Mary Z. Cox Clawhammer Banjo 101

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Program description: Claw Hammer Banjo 101.  Get a jumpstart on the banjo with beginning right and left hand techniques, exercises, and beginning tunes.  Please bring a 5 string banjo in good mechanical shape that is tuned in G (gDGBD).   Banjos are fun to play!

If you don’t own a banjo, the Earl Scruggs Center has a limited number of Deering student banjos available for use by participants for $10 each. ($5 for members)  They are available by reservation only based on availability.  Click the link to rent a banjo.

CLICK to REGISTER for Clawhammer Banjo 101

CLICK to RENT A BANJO for this workshop

About the Instructor: Mary Z. Cox

Banjoholic, Mary Z. Cox, third generation Floridian, has played banjo since she was 12, and is a two time Florida banjo champion.  Mary Z has been a recording artist since 1999, and records cds, plays concerts & festivals, gives workshops, and authors banjo & dulcimer instruction books.  Her music has been played on National Public Radio’s, “Thistle & Shamrock”, “All Songs Considered,” Pandora World Music Genome, & the BBC.  Mary’s version of the traditional song, “Sally In the Garden” will be in the soundtrack of an upcoming film in the Hunger Games series.

Tunes from “Girl With the Banjo Tattoo”, “A Secret Life Of Banjo”, & “Vintage Banjo” were selected to soundtrack an upcoming Canadian documentary on immigration.   Girl With the Banjo Tattoo, her most recent cd was selected as a “Best Banjo CD of 2011” by the editor of Banjo Newsletter. Mary has 7 cds and 7 instructional books in print and she is grateful and humbled that so many folks from all over the world order and download them and write to say how much they enjoy the music and the instruction.

 Mary has taught clawhammer banjo for over a decade at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina.

She has also taught banjo workshops at the Florida Folk Festival, the Lagniappe Dulcimer Fete, Suwannee Banjo Camp, Sunshine State Music Camp, Will McLean Festival, Florida Old Time Banjo Camp, and in Charlotte, NC, Charleston, SC, Albuquerque, NM, & Pasadena, CA.

She will be teaching both beginning & advanced clawhammer workshops at the Earl Scruggs Center on July 12, 2014.

 Mary is also a Florida mountain dulcimer champion, as well as a four-time champion (2011, 2009, 2007, & 2006) at the Transylvania (NC) Old Time Music Competition, and first place winner at the 2006 Uncle Dave Macon Days in Tennessee.

She has taught mountain dulcimer workshops at the Lagniappe dulcimer Fete, Suwannee Dulcimer Retreat, Fall NGFDA Festival at Unicoi, Florida Folk Festival, the Will McLean Festival and in Charlotte, NC & Charleston SC. Her dulcimer articles, tabs, & mp3s have been published in the Dulcimer Player News. “Easy String Band Method For the Mountain Dulcimer” (instructional book/cd) sells to dulcimer students worldwide and is available on Mary’s website:  maryzcox.com

Mary Z enjoys playing solo concerts, demonstrations, and workshops to small and large audiences & has a wonderful acoustic trio available for concerts and festivals.  Please contact Mary Z if you would like to book us for concerts, festivals, or workshops in 2014 or 2015—we just might be traveling your way.

Mary shares her home with 16 banjos and 12 mountain dulcimers and loves playing them. Her motto is: 

“If you suspect you need a new banjo or dulcimer—you do. Trust your musical instincts. If an instrument calls to you to buy it, don’t fight destiny. It was meant to be”

CLICK to REGISTER for Clawhammer Banjo 101

CLICK to RENT A BANJO for this workshop