What is Jewish Clawhammer?

Jewish Clawhammer

Jewish Clawhammer is Jewish music using the clawhammer style for 5-string banjo. In clawhammer the musician strikes the strings instead of plucking them. The name originates from the shape of the hand, which looks like a claw and the beating of the strings like a hammer. Other players refer to the style also as frailing, rapping or knocking. In the basic style, the musician hits the fretted string with the back of the fingernail of the pointer or ring finger, followed by a brush of all of the strings and finally a pull of the 5th or drone string with the thumb. The style therefore is more percussive and rhythmic than other styles of playing banjo. Playing clawhammer is more like playing a drum with strings, reaching the full potential of the banjo.

Clawhammer Origins

African slaves originally developed the banjo in the Caribbean, using a skin stretched over a gourd. Its origin can be traced to an instrument from West Africa called the Akonting. The Akonting has a long neck attached to a wooden drum. The 3rd string, akin to the 5th string of the banjo, is shorter than the other two strings.

The Jolo tribe in West Africa plays the Akonting to this day. These musicians play a style nearly identical to the clawhammer banjo (o’teck). In this style the musicians play the 1st and 2nd strings with the fingernail and the 3rd string by pulling up with the thumb.

Furthermore, clawhammer was exclusively played by African slaves until the instrument was banned except in minstrel shows, eventually no longer played in these communities. The instrument underwent a revival in the 20th century, where it was picked up by bluegrass and folk musicians of Appalachia, however in a plucking style derived from guitar playing.

The following articles explain this history in great detail. The videos of modern Akonting musicians are especially convincing, with the right hand immediately recognizable to any clawhammer musician.

African Origins of Clawhammer by Paul Race

African Roots of the Banjo – A Direct Connection Between African & African-American Music by Eli Smith

Why Clawhammer Lends Itself to Jewish Music

Clawhammer is highly versatile, dynamic and all-encompassing. In one instrument, you play harmony, rhythm and melody. It’s easy to apply clawhammer to any song in 4/4 or 3/4 with a solid rhythm, meaning any song most people can accompany in a religious service. It’s also easy enough to play so that the musician can also sing, just like a guitar.

Clawhammer is the sound of resistance, clawhammer is the sound of community

Yet the power of Jewish Clawhammer comes from its sound. With the twang of the banjo, tuned to a minor chord, played in the Jewish scales, the music is raw, a little Middle Eastern, a little apart from other Western music. And given its history, clawhammer is the sound of resistance, clawhammer is the sound of community: attributes to which all Jews can relate.