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Posted -: 05:13:18I can second R Buck's suggestion of Stephen Parker's 'Clawhammer Banjo String Band Favorites' as a great source of tunes. But as others have mentioned if it's words to songs you're after then maybe Tim Jumper's 'Banjo Players Songbook' book is more what you are looking for.But unless there are specific songs you're seeking buying music books can be like putting the cart before the horse. Hearing and liking a particular song is usually the spark that makes someone want to learn it.

Why not find a few tunes you like and learn to play them first and then independently google the words online? There's often several different versions of the words for many songs and it can be interesting to compare them. Or just listen to recorded tunes and pick the words up that way. Most old-time songs aren't lyrically complicated.Edited by - mbuk06 on 05:15:00. Posted -: 07:02:22If indeed you want to play 'Songs' as defined by others here, start with my free ebookWhich has 8 songs with extensive notes on accompaniment. You can print out as much of the book as you need and then put the pages into a three ring binder or (as a few guys have told me) go to Kinkos and have them bound with plasticI also suggest learning some of the tunes in RSB too. They serve as excellent exercises even if you have no interest in playing tunes.From there go on to:Pete Seeger's How To Play The 5 String Banjo - for more accompaniment techniques.andArt Rosenbaum's Art of the Mountain Banjo, for yet moreAfter that, the most you will need is the typical Folk Song collections you can find in libraries or music stores. I got a lot of my stuff off records.

Posted -: 07:42:46In that case, I suggest my BIG TABONANZA:​Details are at:​160 tabs in proper tunings with full playing notes - or if you find something that is not clear you can actually email the author and ask him - er - Me! Added to the 40 free tabs in my free ebook that makes 200 tabs of more than 130 tunes, for a very thrifty price.

There's More:Once you subscribe to The Tabonanza you are in for life - my life. As I add tabs to the collection you will receive them in your email. I'm hoping to reach over 300 tabs before I shuffle of this mortal coil. Posted -: 07:52:47Sometime OWC I hope you simplify RSBanjo with PDFs so we non-techies can use it.

I for one if I could use your site I would be inclined to donate but so far I find the table-edit (whatever it is) totally unusable on my Mac. I'm pretty dumb/ignorant when it comes to computers, never been able to figure out how to post sound files. The real problem is that I do not know HOW to fix my ignorance, there appears to be no tutorial on either tabledit or how to post sound files on BHO. I wonder how many others are like me? If I am only part of 1% then you might as well ignore me. Don't know if there is a way to find out that question of percentage either.

I am not criticizing, just expressing my frustration. Best Wishes to all, Banjered. Posted -: 08:18:04You don't need tabledit to use my tabs: You don't need any paid software at all.All of RSB is in a PDF file that you download - That includes all the tabs. It should be viewable on your Mac with Adobe Reader or any other PDF reader.Now, in order to use the tabs with your computer playing the tunes for you, you have to have TEFView - which is a free program for reading every tabledit tab anyone publishes -I believe about half of the tabs published on this site are in TEF format.

And Yes, there is in fact a version of TEFView for the MAC. TEFView also allows you to print out the tabs - it does a beautiful job. I did a few from my Mac before its stroke.There is no PDF of the Big Tabonanza tabs, as it is a pure tab project - with TEFView (which is necessary to use the tabs - but free from the tabledit website) users can print out what they want and put them in 3 ring binders and listen to them on their computer - PC or Mac - I think there is an iPad, or iPhone app too. SO get thee to the tabledit website:Go to the Mac downloads and get TEFView for the Mac. I don't know if it works on older Macs, but it works on the recent (Intel chipped?) versions.Please remember that RSB is essentially a Lemonade Stand business. I'm one man, doing what I can.

I don't really plan on much more than I do now, except add video material, and tabs, as I don't really expect the project to even pay for itself.Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 08:22:36. Posted -: 20:29:50I don't tab any music that might be ASCAP or BMI. I don't even tab out Gerry Harrison tunes despite him once telling me he wouldn't mind at all. I'm leery of being sued by some heir.Even with written permission - which I had for the written tunes and banjo arrangements of trad tunes in my first tune book from 1981 Ten Cents A Dance - The String Band Fake Book, I had to talk one rather drunk banjo player out of suing me over an arrangement he had given me written permission to publish. Later, once he sobered up, and he realized what a rinky dink production the book was, he relented - but I had learned that friendship can be a very fragile thing when some people smell the possibility of money being made, only not by them.You might try the tab request forum here.

There are probably some guys who are willing to do it.Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 20:37:55. Posted -: 19:38:20In Canada our penny has become obsolete and it is being phased out as worthless. That will give you an idea of what my 2 cents worth is actually worth but here it is anyways.When you are looking for a songbook/tunebook/tab book there are a few things you might want to consider.

First thing is who wrote the book? And do you like the author's style of play? If you think the guy who wrote the book over ornaments his tunes or they lack drive you probably wont be real happy with his tabs which will all reflect his style. If you wanna play like Grandpa Jones you wont be happy with a tab book written by a guy who plays a melodic style. Next is difficulty level of the tabs.

When you buy the book you will want to find tabs that are appropriate to your level of play. When I see a book described as covering the full spectrum from beginner to professional it tells me that about half of what Im paying for will not be appropriate to my skill level and that will be true no matter what your skill level. The cost of ebooks can be a bit deceptive.

First thing you will want to do is print it so take a look at how many pages you can print from one inkjet cartridge (or whatever your printer uses) and you can calculate your cost of ink to print the book. Often this printing cost is significant.I am still working mostly from internet available free tabs so I cant really speak much about the books that are available. I am the proud owner of the Burke book. Man they are tough tabs - way over my head. I am the proud owner of Art of the Mountain Banjo. 84 pages of tabs of which 44 pages are clawhammer tabs and historical descriptions of those tunes so somewhere in the order of 28 clawhammer tunes. Many of the tabs are fairly advanced. Merge dragons forum.

Quite an interesting book from a historical perspective but the up picking and 3 finger tabs were not of much interest to me. I tried to buy the Muller book but I was told it was out of print and the internet book store refunded my money. If the Krassen book interests you then you might visit the BHO homepage of blanham who has actually played and recorded most of not all of the tabs in that book so you can listen to what they should sound like. Some folks say these tabs are fairly advanced.

Actually you should go to blanham's homepage and listen to the tunes he has posted even if the Krassen book is of no interest to you because you will hear some sweet banjo. Oldwoodchuck could likely sell 20,000 of his tab ebooks if he would record 20-30 of the tunes so folks could hear what they are buying (or if even someone else recorded some). Maybe he has already sold 20,000 and is already wildly wealthy. At least Tony has some free tabs that should give you a sense of his style. The biggest problem with all of these books is simply that you can not walk into a book store and lay hands on a copy for 10 minutes so you can evaluate whether or not the thing will actually be of use to you so you are essentially buying blind or you are relying on a wonderful review posted by the author's mom.

And every one of the available tune books gets wonderful reviews from the folks who found it useful and they get silence from the folks who were seriously disappointed by the book. Interestingly if you work at it a bit you should be able to fairly easily accumulate in the order of 1,000 free tabs from the internet. That is more than enough to keep me busy for a couple of lifetimes. Posted -: 10:52:38Snowbird,A belated answer to your question about recording my tabs.Since they are all written with tabledit, you can listen directly to the tabs with your computer. You do need TEFView to do so, but it is free. You can even slow down the tabs to play along as you are learning them.

You can also highlight sections to play over and over, until you smooth out rough spots. You can even use them to provide a reference point while you make up your own version. I have people tell me they learn the tunes without actually reading the tabs - they just check the tuning, match it (all the tabs are at concert pitch and tunes are in the most common keys for string band playing), then play along until you have it. Posted -: 05:46:19'How to Play the 5 String Banjo' by Pete Seeger is not only historical, it is actually a good teaching and reference book for several skill levels.' Round Peak Style Banjo' by Brad Leftwich is also a cool history and really detailed tune notes.'

Wade Ward Clawhammer Banjo Master', by Bob Arlin and Dan Levenson. The last two have CDs with stripped down playing of the tunes so you can read along with tabs and figure out what they mean.Although I bought them mostly for the history I have managed to learn tunes from each of those books so they must be pretty good. Posted -: 17:29:40I learned most of my clawhammer technique by playing through Miles Krassen's Clawhammer Banjo-drop thumb, alternate string pull offs, double thumb, etc.

Ken Perlman's Clawhammer Style Banjo method includes some advanced arrangements by various pickers. I don't typically play in the melodic style, but I learned a great deal from studying it. Both of these are great for learning, but also jamming or performing.If you subscribe to the Banjo Newsletter, perhaps you could create a binder of the old time stuff included in each issue. Most of the old time material is clawhammer.