I have a banjo, is it possible to play it with just a thumbpick?

Question

I have a banjo, is it possible to play it with just a thumbpick?

Answer 1

I wouldn't. I don't have a banjo, but I've played banjo parts on the guitar for 1920's jazz standards such as Blue Skies and Falling in Love again.

Some banjo parts consists of lots of full chords, so you definitely don't wanna restrict yourself.

Answer 2

You could, but why? All you'll hear is whatever strings you hit with that pick and the others will be too soft to hear well. Either use picks on all your picking fingers, or scrap the pick and just use your fingers.

If you should decide to go the skin route, you'll probably want to install a pickup for better volume. Check them out here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=...

Kabum

Answer 3

If you're interested in playing 3-finger bluegrass style picking, the usual technique is to use a thumbpick and 2 fingerpicks (one on the index finger and one on the middle finger).  The thumb and finger picks give you the volume and tone that you need to make the banjo heard in a loud bluegrass band.  If you use just a thumbpick with bare fingers, the notes played by the thumb will be much louder and brighter sounding than the notes picked by the fingers, your playing will sound "unbalanced", and the notes picked by the fingers won't be heard very clearly over the other musicians in the band or jam session.

If you want to play bluegrass banjo, I would suggest that you bite the bullet and get used to playing with thumbpick AND fingerpicks to get the right sound.

IOW, yes I suppose its **possible** to play with just a thumbpick, but it wouldn't be desirable.