I teach traditional 5-string banjo playing styles, including clawhammer (aka frailing) and two & three finger picking.
Pricing: $30. for a half hour lesson
All lessons are currently taught at South Austin Music in Austin, TX. I can also teach online via Zoom.
Lessons regularly scheduled Fridays or Sundays,
All levels welcome, beginner to advanced.
Email for scheduling or other questions - jwhagins@sbcglobal.net
Playing Cripple Creek in Mr. Griffith's shop, Arlington, TX 1975.
About me I got a cheap Ariana banjo when I was 17 and took music lessons from Orel Griffith in Arlington, TX. Mr. Griffith played a simple, unique folk style based on Maybelle Carter’s guitar lick. I picked up basic frailing from watching Stringbean and Grandpa Jones on Hee Haw. One day, watching a PBS documentary about the national folk festival at Wolf Trap, I saw a clip of the Highwoods String Band and got a good glimpse of Mac Benford’s driving clawhammer style. Then in the same program I saw Fred Cockerham and Kyle Creed playing Soldiers Joy and I was seriously hooked on clawhammer banjo.
Over the years I picked up basic bluegrass licks and two & three finger picking styles, as well as some fiddle and guitar. I enjoy all kinds of music, and have played in an assortment of oldtime, bluegrass, early country, and square dance bands. I’ve performed with the Alaska fiddling poet Ken Waldman; the “almost country” band Axe Hammer Saw (with Billy Eli); guitarist Tim Kerr in Up Around the Sun; and in stage bands for Austin productions of Dark of the Moon, Last Train to Nibroc, and A Lie of the Mind.
A lot of my learning comes from playing with friends at music festivals. I regularly attend fiddlers conventions at Mt. Airy and Happy Valley (NC), the oldtime music festival at Clifftop, WV, and the Austin String Band Festival every fall. Maybe I’ll see you there!