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I wish I could make these sorts of noises on a banjo. :D

Great performance and unique

That is one beautiful banjo, sounds great too!

I can’t describe how much I am overcome by a sense of peace every time I listen to your classical banjo work especially this new stuff. I very much need it right now. Thank you for your gift.

Beautiful sound and look, reminds me of my Huber Lexington. Also, trying out a goatee?

Anything a harpsichord can do, a Banjo can do better. Just a humble opinion.

Greetings from Limerick city Ireland John enjoy your beautiful new Banjo it sounds fantastic

Never thought I would hear Bach on a Banjo. Somehow it works really well. I can imagine a small old music band with a Banjo

Sounds so good! And beautifully played. Genuinely curious how much of that sound comes from the space you're in and the mic? Of course you obviously have a store full of all banjo models to compare against :)

Nice! - I want one.

Nice banjo. Greetings from Arnbak Banjos. Denmark.

Neat

Playing in a band is overrated!

The most helpful banjo for me ever

I grew up in Appalacia and play the Banjo myself. I can play scruggs style. I was curious about possibly joining an orchestra in my town, but I wasn't sure about learning about classical music but want to a lot.

John you play beautifully....Jack Baker NYC/NJ

Keep at it, John; beautiful music.. May I suggest, as far as classical banjo is concerned, that you have a listen to the one and only Jens Kruger, who not only plays classical music on the banjo, but composes it as well. IMHO, there is no one else who plays this instrument who seems to channel a direct connection with the Divine.

I have played the banjo for forty years and have only used tab you have inspired my to learn standard notation. Thanks for your videos

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you.

As good a lesson as I could want. Bravo. I'll keep you posted.

Beautiful is that a Gibson mastertone you playing

Lovely very well played

I agree i am 76 and started playing guitar at 14 and had to learn to read music as there was not much tab around I started playing banjo in my late 20s after hearing Earl play foggy mountain break down on the bonnie and Clyde movie I now play mandolin,mandola,irish tenor banjo and tenor guitar And play all types of music Bluegrass classical Jazz and irish type fiddle tunes And basically anything that I can play

The world needs more classical banjo. I'm learning Bach: Cantata BWV 147 flat picking style. There are elements that remind me so much of the joy in Irish jigs. I'm approaching the piece just from the pure lead melody and not worried about the banjosims.

Great lesson! Thank you!

Hi John. Thanks for sharing this. Great study. I'm curious about your fingerpicks. Who makes them?

Solid work

Just fantastic... I love these lessons. My spare time is now spoken for.

Nice, John--are you using steel strings or nylon?

This is very cool John. Thank you for sharing. I’ve never (consciously) played those inside roll variations on the 4-note roll. Just made it through the 12 keys three times (a little out of time, but it’s making sense). This is a great arpeggio study that I’m going to tack on to my routine :)

Do you play any tenor banjo as well. I find it lends itself so beautifully to the Bach Cello Suites which I love to play in 4ths and 5ths tuning on double bass, bass guitar and tenor banjo. After majoring on clarinet in university I switch many years later to string instruments and a long career playing jazz and classical, but I try to end my day with Bach to take to a place where no other composer takes me. Thanks for your work here.

The first thing I point out to students who come from an instrument like the piano is that you can play a note in a given octave on only one key on the piano whereas you may be able to play that same note on 3 or 4 strings on the banjo, based on where the string is fretted. This is where tablature comes in. But as pointed out in the video, "tab can't teach tone." It is a set of mechanical instructions.

Thank you for your work promoting music literacy and classical genres on the banjo!

I'm grabbing my copy of the Bradbury book (which has been sitting on the shelf for years untouched) and getting to work. Thanks!

I'm a big fan of Frank Bradbury and am glad to see you recommending his 1967 book. His earlier book (which I have scanned and made available on the Internet Archive) goes into more detail on chord structure and harmony. Hidden in this book is Bradbury's bag of tricks or "licks" that he used in his arrangements. For those who have not heard him play, search his name on TH-cam as there are some recordings posted. Most of the pieces/exercises in the book were directly ripped off from classic era source material. I am finalizing an article where I detail where he got most of the pieces including their original publications (a few I have not been able to locate or connect to anything). One other detail to mention, the vast majority of the classic banjo repertoire is in Public Domain where as zero bluegrass pieces are in public domain. So it is fair game to record, perform, or use to create new works from, were bluegrass carries with it legality and copyright issues. While it might be a little advanced, a warning about A notation vs C notation might be in order. This has/will cause no end of confusion to people new to the banjo and some period accounts actually attributed the A/C situation to being a large factor in the banjo falling out of popularity for pick played variants.

John, nice job! solid instruction.

Thank you for posting this. While I have not had any formal training, I have been finding that I find fulfillment in playing solo pieces… as opposed to playing in a bluegrass jam. I thought I was alone in this until I rewatched this video… I find that writing and playing a complete solo work is similar to writing a short story. There is an intricate web which attaches the intro to the body and closures. I have even had the pleasure of composing my own pieces (Check me out on TH-cam) which are complete solo works. As I progress technically, I hope to further expand these types of pieces. Thank you for what you present to the world.

John, in Frank’s book, Bare fingers or finger picks? Thanks, Doc

I've used violin and flute books. I'd be curious as to what some of these oboe works sound like on the banjo.

Great video John. Please keep making more videos like this

I totally agree!

John, these videos are fantastic! They are a godsend for those of us trying to dabble in classical music. Keep ‘em coming!!!

Very helpful! Thank you!

Great topic! I'm going through the Frank Bradbury book right now, and it's great. A lot of information, and some great tunes in there. Aaron Jonah Lewis also has a few videos here on YT where he goes through the beginning of the book.

Thanks John, I did the same with mandolin - I love the idea of a truly solo (self contained) instrument. Thanks for sharing 👏👏👏👏👏🙏🏿

Tx you M.Bullard for showing this to us. Always amazing perfection playing.

Great job John. I’ve learned part of it.

Best version of this piece. Simply Wow effect.

Aaaahhh screw it, I bought the book after I saw the PDF sample in your description. I’m a piano player diving into banjo so this kind of practice speaks to me. I don’t plan on playing classical, but I’d like to be able to noodle in every key along to my own recordings, or other musicians. Excited to check it out, thanks for the video.