- 1). Hold the banjo with one hand on the neck and the other over the rounded base of the instrument. With the right hand, curl the fingers as though they were gripping a round object.
- 2). Strike the first string (the highest-pitched string) with the nail of your middle finger. Strike the string with a full downward motion involving your wrist, rather than using just the finger. After striking, let your thumb rest on the lowest-pitched string.
- 3). Lift your right hand and brush the first, second and third strings with your fingernails of the middle and ring fingers. Then strike the lowest string with your thumb.
- 4). Repeat Steps 2 and 3. Clawhammer banjo players refer to this as the "bum-ditty-bum" rhythm--the most definitive rhythm in the clawhammer style.
- 5). Pick the strings with the fingers of the left hand, on the upper part of the bridge of the banjo. This is a more advanced technique, but is similar to a "pull-off" guitar technique. The pull-off is generally played on the second half of the beat and results in a "bum-pa-ditty" rhythm.
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