How To Play the Banjo

When playing banjo, in order to begin improvising you need to create your own collection of banjo licks. Find out how to create your own collection of banjo licks here.

Some might argue that learning to play your arpeggios is more important than learning your scales. When improvising, the use of arpeggios can make your playing sound more melodic than playing a scale. That is because when a player simply runs a scale, it make their playing sound just like that, just a scale.

One of the best things you can do to learn the entire fingerboard of a banjo and begin playing all the way up the neck is to learn your chord inversions.

Earl Scruggs pioneered bluegrass banjo playing through his use of 3 finger roll patterns in his picking hand (his right hand). These roll patterns gave a consistent drive to the music Bill Monroe was playing and helped define the bluegrass sound. When learning how to play bluegrass banjo, mastering these roll patterns Earl Scruggs used is essential. 

A couple of the most important scales you should learn when playing the banjo is your major and minor pentatonic scales. Many tunes are based entirely off of these scales. Just playing the notes of these scales in various order will make your playing sound very melodic.

In this lesson I go over 3 basic strumming patterns to use when playing the tenor banjo, or any banjo, in the traditional jazz style.

Learn your 5 string banjo scales using the melodic style of banjo playing. These scales are in banjo tab and standard musical notation.