How well do you know Scruggs?

I recently attended Peter Wernick’s Advanced Banjo Camp in Boulder, Colorado, where I learned many things regarding picking the banjo, including how to have a certain touch and feel when I play. Peter passed on some advice to me that now seems obvious and like a “DUH” moment, and yet at the same time it wasn’t obvious and I just needed someone to illustrate it for me. I left the camp quite excited to begin making a difference in my playing.


One of the really impressive things about Peter Wernick, at least to me, is his intense respect for Earl Scruggs. That respect led him to a life-long study of the man’s music and technique. Thanks to gaining some national prominence as a banjo player, Peter received the honor of becoming a personal friend of Earl Scruggs and he earned inside access to the man.

When Peter plays, you definitely detect his own style shining through, and yet he pays homage to the master at the same time. Peter uses Earl’s principles and techniques, and then builds on them, adding color and flavor to his picking. It’s neat watching Peter demonstrate licks and techniques because you can detect an undercurrent of excitement and awe for what Earl Scruggs developed so many years before him. Peter is a loving fan of Earl, and by association he has instilled a new excitement for Earl Scruggs in me.

Among the many things I learned at the camp, one of the biggest things is to come back to the master. Even though I know who created the banjo technique that I use when I play, I can’t say that I know enough about that master. Peter helped instill in me a new respect for Earl Scruggs and a renewed interest in finding out just how Earl did it. Some of the neatest moments of the camp involved Peter showing us exactly how Earl pulled off a couple of key licks. I had previously sounded out and come up with a way to play these same licks, yet I (and many many other banjo pickers) have often wondered just how Earl did this or that lick. I now know how Earl did a few of his signature moves, and I’ll be working out many more of them.

Banjo players, it’s important to return to your roots and become intimately familiar with them

Of course, there were some other banjo pioneers besides Earl, and each one added their own flavor or picking style to the mix. Don Reno, Ralph Stanley, Bobby Thompson, and Bill Keith come to mind, to name just four. None of these picker’s styles excite me quite like Scruggs-style 3-finger banjo, but maybe they appeal to you.

Click me! Click me!

I think that even if you are a modern-day, contemporary, slick banjo player, it is essential that you return to your roots and study the masters of your style. Maybe you are a Jimmy Mills fan or a Sammy Shelor fan or a Jens Krueger fan or a Bela Fleck fan. There are hundreds of hot banjo players that we can name, but no matter whom your influences are today, you can almost guarantee that these pickers have an irreverent respect for, and knowledge of, the masters of their style. This is an important fact that is not to be overlooked if you want to be all you can be as a banjo player.

I’m looking forward to beginning a deeper study of Earl Scruggs and his techniques. I’ll engage in that study through listening to his songs more closely and by gathering up all the footage that I can find of his performances. Along the way I’ll also be studying pickers like J.D. Crowe and Jimmy Mills (and others) to see just how these modern-day pickers pay tribute to the master while adding their own influences. I’m looking forward to it making me a better picker.


I’ll leave you with a last “catch phrase”, if you will, that I’ll be expanding on in other blog posts. Peter had this phrase hanging on the wall, and it’s a good one that can guide you while you play. As you try to figure out if you’ve “got it” when learning this or that along the road to banjo stardom, just ask yourself this question about any lick or phrase or technique that you do on the banjo:

Would Earl settle for this?

Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
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