The Complete Bluegrass Banjo Method

Book Description

With this comprehensive method, you get 25 songs in standard notation and tab, a CD with 77 examples, and detailed info from banjo master Fred Sokolow on a host of other topics, including: the selection, care and feeding of your banjo; tuning; reading tablature; chords; three-finger rolls; backup licks; playing in any key; picking melody; special effects; different tunings; music theory; and many more.

Customer Reviews:

Complete Bluegrass Banjo.......2007-07-24

Perhaps I missed something in the book description, but the accompanying CD only included sound clips. No video! Without that, the book has limited use for my purposes as a beginner.

AB

Nice Balance of Technique and Fun.......2007-03-20

I am a guitar player who uses these kinds of method books to dabble in other stringed instruments (e.g., dobro, lap steel, etc.). Sokolow's Complete Bluegrass Banjo Method provides as good a foundation on the banjo as you can get from a book. While it includes sprinklings of music theory, chord charts, and other concepts, it focuses primarily on the right-hand rolls that are at the heart of bluegrass banjo. It introduces basic rolls and proceeds through accompaniment and solo banjo exercises, using a handful of old-timey songs as the basis for presenting the ideas. He encourages you to sing many of the songs while learning the rolls; not my forte, but still useful for sharpening your technique. As you go along, he injects other little goodies (tag endings, moveable licks) to keep things interesting. My favorite thing is that the supporting CD is listenable! These books generally have a CD that features an infuriating host and cheesy sound. Sokolow is a solid player, sticks with basic acoustic guitar accompaniment, and sings in a pleasing baritone voice (when vocals are involved). What a relief!

Overall, this is a well organized, effective intro banjo method at a great price.

Bluegrass Banjo.......2006-11-10

A great book. Takes you step by step through how to learn banjo. It doesn't teach you very many songs, but it does teach all the techniques you need.

New to the Banjo?.......2004-11-17

I got a Banjo this past father's day and this book has been awesome. With the accompanying CD, you can progress at your own pace through learning chords, picking rolls, hammering-on, pulling off and playing up the neck. It explains barre chords and chord formations in a really easy-to-understand way and also includes a section on taking care of your banjo. I'm not in any danger of channeling Earl Scruggs anytime soon, but this book has done a lot to give me some good foundational understanding of playing 5-string banjo. Highly recommended for beginners.

Wow! this book does it all.......2004-09-08

This is the first banjo instruction book I have purchased and, even though I have bought others, I am still very impressed with how he painstainly teaches every lick so clearly. This book makes me feel like I can truely become a banjo musician and not just a strummer. He teaches rolls, back up in regular and up the neck position, melody, and much much more. The CD that comes with it is super. The only thing I wish is that he would play some of the songs more slowly, but at least the tab is extremely accurate and allows for the learner to really "get it" over time.

Mel Bays Complete Bluegrass Banjo Method

Average customer rating:

Thank you, thank you!
A great first book on the banjo
Get Ready to Acquire Some Great Banjo-Picking Skills
A good place to begin and improve with a banjo.

Mel Bays Complete Bluegrass Banjo Method
N. Griffin
Manufacturer: Mel Bay Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

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ASIN: 0871668793

Book Description

One of the very best G tuning five-string bluegrass banjo methods available! The book teaches how to pick out tunes single-string style (one note at a time), how to play chord accompaniment, and how to play solos in the full three-finger, bluegrass style. Topics include note and tab reading, chord background styles, traditional bluegrass techniques, fills and endings, use of the capo, rolls, slides, hammers, pull-offs, choking, harmonics, and up-the-neck playing. In notation and tablature. The stereo recording includes acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, and a rhythm track as well as the 5-string banjo. All songs and most exercises are included in this teaching recording, performed at a tempo that the student should be able to maintain in short order.

Customer Reviews:

Thank you, thank you!.......2004-05-11

After reading some of the previous reviews of this book, I bought it. I have used another teach-yourself-banjo book for the past year, but this one fills in so many gaps in understanding. It teaches you "why", not just "how". The book also urges the player to learn to read music, not just tablature. Being a piano player, this opens many more doors. I spent 6 continuous hours practicing with this book the first day I received it. I would urge any beginner, whether teaching yourself or having an instructor, to buy this book. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know, and also don't know how to ask!

A great first book on the banjo.......2004-04-24

This is the first book I bought when I started to teach myself to play the banjo. I find it to be extremely helpful to beginners and will also be challenging as the pupil progresses. It teaches setup and simple lesson plans for beginners. There is also a fun section on roll patterns and fills and endings. The book has solos of bluegrass songs for the more advanced, and the solos are challenging. Having the accompanying CD was very important to me so I could hear how the roll patterns and solos are supposed to sound. I would encourage others who are teaching themselves to buy the CD along with the book. This is a great book for anyone learning to play the banjo.

Get Ready to Acquire Some Great Banjo-Picking Skills.......2001-03-17

What an excellent book! I am so glad I bought it! Don't be put off like some people I've known by the fact that it is published by Mel Bay. This book most definitely will teach you plenty of banjo picking skills, music theory, techniques, scales, chords, roll patterns etc. When it says "Complete" the author and publisher weren't kidding. Mel Bay also offers an accompanying cassette or CD so you can actually hear the songs in book.

The book starts off explaining both traditional music notation and tablature. Every song and/or exercise throughout the book will have both traditional and tab notation. There are sections on how to tune, pictures explaining how to wear and use the thumb and fingerpicks, key signatures, time values of notes, chords, playing pinch chords and rolls as accompanyment to another instrument or singer, introduction of the various notes per each string on traditional music notation (with it's accompanying tab underneath) and various strum patterns.

The next section introduces the all important roll patterns for Scruggs-style bluegrass picking. So you get forward roll patterns (ex: forward roll during chord changes), backward rolls, thumb-alternating rolls, square rolls, combination rolls, etc. Mr. Griffin also gives tips on daily practice patterns and exercises. He gives advice such as, "I urge you to go over these patterns every time you pick up your banjo for the next six months, no matter what else you are working on. Many students learn one or two rolls really well but still slow down and struggle when others occur in solos. These patterns MUST become 'second-nature' or 'in-the-fingers,' so to speak, if you wish to become a good banjo player."

Later chapters introduce slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, fills,endings and use of a capo. An entire section is devoted to solos although he advises not to learn this section until you have thoroughly mastered all the roll patterns from the previous chapter.

After this chapter there is a new major section to the book complete with its own introduction which suggests to me that at one time this one book must have been published in 2 smaller volumes. Anyway, Section 2 starts getting into more advanced banjo playing. It opens with various alternate tunings for the banjo then moves to chord studies and music theory such as the I,IV,V and I progression, moveable chord forms, dominant and diminished sevenths, etc. This is the section of the book that also begins teaching how to play higher up on the neck and also to my surprise and delight a detour into banjo playing for Blues,Boogie music and then into "melodic" or "chromatic" (aka fiddle-scale) picking styles . Mr. Griffin admits they are only brief introductions since entire books can and have been written that teach these styles of banjo playing. However he provides enough to broaden your playing skills and give you an idea to see if you like it enough to want to learn more elsewhere.

This second major section also introduces an "Advanced Solo Song Selection". He starts off with the advice, "Be sure to read the next four pages on chord diagrams, circled tab numbers, the choke, and chimes before you start playing the solos. This information will help you understand the solos much better. ..."Many of these songs have both high and low versions [i.e. high on the neck and low on the neck playing positions] with a mixture of "Scruggs" and "Melodic".

I've commented mostly about the lessons packed in this book but I would also like to mention the song selection. This book is chock full of traditional songs. Some I didn't recognize but many I did. Here are some of the songs included: Cripple Creek, Old Time Religion, When the Saints Go Marching In, Yellow Rose of Texas, Wabash Cannonball, She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain, Old Joe Clark, Oh Susanna, Ballad of Jesse James, Home Sweet Home, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Wildwood Flower, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Salty Dog, Londonderry Air, Nuegrass, St. Anne's Reel and Buffalo Gals. As I said, that's only some of the songs included. In short most of them are traditionals that most people will have heard already many times before so they'll know how the songs sound even without the added benefit of the accompanying cassette/CD.

In my opinion those traditional songs sound great with fast banjo picking to back them up! It completely cast them in a new light for me once I started practicing them with the various rolls and chord progressions, solos and fills I learned from this book. Anyone interested in learning how to play the banjo should find this book helpful.

A good place to begin and improve with a banjo........2000-08-24

This book starts at the beginning and describes tuning and techniques and is interspersed with advice on what to practice. It explains both tabulature and normal music notation and has a variety of songs progressing from easy to difficult. There are many exercises on various rolls and accompaniment techniques. This is a good first book and will also challenge a banjo player for a long time.

Book Description

The Third Edition of Cities in a World Economy shows how certain characteristics of our turn-of-the-millennium flows of money, information, and people have led to the emergence of a new social formation: global cities. These developments give new meaning to such fixtures of urban sociology as the centrality of place and the importance of geography in our social world.

Key Features:

Offers a multidisciplinary perspective: This book features a cross-disciplinary approach to Urban Sociology using global examples. With both depth and clarity, this book examines the impact of global processes on the social structure of cities helping students increase their world awareness. In addition, the book strikes the perfect balance between maintaining academic rigor and employing new and innovative concepts.
Includes a new chapter: The new chapter on Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits discusses the highly gendered and unequal nature of the global city and how it forces the underprivileged to live a dangerous and unpredictable life on global survival circuits.
Incorporates the most recent data: This new edition updates nearly every piece of data with the most recent facts and figures available. In addition, this book introduces new concepts for understanding contemporary urban sociology.

Intended Audience:

This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Sociology. It can also be used in courses such as Urban Studies, World Cities, Regional Studies, Urban Development and Planning, and Regional Development in the departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and Geography.

Customer Reviews:

Good for general information on a new economic order.......1999-06-21

I've read the book due to an examination about "the new city structure - contemporary geography" and it's quite good, she has a global wiew of the new city-status and its new users, the less and less importance the homless has for the city governament and the new power of the corporation, all in all a good compendium if you need to improve your knoledge about the matter.

Urbanism, Colonialism and the World-Economy : Cultural and Spatial Foundations of the World Urban System (International Library of Sociology)

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Urbanism, Colonialism and the World-Economy : Cultural and Spatial Foundations of the World Urban System (International Library of Sociology)
Anthony King
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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The Production of Space

ASIN: 0415062403

Bouncers: Violence and Governance in the Night-time Economy (Clarendon Studies in Criminology)

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Bouncers: Violence and Governance in the Night-time Economy (Clarendon Studies in Criminology)
Dick Hobbs , Philip Hadfield , Stuart Lister , and Simon Winlow
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Alcoholism | Recovery | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Violence in Society | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0199252246

Book Description

In recent years, the expansion of night-time leisure has emerged as a key indicator of post-industrial urban prosperity, attracting investment, creating employment, and re-generating the built environment. These leisure economies are youth-dominated, focusing upon the sale and consumption of alcohol. Unprecedented numbers of young people now flock to town centres that are crammed with bars, pubs, and clubs, and the resulting violent disorder has over run police resources that remain geared to the drinking patterns and alcohol cultures of previous generations. Post-industrial re-structuring has spawned an increasingly complex mass of night-time leisure options through which numerous licit and illicit commercial opportunities flow. Yet, regardless of the fashionable and romantic notions of many contemporary urban theorists, it is alcohol, mass intoxication, and profit rather than 'cultural regeneration,' which lies at the heart of this rapidly expanding dimension of post-industrial urbanism. Private security in the bulky form of bouncers fills the void left by the public police. These men (only 7% are women), whose activities are barely regulated by the State, are dominated by a powerful subculture rooted in routine violence and intimidation. Using ethnography, participant observation, and extensive interviews with all the main players, this controversial book charts the emergence of the bouncer as one of the most graphic symbols in the iconography of post-industrial Britain.

Cities in China: Recipes for Economic Development in the Reform Era (Routledge Studies--China in Transition, 7.)

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Cities in China: Recipes for Economic Development in the Reform Era (Routledge Studies--China in Transition, 7.)
Jae Ho Chung
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Cities in Post-Mao China is a ground-breaking volume that reveals, through close detail and broad coverage, how exactly cities have been catalysts for China's economic development. This book will provide much needed data for those working in the fields of economic development and Asian studies.

The Cultural Economy of Cities (Theory, Culture and Society) (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

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The Cultural Economy of Cities (Theory, Culture and Society) (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)
Allen J Scott
Manufacturer: Sage Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0761954554

Book Description

Culture is big business. It is at the root of many urban regeneration schemes throughout the world, yet the economy of culture is under-theorized and under-developed. In this wide-ranging and penetrating volume, the economic logic and structure of the modern cultural industries is explained. The connection between cultural production and urban-industrial concentration is demonstrated and the book shows why global cities are the homelands of the modern cultural industries. This book covers many sectors of cultural economy, from craft industries such as clothing and furniture, to modern media industries such as cinema and music recording. The role of the global city as a source of creative and innovative energy is examined in detail, with particular attention paid to Paris and Los Angeles.

Industrial Control Over the Socialist Town: Benevolence or Exploitation?

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Industrial Control Over the Socialist Town: Benevolence or Exploitation?
Boleslaw Domanski
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The author addresses the neglected issue of the relations between the functioning of powerful state industrial firms and the town under socialism. As they strived for labor force, the manufacturing and mining employers in Central and Eastern Europe became prominent gatekeepers controlling access to scarce goods and services, which reflected a specific labor market segmentation. The distribution of social benefits and burdens they generated enhanced life chances of certain groups by and large at the cost of the underprivileged--women and the elderly in particular. This socialist industry contributed to social injustice and deprivation as well as the reproduction of entrapping spatial settings such as factory colonies and areas reserved for potential expansion. The study reveals a great diversity of mechanisms of industrial control over and exploitation of socialist towns in Poland. Spatial organization of local activities and facilities exhibited the power of industrial gatekeepers, and in several cases became a mediating element facilitating achievement of the firm's objectives. The residents' sense of place was permeated by the company through its multiple involvement outside the factory gates, which could justify its dominant position and conceal sources of social inequalities and conflicts. The legacy of socialist factory paternalism bears heavily upon post-socialist society, which is evident in anti-egalitarian attitudes and social closure attempts demonstrated by the beneficiaries of the gatekeepers' allocation.

Latifundium: Moral Economy and Material Life in a European Periphery

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Latifundium: Moral Economy and Material Life in a European Periphery
Marta Petrusewicz
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Moral Economy of Cities: Shaping Good Citizens (Cultural Spaces)

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The Moral Economy of Cities: Shaping Good Citizens (Cultural Spaces)
Evelyn S. Ruppert
Manufacturer: University of Toronto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

What makes a good city? This question has long preoccupied groups interested and involved in the making and remaking of city spaces. In The Moral Economy of Cities, Evelyn S. Ruppert contends that the vision of the `good city' embraced by professionals in the business of city making recognizes the interests of a dominant public, namely middle class consumers, office workers, tourists, and families. This vision stigmatizes certain members of the public like street youth, panhandlers, discount- and low-income shoppers, and the language used to extol the virtues of the good city inherently moralizes social conduct in the city.

Book Description

Deeply divided between North and South, Italy represents an unparalleled example of dualistic development, counterposing two profoundly different models of society and politics. In the South, socioeconomic backwardness is matched by the persistence of traditional forms of political behaviour - a politics based primarily on personal ties and patronage rather than on broader bonds of interest or ideology. This study seeks to understand the sources of popular support for clientelism in a resource-scarce society such as southern Italy. It analyzes the dynamics of continuity and change in a political system based primarily on clientelism rather than on broader bonds of interest or ideology. The author explores the concrete patronage mechanisms linking the dominant party to each of the major social groups in the city - ranging from the urban poor to the mafia. By contrast, the sections on Naples address the question of the conditions under which political machines may lose their mass base of support.

Race, Religion, and Economic Change in the Republican South: A Study of a Southern City

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Race, Religion, and Economic Change in the Republican South: A Study of a Southern City
Matthew T. Corrigan
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

"Portrays the fascinating, stubborn interplay among race, religion, economics, and Republican leadership in the new order of Southern politics."--Congressman Glen Browder, Eminent Scholar in American Democracy, Jacksonville State University (Alabama)

"Provides a striking example of a problem inherent to democracies: the most dramatic political successes--like the rise of the Republican Party in the South--often create situations in which effective governance becomes more difficult."--Stephen Baker, Jacksonville University (Florida)

Once known as a Democratic stronghold, the "Solid South" is now politically dominated by the Republican Party. With frank and provocative analysis, Matthew Corrigan explores how the interaction of race relations, economic isolation, and religion create a unique set of challenges and opportunities for the majority party in the American South.

Corrigan uses an intensive case study of Jacksonville, Florida, to examine the attitudes of southern voters more broadly. As an urban southern city that now votes solidly Republican, it reflects the political changes that have taken place across the region. Drawing on research that includes over 2,000 surveys and interviews, Corrigan considers whether or not Republicans, who now hold a majority of federal offices in the South, can provide a political system to address the region's problems.

Scholars, pundits, and members of the general public from both political parties will find this book accessible and timely.

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