Mark, playing the banjo is pretty easy. Here is a basic lesson for you or anybody else who wants to run around making the world a better place with a banjo.

Frailing the five-string banjo:

Frailing is a down-picking approach to playing the banjo. We are going to learn to play a simple rhythm pattern by striking down on the strings with our fingernail.

The first step is getting in tune. When you are tuning your banjo you should know how the strings are numbered. The short string is the fifth string. When you are holding your banjo the fifth string will be on top and the first sting will be closest to the floor.

Your banjo is tuned to an open G chord.

* The fifth string is tuned to G.
* The fourth string is tuned to D.
* The third string is tuned to G.
* The second string is tuned to B.
* The first string is tuned to D.

Be sure to have the string ringing when you crank on your tuning pegs. This helps you avoid tightening the string past its breaking point.

To tune your banjo without a tuner just follow these steps:

1. Assume that your first string is at least close to being in tune.

2. Play your second string at the third fret. Tune it up or down so that it matches the sound of the first string played open.

3. Play your third string at the fourth fret. Tune it up or down so that it matches the sound of the second string played open.

4. Play your fourth string at the fifth fret. Tune it up or down so that it matches the sound of the third string played open.

5. The fifth string played open should sound the same as the first string played at the fifth fret.

Once you are in tune sit down with your banjo in a straight-backed chair that doesn't have any arms. (I know, the sofa or the recliner is much more comfortable but for now go along with me on this). Sit up straight and hold the banjo in your lap with the pot (or resonator) is flat against your belly.

Bring your banjo neck up so that the fifth peg is up by your ear. If you were facing a clock you'd want the neck up by 10 or 11.

Now it is time to learn the basic frailing strum.

Hold up your picking hand and make a fist.

Now stick out your index finger and thumb- just like when you were a kid playing cops and robbers you want that sort of 'gun' shape. Don't clench your remaining three fingers to your palm but rather try to relax and keep everything kind of loosey-goosey. Tension just slows things down.

The middle finger should be a hair extended.

Look at your hand. You've got your thumb up, your index finger straight out, your middle finger loosely curled and the last two fingers lightly touching your palm.

Now that you've got your hand into a rough frailing shape that that whole arraignment of fingers down to your banjo.

Put your thumb on your banjo head so that you are just a little but shy of touching the rim with the tip of your thumb. The pad of your thumb should be against the fifth string.

Now rest your middle fingernail on the first string.

Take a look at your hand and where it's at on the banjo. You'll see that you can just raise it up a hair and drop that middle fingernail down to strike the first string. Do that.

Don't flail around or open and close your hand or flick your fingers. Just use your thumb as a sort of pivot point to rear back (you won't have to go very far) and swing in down to strike the string with your nail. Let the string pop off of the fingernail.

Once you get comfortable with the idea of just dropping your hand down to strike the first string try the same thing on your second, third and fourth. To hit those inside strings - well, look at your hand again. Your thumb is lying on the fifth string. If you close that webbing between your index finger and thumb you should see that you can swing you hand so that it's over the string you want to hit.

After the strike the next step is the strum.

Hit a string. Any string.

After you do that close the webbing between your thumb and index finger so that you hand comes back over the strings and your middle fingernail is over the third or fourth string.

While all of this is happening your thumb is staying in place.

Once you've reared back enough (and what that is is up to you but three strings is a safe bet) strike down across the strings with your middle fingernail.

So it's pick, rear back, strum.

Do that a few times. Get used to it. Keep the thumb in place. As you pick and as you strum it's a good idea to keep a sort of straight wrist. Your forearm is doing all of the work here using your thumb as a pivot point.

After you extend your hand for the strum you'll see that your thumb is putting pressure on the fifth string. Roll your thumb off of the fifth string, bring it up to your hand and then drop it back in place on the fifth string. It's sort of a rolling motion.

Once your thumb drops back (and you might get a nifty THUMP here and you might not- either way is cool) your hand swings your middle fingernail down (remember- there isn't any finger motion here- it's all in the forearm) on a a string (your choice) and the process starts over again.

Pick- Strum- Thumb.

Bump Dit- Ty.

A quarter note and two eighth notes.

That is the basic frailing strum - and the cool thing about it is that it is pretty much the only picking technique you need to learn on the five string banjo.

A lot of the nitty gritty details of the stroke change from person to person. Our bodies all work in unique ways. I've got a buddy who adds this freaky little wrist flip after each downstroke. He can play very well so I figure there's no real point in asking him about it. It works for him, what I do works for me.

You can use the index fingernail, and a lot of folks find it easier in the beginning (shoot I've been playing long enough that I can get pretty much the same sound with my pinky) but from what I've seen you can get a cleaner, and in some cases faster, attack with your middle fingernail. Try it for a while.

Another thing to keep in mind is that for the basic explanation of the frailing stroke I told you to keep your index finger straight out. I do this for the simple reason that it helps to keep that finger out of the way when you are just starting out. Once you get used to the motion your index finger will curl or straighten on it's own (it really will) so don't fret about it.

There's also been a lot of debate about bending/not bending the thumb. The stroke described here works- the tip of the thumb playing the fifth technique works for others. Your best bet is to pick one now and stick to it. 99% of the problems most folks have with old time banjo is changing techniques and tunings over and over again.

Pick one, do it until the action becomes almost unconscious and worry about the unimportant stuff when you can play the banjo.

Once you can keep a steady rhythm, look around on the web for a chord chart and start practicing the basic strum while you change chords. Then start playing the basic frailing strum while you sing (any song will do) and change chords.

-Patrick