While there are many courses and tutorials online, learning from a book is still one of the best ways to greatly improve your skills. Below I have selected top Banjo books.
- Banjo Primer Book for Beginners Deluxe Edition with DVD and 2 Jam CDs (2015)
- Banjo For Dummies: Book + Online Video and Audio Instruction (2014)
- Hal Leonard Banjo Method – Book 1: For 5-String Banjo (1996)
- Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo: Revised and Enhanced Edition – Book with CD (2005)
- Easy Banjo Songbook for Beginners with Video & Audio Access (2018)
- You Can Teach Yourself Banjo (2017)
- 100 Banjo Lessons (Guitar Lesson Goldmine) (2019)
- Easy Banjo Solo Favorites (2012)
- Banjo (1970)
- Banjo Roots and Branches (Music in American Life) (2018)
- The Great American Banjo Songbook: 70 Songs (2017)
- Complete 5-String Banjo Method: Beginning Banjo, Book, DVD & Online Video/Audio (Complete Method) (2016)
Banjo Primer Book for Beginners Deluxe Edition with DVD and 2 Jam CDs (2015)
Banjo Primer Book for Beginners Deluxe Edition with DVD & 2 Jam CDs by Geoff Hohwald was written for the beginning student who wants to learn how to play Scruggs style 5 string bluegrass banjo technique. This course starts off with beginner basics like parts of the banjo, tuning, how to read tabs, and simple rolls. We’ll then move on to learn some easy to play song arrangements along with up the neck breaks to classic bluegrass songs.
Banjo For Dummies: Book + Online Video and Audio Instruction (2014)
Traditionally associated with country, folk, and bluegrass music, the banjo is accessible to anyone with the patience and willpower to learn it. This second edition of Banjo For Dummies does the rest of the work for you with updated practice lessons, teaching techniques, and step-by-step examples.
Hal Leonard Banjo Method – Book 1: For 5-String Banjo (1996)
(Banjo). Authored by Mac Robertson, Robbie Clement & Will Schmid, this innovative method teaches 5-string, bluegrass style banjo. Covers easy chord strums for the beginner; learning tablature; right-hand rolls characteristic of bluegrass; techniques such as hammer-on, slide and pull-off. This edition also includes 97 tracks of full-band demos covering every music example in the book.
Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo: Revised and Enhanced Edition – Book with CD (2005)
(Banjo). The best-selling banjo method in the world! Earl Scruggs’s legendary method has helped thousands of banjo players get their start. The “Revised and Enhanced Edition” features more songs, updated lessons, and many other improvements.
Easy Banjo Songbook for Beginners with Video & Audio Access (2018)
The Easy Banjo Songbook for Beginners with Video & Audio Access by Geoff Hohwald will teach you how to play beginner arrangements for ten classic bluegrass songs. This is a great follow-up to our Banjo Primer Deluxe Edition that will get you ready to show off your new skills at a jam session. Geoff will teach you how to play each song slowly with step by step instruction.
You Can Teach Yourself Banjo (2017)
This is the ideal beginner’s book, presenting the basics of the 5-string banjo in a way that is both fun and easy. Janet Davis takes you on an extensive tour of this instrument’s fundamental techniques, as well as some intermediate possibilities including rolls, chords, bluegrass banjo techniques, playing up the neck, licks, endings, and other basics needed to play bluegrass and melodic-style banjo.
100 Banjo Lessons (Guitar Lesson Goldmine) (2019)
(Banjo). Expand your banjo knowledge with the Lesson Goldmine series! Featuring 100 individual modules covering a giant array of topics, each lesson in this volume includes detailed instruction with playing examples presented in banjo tablature. You’ll also get extremely useful tips, chord and neck diagrams, photos and much more to reinforce your learning experience, plus access to over 500 audio tracks with performance demos of all the examples in the book!
Easy Banjo Solo Favorites (2012)
(Easy Guitar). Here are nearly 40 pop, rock and folk favorites all arranged for the banjo! Includes: Amazing Grace * Ballad of Jed Clampett * Blackberry Blossom * Cripple Creek * Danny’s Song * Duelin’ Banjos * Fire on the Mountain * Foggy Mountain Breakdown * Grandfather’s Clock * Scarborough Fair/Canticle * Take Me Home, Country Roads * Teach Your Children * This Land Is Your Land * and more.
Banjo (1970)
Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known on the 1920s Marseilles waterfront as “Banjo,” prowls the rough waterfront bistros with his drifter friends, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting, loving, and talking – about their homes in Africa, the West Indies, or the american South and about being black.
Banjo Roots and Branches (Music in American Life) (2018)
The story of the banjo’s journey from Africa to the western hemisphere blends music, history, and a union of cultures. In Banjo Roots and Branches, Robert B. Winans presents cutting-edge scholarship that covers the instrument’s West African origins and its adaptations and circulation in the Caribbean and United States.
The Great American Banjo Songbook: 70 Songs (2017)
(Banjo). Explore the repertoire of the “Great American Songbook” with this 70-song collection, masterfully arranged by Alan Munde and Beth Mead-Sullivan for 3-finger, Scruggs-style 5-string banjo. Rhythm tab, right hand fingerings and chord diagrams are included for each of these beloved melodies. Songs include: Ain’t She Sweet * Blue Skies * Cheek to Cheek * Home on the Range * Honeysuckle Rose * It Had to Be You * Little Rock Getaway * Over the Rainbow * Sweet Georgia Brown * and more.
Complete 5-String Banjo Method: Beginning Banjo, Book, DVD & Online Video/Audio (Complete Method) (2016)
Perfect for beginning banjoists as well as players who want to enhance their knowledge, Beginning Banjo teaches everything you need to know to get started—including chords, strumming, rolls, basic music theory, and reading tablature (TAB). Guitarists who want to expand their musical horizons will also find this to be the perfect introduction to banjo playing.
Best Banjo Books that Should be on Your Bookshelf
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some banjo books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History
Author(s): Kristina R. Gaddy
ID: 3418476, Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Year: 2022, Size: 26 Mb, Format: epub
A Grammar of Gurindji : As spoken by Violet Wadrill, Ronnie Wavehill, Dandy Danbayarri, Biddy Wavehill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal, Long Johnny Kijngayarri, Banjo Ryan, Pincher Nyurrmiari and Blanche Bulngari
Author(s): Felicity Meakins
ID: 3268434, Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton, Year: 2021, Size: 5 Mb, Format: pdf
The Earl Scruggs Banjo Songbook: Selected Banjo Tab Accurately Transcribed for Over 80 Tunes with Foreword by Jim Mills: Selected Banjo Tab Accurately Transcribed for Over 80 Tunes!
Author(s): Earl Scruggs
ID: 3442743, Publisher: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, Year: 2021, Size: 41 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are really chart-busters according to The Wall Street Journal, others are drafted by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.