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Web Sites on the African Origin of Clawhammer Banjo

Links to web sites on the origin of the banjo

http://www.myspace.com/banjoroots

http://www.banjoroots.com/

http://www.myspace.com/banjoulf

http://www.myspace.com/akonting

http://www.shlomomusic.com/banjoancestors.htm

http://www.dhyatt.com/history.html

http://www.banjohistory.com/

http://www.oldtimeherald.org/archive/back_issues/volume-10/10-9/akonting.html


 Here are some video clips of African "banjo" playing using a technique that looks a lot like clawhammer

This video and explanation shows a pretty clear resemblance between clawhammer and the basic akonting right hand style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMXofL7mdX8

Hard to mistake the similarity between frailing and akonting playing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJpFX2AXG0

This video shows a guy playing akonting with the back of his middle finger in way similar to frailing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dwUhHnQYmE

Hard to tell what this guy is doing with his right hand, but it looks kind of like a clawhammer motion: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ChannelID=76763197

This site has links to a bunch of akonting video:
http://web.comhem.se/abzu/akonting/origin.html

This video shows an African akonting player noodling with an open-back banjo:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl31-NrK7tw

 

If you know of other similar links please contact me at enyepa[ AT]yahoo[ DOT]com (Replace [ AT] with @ and [ DOT] with .  I'm trying to avoid auto-spam.)

 

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