Description

The One Skill Every Beginner Gets Wrong — and How to Fix It.

Here’s what happens to most new banjo players: they learn their first few rolls, start working through songs, and hit a wall. Everything sounds choppy, uneven, or slow. The problem isn’t the songs — it’s the right hand. The picking hand is the engine behind everything in three-finger Scruggs-style banjo, and if that engine isn’t smooth and consistent, nothing else works.

The Beginning Banjo Warm-Up Series exists to solve that one specific problem. This isn’t a songbook and it isn’t a general lesson course. It’s a focused training program for your right hand — the kind of daily practice routine that turns sloppy rolls into clean, fast, confident picking.

How the Course Works

Geoff Hohwald walks you through forward rolls at gradually increasing speeds, starting slow enough for a complete beginner and building up to performance tempo. Every exercise comes with online video and audio so you can watch Geoff’s technique, hear exactly what the roll should sound like, and play along with the practice tracks.

The audio tracks include full band backing — not just a lonely banjo — so practicing feels like playing with real musicians. That matters, because playing along with a band forces your timing to be tight in a way that practicing alone never does.

Who This Course Is For

This course was designed for two types of players:

• Absolute beginners who want to build a solid right-hand foundation before starting the Banjo Primer. If you’ve never picked up a banjo before, starting here means the Primer will feel easier when you get to it.
• Players who feel stuck and know their right hand is the weak link. If your rolls sound uneven, if you can’t keep up at jams, or if your picking hand tires out quickly, this is the fix.

What This Course Is — and What It Isn’t

A quick note so you know exactly what you’re getting: this is a focused warm-up and speed-building course, not a comprehensive lesson book. It’s 36 pages, it concentrates on right-hand roll technique, and it does that one thing thoroughly. If you’re looking for songs, chords, and left-hand work, that’s what the Banjo Primer and Easy Banjo Songbook are for. This course is the practice routine that makes those books easier to learn.

Think of it like stretching before a workout. You don’t skip it because it’s simple — you do it because everything that follows goes better when you do.

Why This Teaching Method Works

Geoff has been teaching beginners since the 1980s, and this is the exact warm-up approach he uses in his private lessons. The method is simple: start slow, get it clean, then gradually add speed. No shortcuts, no tricks — just the proven process that has helped thousands of students build real picking ability.

Geoff also runs Banjo Warehouse, our sister shop in Yellow Springs, Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia, where he’s been buying, selling, and setting up banjos since 1980.

Buy Direct. Skip the Warehouse.

When you order from GeoffHohwald.com, you’re buying directly from us — a small family business in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Your book is packed and shipped by people who actually play banjo, and if you have a question about a lesson, Geoff is the one who answers the email.

• ✔ Signed by Geoff on request — just ask in the order notes
• ✔ Direct access to the author if you get stuck
• ✔ Your purchase supports a small family business, not a warehouse
• ✔ Ships from Yellow Springs, Ohio, usually within one business day

Product Details

• Format: Paperback, 36 pages
• Includes: Free online video and audio access
• Focus: Right-hand roll technique and speed building
• Level: Absolute beginner
• Style: 5-string Scruggs-style bluegrass banjo
• ISBN: 978-1983151835
• Ships from: Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA

Where This Fits in Geoff’s Beginner Series

Here’s the recommended learning path for new players:

• → You are here: Beginning Banjo Warm-Up Series — build your right-hand foundation.
• Banjo Primer for Beginners — learn rolls, tabs, fretting, and your first songs.
• Easy Banjo Songbook — 19 classic bluegrass songs with jam tracks.
• Intro to Banjo Rhythm & Backup — learn to play behind other musicians.