How to Play Clawhammer - Jewish Banjo

Tuning and Capos to Play Clawhammer Jewish Banjo in Groups

How to play Jewish clawhammer. Original artwork by Jack Fogel.

To play clawhammer for Jewish music, you’ll need an appropriate tuning for the banjo. We play most Jewish music in a minor key. I usually tune my banjo to the standard minor tuning of GDGCD, or with an open chord of G-Minor. Traditional American folk uses the standard Western minor scales. However, many Jewish melodies use the so-called Jewish Scales or Freygish Scale, with the most typical scale using a diminished 2nd and raised 3rd. So don’t be surprised by notation with incidentals, or if you’re playing on the 1st and 4th frets.

If you’re playing in a group, with multiple fast changes of keys, you’ll need to use a capo solution to keep up.

5th String Capo

A normal capo attaches across the 1st through 4th strings. To change the key of the 5th or drone string, you should have a capo solution for this string as well. There are many ideas about devices to do this, all with some drawbacks. I personally use the track nail solution. The nails are very small and almost unnoticeable from a distance. I found I needed to add a 5th string capo from the 5th through 10th fret, as well as the 12th fret. With this setup, I can reach all of the keys we typically play in Jewish music.

Common Keys and Tunings

Below are common keys for GDGCD tuning, including the capo locations:

Am: Capo on 2nd fret (5th string on 7th fret)
Bm: Capo on 4th fret (5th string on 9th fret)
Cm: Capo on 5th fret (5th string on 10th fret)
Dm: Capo on 7th fret (5th string on 12th fret)

Playing on the 7th fret sounds marginally acceptable on banjo. Playing in Em on the 9th fret is really out of the question, since it sounds like you’re choking the instrument. For these keys, I often will drop the capo down 5 frets and play the notes in the higher part of the register. For example, if the key of the song is Dm, I’ll place the capo on the 2nd fret. If the key is in Em, I’ll place the capo on the 4th fret. It means the underlying open chord is tuned to the 5th chord of the song’s key. However, playing the 5th rather than 1st chord usually sounds fine as well. You can find an example of this on the Songs page, where I present two versions of Yedid Nefesh, one played on the 7th fret and one on the 2nd fret.

Switching from Minor to Major

Although we play most Jewish music in minor keys, there are a few songs in a major key. The standard banjo tuning of GDGBD is the difference of just one half step on the 2nd string. Unfortunately, changing the tuning of just one string changes the tension on the bridge and all of the strings generally need to be retuned. This is not very easy to do in the middle of a service, with rapid changes of songs.

Minor to Major Capo

To solve this issue, I developed a special capo with a gap for the 2nd string. To create this capo, place a standard capo on a fret and then mark the location of the 2nd string. Remove the capo and cut a gap with a sharp knife, leaving space on both sides of where the string would be.

You can place this capo on the fret you would normally for that key, then place a second capo on the fret behind. You should place the gapped capo close to the middle of the fret. This gives a little space so that you can place your index finger on this fret to play the 1st fret of the 2nd string. Sometimes the strings buzz a little, so you should make sure the capo is placed tightly. The solution is not ideal, but it works well enough to keep up with the flow of the songs in a service.

Major to minor capo, with gap cut out of the pad where the 2nd string will remain open. — *Minor to Major capo, with gap cut out of the pad where the 2nd string will remain open.*

Major to minor capo on 2nd fret, with gap on 2nd string. The regular capo on fret behind. The resulting chord is A-maj. — *Minor to major capo on 2nd fret, placed in the middle of the fret, leaving a little space to place a finger between. The regular capo on the fret behind. The resulting chord shown here is A-maj.*

Clawhammer Style

The Basics of Playing Clawhammer

When you play clawhammer, the basic rhythm is bum-biddy, bum-biddy. Since you’re playing with your fingernails, they’ll need to be longer than normal. The clawhammer motion is all in the wrist, while keeping the arm steady.

To play the bum, you strike the melody string with the back of the fingernail of the ring or index finger. You move your hand up and down with a straight wrist, like striking the head of the drum.

To play the biddy of clawhammer, bend your wrist up towards your body then back down across the strings with a brush of all the strings. This is the bid of biddy. As you come down, you’ll catch the fifth string with your thumb, then lift your hand up, pulling the 5th string. This is the dy of biddy. Now your hand is in position to strike the next melody note to start again.

You can also embellish the basic rhythm with a so-called drop thumb. However, if you can master the bum-biddy, then you can play clawhammer well enough for most Jewish songs.

Yismechu Hashamayim banjo tab close-up to play clawhammer — *Yismechu Hashamayim banjo tab close-up*

Adapting Musical Notation into Tabs to Play Clawhammer

I played for years just based on ear. But playing in groups usually requires a little more coordination. I also found with a wide repertoire, it was necessary to refer to something written during a service. However, playing with a capo makes it fairly difficult to play from standard music notation. If you have sheet music for songs you’d like to play, it’s straightforward to develop tabs for banjo. I use MuseScore which makes this process quite easy.

Making Banjo Tabs from Musical Notation for Jewish Melodies

Starting from the original score, you can create a new banjo tab stave. You should edit the strings, so that they are in the tuning where the capo is. In the above example, you place the capo on the second fret using the GDGCD base tuning. Within the stave settings, you should edit the strings in your score to AEADE. In MuseScore, if you copy the notes from the original score into this stave, it gives you a suggestion of which tabs to play. I usually go through this and adjust to fingering that makes the most sense to play. When I play clawhammer in our group, this is all I need to play from. In this version, the full clawhammer rhythm is not depicted. However, once you understand how the rhythm corresponds to each note duration, the full rhythm becomes too distracting.

Play Clawhammer in 4/4 Time

One of the nice benefits of clawhammer is that you can keep solid, consistent time by constantly moving your clawhammer arm. One measure of 4/4 time is the same duration as 4 bum-biddys as described above. In other words, each bum-biddy is equivalent to a quarter note from the original score.

4/4 Note Duration and Corresponding Clawhammer Rhythm

Here is an overview of how to integrate the clawhammer rhythm according to note duration. These durations also apply to 3/4 in a faster tempo. Examples of 3/4 that use this tempo are Eliyahu Hanavi and High Holiday Yigdal.

Note	Duration	Symbol	Clawhammer Rhythm
Eighth	1/8		One bum, or a single downward stroke of the note with the back of the fingernail
Quarter	1/4		One bum-biddy, or strike the note once with the back of the fingernail, then follow it by a clawhammer brush and pull
Three-eighth	3/8		One bum-biddy-biddy, or strike the note once with the back of the fingernail, then followed by two clawhammer brush and pulls
Half	2/4		Two bum-biddys
Three-quarter	3/4		Three bum-biddys
Whole	4/4		Four bum-biddys
Sixteenth	1/16		This is a bit tricky in clawhammer. You can usually accomplish this with an embellishment like a hammer, pull-off, slide or dropped thumb. It’s also possible to simplify to an eighth note.

The image below depicts a close-up of two bars of Yismechu Hashamayim in 4/4 time, showing most note durations. The first stave is the score in standard notation. The second stave shows the same note durations in tab notation. The third stave shows the full clawhammer rhythm including the corresponding clawhammer bum-biddys written as a lyric.

A close-up of two bars of Yismechu Hashamayim in 4/4 time, showing most note durations to play clawhammer. The first stave is score in standard notation. The second stave shows the same note durations in tab notation. The third stave shows the full clawhammer rhythm including the correspondence to the clawhammer 'bum-biddys'.

Play Clawhammer in 3/4 Time

The main difference between clawhammer in 3/4 and clawhammer in 4/4 is that the core rhythm is bum-biddy-biddy, bum-biddy-biddy instead of the bum-biddy, bum-biddy. In other words, a single downward stroke with the fingernail is followed by two clawhammer brush and pulls. Depending on the tempo of the song, the note durations are played the same as with 4/4 in the table above.

3/4 Time Note Duration and Corresponding Rhythm (Slow Tempo)

Here is an overview of how to integrate the clawhammer rhythm into the various note durations played at the slower tempo. Yedid Nefesh and Hinei Mahtov are examples of songs played at this tempo. The note durations and corresponding rhythm of clawhammer are played slower accordingly.

Note	Duration	Symbol	Clawhammer Rhythm
Quarter	1/4		One bum, or a single downward stroke of the note with the back of the fingernail
Half	2/4		One bum-biddy, or strike the note once with the back of the fingernail, then followed by a clawhammer brush and pull
Three-quarter	3/4		One bum-biddy-biddy, or strike the note once with the back of the fingernail, then followed by two clawhammer brush and pulls
Eighth	1/16		Like sixteenth notes in 4/4, this is a bit tricky in clawhammer. You can usually accomplish this with an embellishment like a hammer, pull-off, slide or dropped thumb. See example below

In the following example, the first four bars of Yedid Nefesh are shown, with the original score in the first stave, the simplified banjo tab with the same note duration on the second stave and the full clawhammer rhythm on the third stave, also depicting the bum-biddy rhythm.

First four bars of Yedid Nefesh to play clawhammer, with the original score in standard notation, tab notation and clawhammer notation

In this example from the Nigun of Yedid Nefesh, the clawhammer tab notation depicts how to accomplish eighth notes in 3/4 time using hammer (H) and slide (S) embellishments. This technique also works for sixteenth notes in 4/4.

Four bars of the Nigun from Yedid Nefesh, showing how to accomplish eighth notes to play clawhammer in 3/4 time with hammer (H) and slide (S) embellishments

Sample Videos

Here are few sample videos demonstrating how to play clawhammer. The tab notation of what I’m playing is linked in the caption. I have the banjo tuned to GDGCD, with the capo on the 4th fret, so the underlying open chord is Bm.