ACUTABTaught by John Lawless
First Position Backup For Bluegrass Banjo
2 Hour DVD Video + tab booklet
A step-by-step demonstration of the basic techniques and patterns used to play roll style bluegras banjo backup in the open, or first position. Contains material of interest to both beginners and more experienced players alike.
Starting with the most basic, first look at following a simple chord progression, AcuTab's John Lawless takes you through a detailed discussion and analysis of down the neck backup that encompasses most of the elements that define the bluegrass banjo style.
After learning some simple accompaniment patterns, John shows you how to create an effective backup using the forward roll to get the bluegrass sound . An essential part of the presentation is the concept of the escape roll , which allows you to maintain a forward roll over more than a single measure, and then escaping that pattern to lead into a new roll or chord.
Born
and raised in Norfolk, VA, John Lawless now lives in Roanoke where he manages
AcuTab Publications, a small business dedicated to producing high quality instructional
materials for bluegrass instruments.
His parents were great fans of 60s folk music, and even as a very young boy,
the banjo and American folk music held a clear attraction. It wasn't until his
high school years in the 70s, however - when country and bluegrass themes began
to seep into pop music - that he actually started playing and studying the banjo.
John performed with regional bands in eastern VA through the 70s and 80s before
a move to Roanoke put him right in the thick of its development as a bluegrass
boom town in the 90s.
AcuTab was born during this period, starting as a true "spare bedroom" endeavor
that has since grown to a staff of three and a reputation for publishing the
very finest transcriptions books and DVD instructional presentations in the bluegrass
field. Though AcuTab started by publishing tab books for banjo, they have since
moved into books, videos and DVDs for guitar, mandolin and dobro as well.
It wasn't simply a coincidence that John's own music also developed greatly during
this period, as his energies were devoted to a serious study of some of the top
banjoists in bluegrass for the sake of producing the AcuTab transcription books.
Popular modern players like Sammy Shelor, Terry Baucom and Scott Vestal, along
with recognized masters like JD Crowe, Alan Munde and Bill Emerson were among
the subjects of AcuTab books that John published. He not only transcribed the
solos from recordings, but also interviewed, discussed and proofed the transcriptions
with the players in the process. John is personally featured in two banjo video/DVD
releases from AcuTab and was "instrumental" in the production of Knee Deep In
Bluegrass, a CD featuring the many artists whose work has been the subject of
AcuTab books, and which was voted as the Instrumental Album Of The Year for 2001
by the International Bluegrass Music Association.
In recent years, as a full time staff at AcuTab has afforded more time to pursue
his music, John has been performing and recording more actively. He has been
a featured member of the Roanoke-based band Acoustic Endeavors since 2000, and
can be heard on their two critically-acclaimed, but narrowly-distributed CDs,
Coming Of Age... again and Sneak Preview. He is also featured on the currently
popular Team Flathead CD from Huber Banjos, and Acoustic Endeavors is hard at
work fi nishing two more CDs of original bluegrass and acoustic music.
John is featured in a cover story in the May 2004 issue of Banjo NewsLetter,
the premier publication for players and fans of the fi ve string banjo. It is
written by Bill Evans, a noted banjo player as well as historian and ethnomusicologist,
and includes a wide-ranging interview with John about his music and his success
both with AcuTab, and as the director of marketing for Huber Banjos. John and
AcuTab have been profi led in the past in both Bluegrass Unlimited and Bluegrass
Now magazines. With the release of Five & Dime, John is eager to share his own
banjo compositions, along with the superb playing of many of the subjects of
his AcuTab books and DVDs, with the rest of the bluegrass world.