Description

You Know the Licks. Now Learn Where They Go.

Knowing backup licks is one thing. Knowing when to use them — which lick fits which moment in which song — is something else entirely. That’s the gap between a banjo player who has practiced backup and a banjo player who can actually play backup. This book closes that gap.

The Classic Banjo Backup book is the third and final course in Geoff Hohwald’s Rhythm & Backup series. Where Book 1 taught you chord shapes and basic backup patterns, and Book 2 expanded your vocabulary with licks and rolls, this book puts it all together. Geoff teaches you a set of Scruggs-style backup licks and then shows you exactly how to use each one inside a real bluegrass song.

The 8 Songs You’ll Play Backup On

These aren’t exercises dressed up as songs. These are actual bluegrass standards that get played at jams and festivals everywhere:

• New River Train — a bluegrass jam staple with a driving rhythm
• Banks of the Ohio — a classic folk-bluegrass murder ballad
• Goin’ Down That Road Feeling Bad — a Woody Guthrie favorite covered by everyone from the Grateful Dead to Doc Watson
• Cryin’ Holy — a gospel-bluegrass standard
• More Pretty Girls Than One — a classic waltz-time bluegrass song
• Salty Dog — a crowd favorite at every jam
• Think of What You’ve Done — a bluegrass heartbreaker made famous by Ricky Skaggs
• Riding on That Midnight Train — a hard-driving bluegrass standard

How the Course Works

For each song, Geoff follows the same approach:

• 1. Learn the licks. Geoff teaches each backup lick in detail — what it is, how to play it, and what makes it work.
• 2. See how the lick fits the song. Geoff demonstrates how and where to use each lick in the context of the actual song, so you understand not just the “how” but the “when” and “why.”
• 3. Play along. Over 2 hours of video instruction plus full notation for every song so you can practice until it’s second nature.

This is how backup is actually learned in the real world — by playing real songs with real licks. Not by memorizing patterns in a vacuum.

Who This Book Is For

This is Book 3 in the Rhythm & Backup series, and it assumes you’ve worked through Intro to Banjo Rhythm & Backup and Banjo Backup Licks & Rolls — or that you already have a solid foundation in chord shapes and backup licks. If you know your moveable chord positions, you can play basic backup patterns, and you want to take the next step into applying specific licks to specific songs, you’re ready.

This is also the book for the player who’s been doing backup at jams but feels like they’re playing the same thing every time. If your backup sounds the same on every song, this course gives you the tools to make each song’s backup sound different and musical.

Who Geoff Is, and Why That Matters

Geoff Hohwald has been playing banjo since 1964 — back when Columbus, Ohio was a genuine bluegrass hot spot — and studied under John Hickman. He’s performed with two of Bill Monroe’s guitar players, shared stages with Red Allen, Frank Wakefield, and Hylo Brown, played with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, and co-founded the Greater Atlanta Bluegrass Band. Six decades of playing backup behind singers and lead players in real bands is exactly the kind of experience that makes this book worth learning from.

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 — add a note at checkout
• ✔ Direct access to the author if you get stuck on a lesson
• ✔ Your purchase supports a small family business, not a warehouse
• ✔ Ships from Yellow Springs, Ohio, usually within one business day

Product Details

• Format: Paperback, 51 pages
• Includes: Free online video and audio access (over 2 hours of video, plus full notation)
• Songs: 8 classic bluegrass songs with backup lick arrangements
• Level: Intermediate
• Style: 5-string Scruggs-style bluegrass banjo
• ISBN: 978-1718076433
• Ships from: Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA

The Complete Rhythm & Backup Series

• Book 1: Intro to Banjo Rhythm & Backup — learn major and minor chord shapes and basic backup technique.
• Book 2: Banjo Backup Licks & Rolls — expand your backup vocabulary with licks and roll patterns.
• → You are here: Book 3: Classic Banjo Backup — apply Scruggs-style licks to 8 classic bluegrass songs.