Product Description

This book presents more than 70 tunes in the unique highly developed clawhammer style known as "Round Peak" -named after the Blue Ridge Mountain, North Carolina community where it originated. While not intended for the absolute beginner, this book will benefit players at various experience levels. Tunes in the book are organized according to the specific banjo tuning used, with A and D tunings most prominent. Much of the book's commentary and the included CD recording is directed towards the fretless variant of the 5-string banjo but as these tunes are written in standard 5-string banjo tablature, they can most definitely be played on the more common fretted instrument. Includes tune lyrics and extensive historical and biographical notes plus technical tips and a discography. Written in 5-string banjo tablature only.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #317079 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-01
• Released on: 1999-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

Customer Reviews

Treasure of Old Time Songs
This round peak style book is fantastic in that is has all the old time songs I have ever wanted to learn. It is not for the beginner though. The tab notation is a bit hard to figure out but it is possible.

A must if you want to learn the Round Peak Sound
A great addition to my collection of banjo how to books. Brad Leftwich has this sound down pat. I find the tabs easy to use, provided you read the how to part, and with the accompanying CD the banjo player can hear each tune played the way it is supposed to be played. I especially enjoyed the short stories about the history of each tune.

Hrmm...
This book comes highly recommended by Round Peak style experts, and does a fair job at walking you through the mechanics of Round Peak style, but frankly, most of the songs included on the accompanying CD sound like variations upon a few themes rather than distinct songs.

As I was going through the CD, I was struck at how many of the songs sounded the same. By the last track, I was extremely disappointed. It's a bit deeper than just surface-level similarities - in my opinion, this book covers about 5 "themes", expanded into about 30 "songs". In fact, you could probably learn the 5 themes and just improvise around the themes to get the same net effect.

If you are looking to learn a banjo playing style AND some memorable songs, this might not be your best bet - this book doesn't quite deliver.