning banjo during my third year of college as a music major. Prior to banjo I had learned violin, guitar, and piano as well as a heavy amount of theory. I got a hand-me-down and was able to play foggy mountain at full speed in a few months. If you have fretting chops and know how to practice well, it is worth getting a reasonable intermediate banjo because of the fast learning curve.

There are acoustic electric banjos but it seems that most bluegrass bands use mics or pick ups so they don't lose the song quality from the acoustic.

For jamming, check out The Flatpick Apprentice Blog. He has some good backing tracks for standard tunes that you can jam on. Sort of a bluegrass version of the Aebersold disks.

I also chew my fingernails, and manage banjo fine--for scruggs style fingerpicks are an essential part of the instrument.

As for miscellaneous advice, I recommend practicing incredibly slowly with a metronome in order to get the mechanics of the roll down and have it be smooth. You want each roll to feel like one motion (rather than 8 individual plucks). Pick up The Ultimate Banjo Songbook--It has great tunes from the very beginner level up to advanced, while skipping over basic tunes that any reasonably skilled guitarist could already play on the first attempt. She also does a good job of compiling tunes that sound good at varying speeds.

There are millions of reasons to get into the banjo--I completely support your choice, it's an incredible instrument.

Edit* Added link for Flatpick apprentice

Yep! If I may suggest a fantastic book to help you along:

Clawhammer Style Banjo https://www.amazon.com/dp/0931759331?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

It's absolutely possible, and a lot of fun. You'll find it hard to get up to 'session tempo' on jigs and reels, and you'll never get quite the same feeling as a tenor banjo, but if you're playing on your own, that hardly matters.

Here are some books of Celtic music for fingerstyle and clawhammer 5-string banjo playing.

This too....

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https://www.amazon.com/Parking-Lot-Pickers-Songbook-Banjo-ebook/dp/B07CRTMZ3Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541538626&sr=1-1&keywords=parking+lot+pickers+banjo

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I'll tell you something - the online lessons didn't work for me at all. I bought this book (http://www.amazon.com/Clawhammer-Style-Banjo-Ken-Perlman/dp/0931759331/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1333467612&sr=8-2) and made it a chapter or two in. Then I went to Africa for six months, took my banjo and what little knowledge I had formed a jam group. I learned more from doing that than anything else. That said, invest in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Parking-Lot-Pickers-Songbook-Banjo/dp/0786674911/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1333467621&sr=8-4

I got it as a gift, and it's awesome. There aren't a lot of clawhammer songbooks out there, but this one has most of the popular songs in melody-only tab, so you can pick them any way you want. It's the single most useful book I've ever looked at in trying to learn banjo.

I've heard good things about Brainjo, as suggested already, but I've never tried it. What has really worked for me over the last few month's has been Ken Perlman's Clawhammer Style Banjo book. For some reason, it just clicked with me and I'm around half-way through the book and have picked up maybe 30 tunes or so. There is an accompanying DVD available for around $28. I picked it up also, but mostly just refer to it occasionally if I need clarification on something. I've also seen multiple recommendations for Dan Levenson's Clawhammer Banjo from Scratch, but haven't used that one either.

Also, I think I found my recommendations at the time with a search for "clawhammer books" on the Banjo Hangout Forums. Plenty of info and helpful people there also.

http://www.amazon.com/African-Banjo-Echoes-Appalachia-Publications/dp/0870498932/ref=pd_sim_m_1

This book is amazingly interesting, if he likes history and Old Time music.