Clawhammer Style Banjo: A Complete Guide For Beginning and Advanced Banjo Players, Vol. 1 & 2

This is a great dvd, but be aware that it is not a stand-alone product. Instead, Ken Perlman wrote a book on which the dvd is based with the same title ("Clawhammer Style Banjo"). The book is also available on Amazon. What the dvd provides is a video demonstration of each and every song and exercise in the book, plus some expanded explanations for how to hold the banjo, position the fingers, play a tricky part of individual songs, etc. It would be hard to learn the songs only from the DVD because you would need the tablature in the book that shows where to position the fingers. Used with the book, however, it is like having a huge number of lessons from a top instructor for a comparatively very cheap price. The video is about 4 hours with a large portion of that consisting of the actual exercises and songs as opposed to fluffly background talk. In other words, it is chock full of content. I have purchased a number of clawhammer banjo books at this point. This little "intro" goes far beyond most of them in terms of taking you from simple clawhammer "bum ditty" strums to complex melodic runs and positions up the neck that are important for improvisation. Follow this with Perlman's "everything you wanted to know about clawhammer" book as an encyclopaedic follow-up and it is quite a large amount of useful material. Highly recommended.

Quite a book. I recommend, like I am sure others do, that you get the 2 DVD set which SHOWS you what the words in the book can sometimes only hope to explain. My strategy with learning clawhammer was to buy a few different books and pick and choose, since any given long-winded and wordy explanation for some technique is not necessarily understood by all. Also,the more ways you can think about something, the better you can show it to someone else, and thus the stronger your own awareness of the knowledge is. I play guitar and piano and more, yet I think particularly with clawhammer, you have to "manhandle" the instrument by slapping your hands all over it, and when you discover sounds that you like, you remember how to approach them, and you just have to practice to repeat them with consistency. After all, the first banjar player had to teach himself!

After many years of guitar playing, and a few months of trying to learn bluegrass style banjo, I decided to try to learn clawhammer banjo. I bought Ken Perlman's book and DVD, and started learning. His method of teaching is pretty easy to understand, however, I am not a good source of info for this because of my background of knowing how to play the guitar, and previous banjo playing. I advanced quite quickly in the DVD/book, I think due to that fact. I know that you should buy the book too, if you buy the DVD. The DVD alone is not enough to get the whole picture of what Ken is teaching you. The DVD starts off with quite simple material, then advances slowly to intermediate for a while, then quickly goes into quite advanced clawhammer techniques. I was in the midst of the intermediate stage when I found a local teacher. He was impressed with what I had learned so far, and said my technique was good. So I guess I owe it to Ken Perlman for that!

I was working my way through the book for several months before ordering the DVDs. It took me a while to figure out the DVD structure, because the "chapters" on the DVD include multiple book chapters. Still, it seems like everything's there. It's good to hear the songs played at normal speed, and he also plays at a slower speed so you can (try to) play along. He also plays the exercises from the book so you can play along with those. A lot of the songs in the book were unfamiliar to me, and often the versions I found on YouTube weren't helpful, so having them all on this DVD set is great. The cameras show both hands in a sort of split screen effect when he's playing or demonstrating. It's obviously an old recording from the days of videotape. The video's nothing fancy, but it works.

Great book! Make sure that you also purchase the CDs by Ken Perlman that are designed to augment the lessons in this book. Even though I have a banjo instructor, the CDs enhance my development immensely. While the videos are primitive, they are a necessary learning tool so that you do not fall into any bad habits in between lessons. I also recommend becoming familiar with other instructional clawhammer books. Multiple methods and ideas are also essential especially if this is the first string instrument that you are learning to play as it has been for me. But of course, if you are not a total newbie, perhaps the book will suffice.

This dvd is as good as you are! If you are willing to put in the effort the lessons will turn you into a pro level picker. No fooling around just great info and demonstrtions.

The production values on this DVD make amateur porn look like Citizen Kane, but Ken Perlman is an outstanding player and excellent teacher. Anyone trying to sort out the mysteries of clawhammer banjo technique could do a lot worse.

Great book that gets you learning songs right after it teachea you proper right and left hand technique

Great for beginners really loved this

this is excellent a must for anyone who wants to learn claw hammer banjo easy to follow clear and precise instructions

They don't get any better than Ken Perlman. That he can explain clawhammer banjo for the beginner, intermediate and experienced player underlines his greatness.

Great video shame about pic quality goes well with book , learning fast

Love this.