Banjo meets techno! The Ron Block Banjo Workshop app is now available for cell phones, tablets, and computers. Designed for every level of musicianship, it has material help whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced picker. The app offers plenty of ingredients to expand a banjoist’s skills.
Ron, a true master of the five-string, has been performing with Alison Krauss for over three decades. As the developer, his instruction is designed to lay a solid foundation, yet enhance a player’s own creativity on the banjo.
“I’ve spent decades looking into ways to continually improve my own playing by studying other players, reading, watching instructional videos, transcribing, and even taking online lessons myself. I’ve taught lessons and workshops for years.
The Ron Block Banjo Workshop app will be the place I share my years of learning with you.”
The app offers a variety of courses from beginner to advanced levels. Courses include:
- Beginning Banjo Phase I: takes you from no knowledge about playing the banjo through learning chords, rolls, and how to pick a tune.
- Phase II: expands the tunes learned in Phase I and adds hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides to build a solid foundation for your fretting hand.
- My Backup Style with AKUS: shows the way Ron thinks and what he plays in backing up AKUS songs.
- Developing New Licks and Ideas: teaches how to take licks and create new variations.
- Creating Melody-Based Solos: provides tools to learn how to find melodies quickly.
- Bending Strings in a Bluegrass Context: explains Ron’s string-bending techniques.
- Ron’s flagship four-week 2017 Banjo Workshop course: features seven hours of video instruction, tunes, and tabs.
- Mini-Lessons: provides short clips on solid concepts and ideas for practicing and playing.
- Banjo Practice Essentials: presents two great techniques for right hand roll practice.
Song/Tune Lessons:
- Man of Constant Sorrow, from the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack.
- Clinch Mountain Backstep from Ron’s banjo instrumental album, Hogan’s House of Music. It explores syncopation, string-bending, and other core aspects of Ron’s banjo style.
- Foggy Mountain Special, Ron’s solo from Earl Scruggs’ Tribute Album.
- Cluck Old Hen from Alison Krauss & Union Station Live.
- Battersea Skillet Liquor from Damien O’Kane & Ron Block’s album, Banjophony.
- The Old Hometown, Earl Scruggs-style solo from Flatt & Scruggs.
- You Don’t Know My Mind, J.D. Crowe-style solo from a live JD Crowe & the New South recording.
- Little Cabin Home on the Hill, two down-the-neck breaks, and two up-the-neck breaks.
Also:
- The Traditional Banjo Workbook: featuring all the Scruggs-style and Crowe-style tablatures from Ron’s long out-of-print volume, The Traditional Banjo Workbook. Many include audio files with Ron playing at a slow tempo and then up-to-speed.
- Banjo Inspiration: one-page thoughts designed to keep you moving forward in your playing and practice.
- The Banjo Club: a forum to answer your banjo questions. Ron checks the forum almost daily and answers quickly (unless he is busy in sessions, gigs, or workshops).
“There’s a community tab where I come in every week to answer questions. It’s also the place to give feedback on your experience, your progress. I’ve spent a lot of time in online discussion on the Banjo Hangout and other places, but there’s no place I’d rather talk about banjo than right here.”
There’s also a Questions & Answers section, where Ron shares videos and longer answers to questions from the Banjo Club so users on the app can access them easily.
Ron shared, “There is much more to come as this will be an ongoing project.”
More tunes will be added this fall and winter including:
- I’ll Remember You Love in My Prayers
- Every Time You Say Goodbye
- Smashville
- Bright Sunny South
- My Poor Old Heart
- Tiny Broken Heart
Ron elaborated on his latest venture…
“I’ve taught banjo and guitar at workshops and camps through the years, and in 2017, I decided to do a live online Zoom course for four Tuesdays in November. A lot of people signed up for that, and it got me thinking about doing more online teaching. In 2020, I was home a lot, as most of us were, and I was doing a lot of online teaching. I started thinking about making my own banjo app, and it all started moving forward from that. I’ve shot most of the material in my studio with a couple of cameras from different angles, usually while teaching classes on Zoom.”
To subscribe for Apple devices, get it at the App Store, and for Android users, visit Google Play and download the Passion.io app, then search for “Ron Block Banjo Workshop.”
There’s also a web interface for desktop/laptop users.
Once you have the app, you can select and purchase a plan to access all the material available.
