thanks bud, I also really like the way that sounded playing it slow. I have loved this song for years, going to venture out into the deep and take that banjo out and start to learn to play it. I met Peter Rowan one time, he said he wrote Midnight Moonlight trying to learn the Carter Family Wildwood Flower. Cuckoo Bird is magical, its like connecting to something old. can't describe it

Thanks you've done a great job teaching how to play The Cuckoo Bird in this video!

After decades of playing mandolin I bought a banjo two months ago. This lesson is clear and inspiriing. thank you Chris, I've subscribed in the hope of learning much from you.

@babblesandbarbels

10 ай бұрын

Father, bless! It's like my worlds have collided. I watch your videos and Chris's frequently. I'm from the Appalachian foothills of South Carolina. Orthodoxy is strong here in the south!

Really great very simple explanation of the open string pull-off ('east kentucky lick') and best explanation of the Cuckoo I've found, thanks man!

Thanks that was awesome! Got to work on the timing of the brush and that little sound off but I'm gettin there

I just love this song. Thank you so much for a great lesson.

Thank You for this video. It really helped me and made everything so simple and musical . Much appreciated.

Thanks for taking time and clearly teaching this song. Mush appreciated.

Chris , I am always so thankful to you for Tom's off string pull off .I DOuble thumbed that 35 or 40 years .. Yours in Connecticut ...

Good in depth yet concise teaching style. Great choice on the tune. Keep rolling these lessons out. I'm a fan.

thanks very much for taking the time to go through this.. a lot of people are showing people how to play this on youtube but this has been the easiest to follow. been dying to play this for ages and today we finally achieved this thanks again :-)

Thank you very much for the lesson, works great for guitar in DGDGCD tuning on guitar as well :)

i am learning this, love the rake sound. wish you had a tab on this Chris! lol i am new to clawhammer and still trying to train my ear. great video!

Hey Chris, Just a quick message to say thank you. A really clear tutorial that has helped me play this song.

@banjochris

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Always so clean Chris .. Thanks for showing Tom's version so accurately ... Yours , Guy

Thank you, great lesson. In the early stages but love the sound.

Just found this - thanks Chris - Ive seen lots of different versions of this - this is the easiest to understand - ive used pull offs as you explain i find it much easier. But your stuff is brilliant thanks for this

great lesson! you made it very easy! Thanks!

Thank you, Chris!

I've watched a few lessons on this (and other well known tunes) and yours has been invaluable because you taught that little extra pull off that makes the world of difference. So THAT's how you do it!!! I've been wondering why everyone seems to have these extra notes when I'm doing everything by the book (video). Now I know. Thanks a lot! 😊

@banjochris

5 жыл бұрын

Morgan Acres Thanks!

Lovely playing! You're amazing

Great great lesson. Thankyou!

i like that kind of string instrument. you play so well. thumbs up!

Great tutorial Chris. Thanks

Thanks Chris for this vid - now Ive got my head and hand around drop thumbing - I can do this now

Finally got that roll. Thanks

Thanks fella! Great video. I've recorded a version (on my channel) which I learned based on this and Doc Watson. Thanks again!

Hi Chris , my sister in law is a cuukoo bird...

this was by far the most helpful lesson on cuckoo bird ive come across. thank you. any chance you can do a lesson on Raleigh and Spencer????

@DavidSmith-qn8kk

6 жыл бұрын

I second this request

I can dig it but I play it different. Can you teach us how to play, I`ll Never Get Drunk Again, by Frank Proffitt?

Hi Chris, I have only just found these excellent videos, I find them a real help very clear to follow. Will you be making any more two finger or clawhammer lesson videos in the near future? they have been a great help to me and I'm sure many others. Regards Cliff

@banjochris

3 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sporadic with them - it's a matter of time. I tend to do them to follow up on workshops I've taught at various festivals. I'm glad you like them! Just keep an eye out and eventually there'll be a new one. I just did a guitar video for the Santa Barbara Old-Time Fiddler's Convention, on their page, if you're interested in guitar at all.

this is so great thank you! do you do a tutorial for the house carpenter?!

@banjochris

4 жыл бұрын

Adriana Burton I don’t have a video on that, but if you perfect the open string pull-off technique (which I’m pretty sure I talk about in this video) you’ll have no problem figuring it out yourself. It’s in the same tuning as this, and is just playing melody along with the singing and keeping up those pull-offs constantly.

I have one more question iWatch 2 video on KZread where Doc Watson and Mike Seeger play the cuckoo live. do you know what seeger is doing differently?? it sounds so cool the way he's playing the song

@banjochris

7 жыл бұрын

Kyle Corney Mike Seeger first of all is playing a gourd banjo with gut strings tuned much lower than my banjo. The main thing he does differently than this version is the cuckoo's call - he's doing a hammer on to the third fret of the first string, then the fifth string rather than the roll Clarence Ashley does. It's more like Hobart Smith's version but the rest is pretty similar.

beautiful tutorial. thank you very much. what banjo are you playing here?

@banjochris

2 жыл бұрын

It’s a ‘20s Tubaphone, originally a tenor, with a repro neck that I don’t know anything about because that’s how it came when I bought it! I’ve had it almost 30 years.

also-thank you, thank you, thank you. i have an impossible time singing while playing. hopefully that will develop in good time?

@banjochris

8 жыл бұрын

+Patrick Harrington It will, just keep plugging away at it. You need to be pretty comfortable instrumentally to be able to do it, but it'll come. Practice singing along to records, too!

can you explain what strings your hitting during regular frailing

@banjochris

7 жыл бұрын

For frailing, you hit a melody note, then brush the top couple of strings, then hit the thumb string. Often the brush becomes just playing the first string. The melody and the brush are with the back of your index finger (the nail) and the thumb string you hit with your thumb.

is there a tab written out for this? i'm having a hard time with the bum-dit-ty and the variations thereon.

@banjochris

8 жыл бұрын

+Patrick Harrington Not by me, but if you go to banjohangout.org I'm sure someone has tabbed it out there.

Any recommendations for what guitar chords could play along to this version? I've finically gotten the basics down and now my fiancé wants to play along!

@banjochris

Жыл бұрын

Couple options - you can do like Doc Watson, capo up and play Em and D chords (third fret so it sounds in Gm) or capo the banjo two frets (or tune up) and play Am and G chords.

@kellyk.4596

Жыл бұрын

@@banjochris Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer, and your lesson here is phenomenal! Thanks for passing along the knowledge.

Instead of the drop thumb on that roll, wouldn't it be easier to do a pull-off on the 2nd string at the 2nd fret? I don't see much difference in the sound. Otherwise, great lesson, and many thanks for sharing.

@banjochris

6 жыл бұрын

You can, and it is easier, but it is a different sound, a little crisper with the drop thumb, a little smoother with the pull-off. Also, Clarence Ashley played it with the drop thumb and it's his version I'm teaching. This is a good tune for practicing drop thumb, since it is the same lick each time. Glad you enjoyed the lesson!

@karenliles8969

5 жыл бұрын

I'm working on it and loving it! Thanks so much!

Okay so one minor thing I can't figure out, at 7:30 you say you follow up the "so high" part with the drop thumb lick and yet you only do it during that one section of the video, every other time you play you just do a smple frailing link after the "so high" part, is this an oversight or am I just not getting it, it's hard to fit that drop thumb lick into that rhythm.

@banjochris

6 жыл бұрын

andgalactus1 just an oversight, I think. Generally I play just the simple trailing lick there with the open string pull off as I’m getting ready to sing again.

@andgalactus1

6 жыл бұрын

Okay that makes sense and seems most natural for me to play while singing but i noticed I can essentially play the lick follwed by a "ditty" and keep the same rhythm, now I'm having trouble trying to match the rhtyhm of the rake part with the rest of the song. Thanks for the video!

Hi alguien que me pase la letra? Gracias

@donalwalsh

5 жыл бұрын

Gonna build me a log cabin On a mountian so high So I can see Willie As he goes on by Um hmm hmm Oh the coo-coo is a pretty bird She wobbles when she flies She never hollers coo-coo 'Til the fourth day of July I've played cards in England I've played cards in Spain I'll bet you ten dollars I'll beat you next game Jack of diamonds, Jack of diamonds I've known you from old Now you've robbed my poor pockets Of my silver and my gold Um hmm hmm I've played cards in England I've played cards in Spain I'll bet you ten dollars I beat you this game Oh the coo-coo is a pretty bird She wobbles when she flies She never hollers coo-coo 'Til the fourth day of July *Hay varias versiones de la canción con unas diferencias pequeñas*

please someone show me this on a guitar.....eeekkkkkk

are you playing the 5th string? i can barely see what your thumb is doin...looks like you are starting at the top

@banjochris

5 жыл бұрын

Backwoodz Explorer yes the 5th string comes at the end of the “roll”

@backwoodzexplorer4460

5 жыл бұрын

can you do a tutorial on "little hillside" ?

@banjochris

5 жыл бұрын

Backwoodz Explorer I doubt I’ll do one but it’s in the same tuning as this and once you learn that open string pull-off thing well you should be able to figure it out. Ashley uses that a lot and keeps it going through most of the tune.

I thought Ashley play E minor

@banjochris

Жыл бұрын

This is the tuning Ashley used. When Doc Watson and others backed him on guitar, they played Em/D shapes but capoed up three frets.

@paulkica4129

Жыл бұрын

@@banjochris Cool,I had seen an old video of him explaining to a Yankee doing a documentary on our music. Ashley called it E minor, the sawmill key.that is my reference .I'm sure your depth and knowledge surpasses mine.I just tinker Gospel tunes on my mandolin

@banjochris

Жыл бұрын

@@paulkica4129 I’ve heard him call it minor and minor key, along with sawmill. But no E. Buell Kazee, another great player, would play in E minor, using G tuning and tuning his thumb string down to E, which is a very cool (and very different) sound.