Comment by Joel Hooks on June 17, 2026 at 13:11

Then I recend.  I will say that a little tremolo goes a long way in my opinion.

Pretty much all methods published after about 1880 will have something about tremolo, some better than others. 

If I remember correctly, I did the progressively more notes exercises.  I strive to just "kiss" the string with the end of my finger.

Otherwise, I can't really add anything to the above. 

Comment by Byron Thomas on June 17, 2026 at 13:18

Joel also posted this treatise on tremolo a while back. It is a very concise instruction on a variety of tremolo styles. I highly recommend the study of this book.

Sostenuto (Tremolo for Banjo) Method : B. Sheldon Green : Free Down...

Comment by Steven Watson on June 17, 2026 at 21:05

Thank you all, I'm pursuing your suggestions as I write. I have gone through many of the methods, but I don't recall seeing Green's method or the relevant pages in Barnes & Mullins 'Banjo School' -- both of which look promising. Now to practise...

Comment by Trapdoor2 on June 18, 2026 at 21:05

Just for fun, I've taken Bernard Sheaff's "Gavotte" and added back in the missing part (Trio?). I basically went out and found notation for BWV 1006 (a violin partita in Emaj), transposed the "Gavotte en Rondeau" section to Gmaj, edited in all of Sheaff's banjo bits and left the missing bit alone (it works fine, as Steve said). I haven't added the positions or fingering to the notation but generated Tab that follows the BMG notations. If anyone would like the positions/fingering added to this "updated" arrangement, let me know and I'll do so.

Gavotte%20en%20Rondeau_Sheaff_Smith.pdf

Gavotte%20en%20Rondeau_Sheaff_Smith_Tab.pdf

Gavotte en Rondeau.mp3

Comment by Steven Watson on June 19, 2026 at 12:55

Fantastic, thanks Marc. The extra section indeed fits comfortably on the fretboard. I'll definitely be adding it from now on!

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