In this online workshop, national Old-time Banjo Champion and former ETSU Bluegrass, Old-time, and Country Music faculty member Joseph DeCosimo will introduce the basics of two-finger up picking styles.
Traditional banjo players around North Carolina’s Piedmont have developed brilliant two finger up-picking styles. In this online workshop, DeCosimo will introduce the basics of two-finger up picking styles. No experience with two finger styles of playing is necessary. Participants will gain a basic sense of two finger techniques for further exploration.
Raised in the rich traditional music community around Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, DeCosimo is a leading performer of old-time fiddle and banjo music. Joseph is a traditional musician and folklorist with a deep respect and love for the older sounds of his home state, Appalachia, and the broader American South. His old-time fiddling and banjo playing have introduced listeners around the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia to the richness and vibrancy of the region’s musical traditions. Based in Durham, North Carolina, he currently performs old-time fiddle, banjo, and songs anywhere people are willing to listen. A skilled teacher, he has taught a number of workshops, festivals, and even in a traditional music program at a university. Besides performing the music, he researches and writes about it: He holds a PhD in American Studies and an M.A. in Folklore.
You can find information about taking lessons from Joseph and other NC music instructors in PineCone’s Find A Teacher Directory.