Belgian banjo player Thierry Schoysman has launched a free web site that is dedicated to the banjo style of the great Bill Keith.
Titled Bill Keith Banjo Style, the site is dedicated to offering an ongoing exploration of Bill’s integrated approach to banjo, as opposed to his fully melodic playing as that innovative technique has already been well documented. Thierry means to show how Keith incorporated his unique thoughts about banjo into a solo that employs the more typical Scruggs-style, roll-oriented picking.
Those who knew Bill were aware of the fact that he maintained both US and French citizenship, and spent much of each year living in Europe. There he and Thierry became great friends and banjo buddies, with Keith explaining much of his thinking about the five string to his Belgian banjo compatriot.
Schoysman, who performs as a member of several European bluegrass groups (Rawhide, Sons of Navarone, and Table for Two), and keeps a web site about Bluegrass in Belgium, says that he decided to build this new online project after we lost Bill in 2015.
“The idea of the site came shortly after Bill passed.
Bill was remembered at several festivals, but I noticed how little people know about his style, while I have been analyzing it for many years.”
Bill Keith Banjo Style offers many examples of the Keith style, with Thierry demonstrating and breaking down each song on video, and with printable/downloadable tab and tabledit files as well. There are currently 15 examples on the site, with more to come. There is also a Facebook group for serious Keith fans to discuss the songs online.
Here’s an example video of Schoysman teaching Bill’s breaks on Blue Ridge Mountain Blues:
A separate section of the site is given over to licks, also demonstrated on video, along with a discography that shows where the various songs can be heard on records.
All of this material is available at no charge for banjo players to study. It’s a wonderful gift to the banjo community.
