About Jack Hatfield

Jack has written several highly acclaimed banjo instruction books, published by his own company Hatfield Music and for Mel Bay Publications, the largest publisher of stringed instrument instruction books in the world. Jack has been a columnist for Banjo Newsletter since 1976. He wrote the Scruggs Corner column for five years, analyzing the style of the father of bluegrass banjo. The sixty tablatures and comment he wrote while authoring this column still today constitute the largest and most accurate transcriptions of Earl's work available anywhere. Jack then wrote the Beginner's Corner column for seven years, and for the last twelve years has been writing a column called Concepts and Systems, which attempts to de-mystify music theory, present alternative banjo techniques, discuss difficult and seldom-taught topics such as arranging and composition, and present other "big-picture" concepts relating to music as applied to the five-string banjo.

Besides performing and selling banjo products though Hatfield Music, Jack teaches and directs various banjo workshops and camps. He has taught banjo workshops all over the USA and in the United Kingdom and Australia. Jack was on the staff of the very first major banjo camp, the Tennessee Banjo Academy in 1988, and was Bluegrass Director for all three of Banjo Newsletter's Maryland Banjo Academys. He was banjo director of Chuck Stearman's Nashville Academy of Traditional Music at the Opryland Hotel. For thirteen years he has been director of the Banjo Newsletter - SPBGMA workshop every February in Nashville (SPBGMA = Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America). The workshop features top name performers, banjo craftsmen and setup specialists, and other Banjo Newsletter columnists. When Banjo Newsletter decided to curtail the Maryland Banjo Academy, Jack decided to take up where they left off. In April 2004 he directed his first three-day banjo camp, the Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy. The first SMBA featured renowned artists like Doug Dillard, Larry McNeely, Butch Robins, Leroy Troy, Dan Levenson and Bill Keith, along with many professional teachers, authors and luthiers along with national champs Gary Davis and James Mckinney. The 2004 SMBA was a big hit with all who attended, so Jack decided to make it an annual event. Since its inception, SMBA has added to the faculty the likes of Tom Adams, Richard Bailey, Sonny Osborne, Ned Lubereki, Gerald Jones, J.D. Crowe, Eric Weissberg, Jack Hicks, Charlie Cushman, Ken Perlman, Rik Barron, Snuffy Smith, Herb Trotman, Bill Evans and Sammy Shelor. Many professional teachers, banjo instruction book authors and Banjo Newsletter columnists have also appeaerd, including Janet Davis, Eddie Collins, Wayne Erbsen, Andy King, John Lawless, Herb Trotman and Ross Nickerson. Acclaimed setup technicians and builders have also been on hand, such as Tom Nechville, Roger Simpson, Snuffy Smith, Dave Ball, Charlie Cushman, Tom Morgan, Marc Smith and Rick Sampson.
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Jack Hatfield Workshops Website by KeithOps. E-mail rck@keithops.us.