321.312 (resonator) or321.314 (open-backed) (Compositechordophone with a neck that passes diametrically through the resonator, sounded by plectrum, finger picks, or thebare fingers)
Tom Turpin's 1904 compositionThe Buffalo Rag, in a 1906 performance byVess Ossman. Although this is a ragtime piece, Ossman played with classic banjo style. He fingerpicked gut strings using a technique similar to classical guitarists.
Thebanjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
Early forms of the instrument were fashioned byAfrican Americans and had African antecedents.[1][2] In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of the 19th-centuryminstrel show fad, followed by mass production and mail-order sales, including instructional books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but five-string and four-string banjos also became popular for homeparlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th centuryjazz bands. By the early 20th century, the banjo was most frequently associated withfolk, cowboy music, andcountry music. By mid-century it had come to be strongly associated with bluegrass. Eventually it began to be employed occasionally and sporadically in various kinds or other kinds of popular music. Some famous players of the banjo areRalph Stanley andEarl Scruggs.
The modern banjo derives from instruments that have been recorded to be in use inNorth America and the Caribbean since the 17th century by enslaved people taken from West and Central Africa, such as thekora. Their African-style instruments were crafted from splitgourds with animal skins stretched across them. Strings, from gut or vegetable fibers, were attached to a wooden neck.[7] Written references to the banjo in North America and theCaribbean appear in the 17th and 18th centuries.[7]
The earliest written indication of an instrument akin to the banjo is in the 17th century: Richard Jobson (1621) in describingThe Gambia, wrote about an instrument which some consider to be similar to the banjo.
They have little varietie of instruments, that which is most common in use, is made of a great gourd, and a necke thereunto fastned, resembling, in some sort, our Bandora; but they have no manner of fret, and the strings they are either such as the place yeeldes or their invention can attaine to make, being very unapt to yeeld a sweete and musicall sound, notwithstanding with pinnes they winde and bring to agree in tunable notes, having not above sixe strings upon their greatest instrument.[7]
The termbanjo has several etymological origins. One theory links it to theMandinka language which gives the name ofBanjul, capital of The Gambia. Another claim is a connection to the West Africanakonting: it is made with a long bamboo neck called abangoe. The material for the neck, calledban julo in the Mandinka language, again givesbanjul. In this interpretation,banjul became a sort of eponym for the akonting as it crossed the Atlantic. The instrument's name might also derive from theKimbundu wordmbanza,[8] which is a loan word to the Portuguese language resulting in the termbanza,[7] which was used by early French travelers in the Americas.[9] Its earliest recorded use was in 1678[7] by the Sovereign Council of Martinique which reinstated a 1654 decree that placed prohibitions and restrictions on "dances and assemblies of negroes" deemed to bekalenda, which was defined as the gathering of enslaved Africans who danced to the sound of a drum and an instrument called the banza.[7][10]
TheOED claims that the termbanjo comes from adialectal pronunciation of Portuguesebandore or from an early anglicisation of Spanishbandurria.[11] Contrary evidence shows that the termsbandore andbandurria were used when Europeans encountered the instrument or its kin varieties in use by people of African descent, who used names for the instrument such asbanza,[7] as it was called in places such asHaiti, varieties that were built around agourd body with a wooden plank for the neck.François Richard de Tussac, a former planter fromSaint-Domingue, details its construction in the bookLe Cri des Colons, published in 1810, stating:[12][13]
As for the guitars, which the negroes callbanzas, this is what they consist of: they cut lengthwise, through the middle, a freshcalabash [the fruit of a tree called thecallebassier]. This fruit is sometimes eight inches or more in diameter. The stretch across it the skin of a goat, which they attach on the edges with little nails; they put two or three little holes on this surface, and then a kind of plank or piece of wood that is rudely flattened makes the neck of the instrument; they stretch three strings made of pitre [a kind of string taken from theagave plant, commonly known as pitre] across it; and so the instrument is built. On this instrument they playairs composed of three or four notes, which they repeat constantly.[12][13]
Michel Étienne Descourtilz, a naturalist who visited Haiti in the early 1800s, described it asbanzas, a Negro instrument, that the natives prepare by sawing one of the calabashes or a large gourd lengthwise, to which they attach a neck and sonorous strings made from the filament" of aloe plants.[14] It was played during any occasion, from boredom to joyous parties andcalendas to funeral ceremonies. It was the custom to also combine this sound with the more noisybamboula, a type of drum made from a stick of bamboo covered on both sides with a skin that was played with fingers and knuckles while sitting astride.[15][13]
Various instruments in Africa, chief among them thekora, feature a skindrumhead andgourd (or similar shell) body.[16] These instruments differ from early African-American banjos in that the necks do not possess a Western-style fingerboard and tuning pegs; instead they have stick necks, with strings attached to the neck with loops for tuning.[16]
Another likely relative of the banjo is the aforementionedakonting, a spike folk lute which is constructed using a gourd body, a long wooden neck, and three strings[17] played by theJola tribe ofSenegambia, and theubaw-akwala of theIgbo.[18] Similar instruments include thexalam ofSenegal[19] and thengoni of theWassoulou region that includes parts ofMali,Guinea, andIvory Coast, as well as a larger variation of thengoni, known as thegimbri, developed inMorocco by sub-Saharan Africans (Gnawa orHaratin).
Banjo-like instruments seem to have been independently invented in several different places, in addition to the many African instruments mentioned above, since instruments similar to the banjo are known from a diverse array of distant countries. For example, the Chinesesanxian, the Japaneseshamisen, the Persiantar, and the Moroccansintir.[18]
Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th century.[16] Some 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously asbangie,banza,bonjaw,[20]banjer[21] andbanjar. A British tourist's 1812 description of a gambling hall inWheeling, Virginia mentionsbangies: "Would thatHogarth had lived to see that room! One corner was occupied by a portion of the assembly, engaged in the fascinating games of all-fours, three-up and cribbage; in another stood a table of refreshments, whiskey and biscuit, surrounded by a crowd of drinkers and smokers; a group of noisy politicians held possession in the third; and in the fourth was stationed the music which consisted of two bangies played by negroes nearly in a state of nudity, and a lute through which aChickasaw breathed delightful harmony."[22]
The instrument became increasingly available commercially from around the second quarter of the 19th century due tominstrel show performances.[2]
Medley of minstrel songs played on the banjo byRuby Brooks. The playing style isclawhammer or frailing.
In theantebellum South, many enslaved Africans played the banjo, spreading it to the rest of the population.[7] In his memoirWith Sabre and Scalpel: The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon, the Confederate veteran and surgeonJohn Allan Wyeth recalls learning to play the banjo as a child from an enslaved person on his family plantation.[7] Another man who learned to play from African-Americans, probably in the 1820s, wasJoel Walker Sweeney, aminstrel performer fromAppomattox Court House,Virginia.[23][24] Sweeney has been credited with adding a string to the four-string African-American banjo, and popularizing the five-string banjo.[23][24] AlthoughRobert McAlpin Williamson is the first documented white banjoist,[25] in the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage.[23] Sweeney's musical performances occurred at the beginning of the minstrel era, as banjos shifted away from being exclusively homemade folk instruments to instruments of a more modern style.[26] Sweeney participated in this transition by encouraging drum maker William Boucher ofBaltimore to make banjos commercially for him to sell.[24]
Sheet music cover for "Dandy Jim from Caroline", featuringDan Emmett (center) and the otherVirginia Minstrels, c. 1844
In 1949, Arthur Woodward credited Sweeney with replacing the gourd with a wooden sound box covered in skin, and adding a short fifth string around 1831.[27] However, modern scholarGene Bluestein pointed out in 1964 that Sweeney may not have originated either the 5th string or sound box.[27] This new banjo was at first tuned d'Gdf♯a, though by the 1890s, this had been transposed up to g'cgbd'. Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeney's group, the AmericanVirginia Minstrels, in the 1840s, and became very popular inmusic halls.[28]
The instrument grew in popularity during the 1840s afterSweeney began his traveling minstrel show.[29] By the end of the 1840s the instrument had expanded from Caribbean possession to take root in places across America and across the Atlantic in England.[30][31] It was estimated in 1866 that there were probably 10,000 banjos in New York City, up from only a handful in 1844. People were exposed to banjos not only at minstrel shows, but also medicine shows, Wild-West shows, variety shows, and traveling vaudeville shows.[32] The banjo's popularity also was given a boost by the Civil War, as servicemen on both sides in the Army or Navy were exposed to the banjo played in minstrel shows and by other servicemen.[33] A popular movement of aspiring banjoists began as early as 1861.[34] The enthusiasm for the instrument was labeled a "banjo craze" or "banjo mania."[34]
TheBriggs' Banjo Instructor was the firstmethod for the banjo. It taught thestroke style and had notated music. Publication date - 1855
By the 1850s, aspiring banjo players had options to help them learn their instrument.[35] There were more teachers teaching banjo basics in the 1850s than there had been in the 1840s.[35] There were also instruction manuals and, for those who could read it, printed music in the manuals.[36] The first book of notated music wasThe Complete Preceptor by Elias Howe, published under the pseudonymGumbo Chaff, consisting mainly ofChristy's Minstrels tunes.[36] The first banjo method was theBriggs' Banjo instructor (1855) by Tom Briggs.[36] Other methods includedHowe's New American Banjo School (1857), andPhil Rice's Method for the Banjo, With or Without a Master (1858).[36] These books taught the "stroke style" or "banjo style", similar to modern "frailing" or "clawhammer" styles.[36]
By 1868, music for the banjo was available printed in a magazine, when J. K. Buckley wrote and arranged popular music forBuckley's Monthly Banjoist.[37] Frank B. Converse also published his entire collection of compositions inThe Complete Banjoist in 1868, which included "polkas, waltzes, marches, and clog hornpipes."[38]
In the 1840s, opportunities for work were found not only in minstrel companies and circuses, but also in floating theaters and variety theaters, which served as precursors to the variety show andvaudeville.[35]
Carnival of Venice, variations on the folk song composed by Julius Benedict, arranged for banjo and played on banjo byAlfred A. Farland. This song is an example of Farland's use of bare fingers to producetremolo to get long notes from the instrument (much as the cornet or violin can naturally play.)
The termclassic banjo is used today to talk about a bare-finger "guitar style" that was widely in use among banjo players of the late 19th to early 20th century.[39] It is still used by banjoists today. The term also differentiates that style of playing from the fingerpicking bluegrass banjo styles, such as theScruggs style andKeith style.[39]
TheBriggs Banjo Method, considered to be the first banjo method and which taught thestroke style of playing, also mentioned the existence of another way of playing, theguitar style.[40][41] Alternatively known as "finger style", the new way of playing the banjo displaced the stroke method, until by 1870 it was the dominant style.[42] Although mentioned by Briggs, it wasn't taught. The first banjo method to teach the technique wasFrank B. Converse's New and Complete Method for the Banjo with or without a Master, published in 1865.[43][44]
To play in guitar style, players use the thumb and two or three fingers on their right hand to pick the notes.Samuel Swaim Stewart summarized the style in 1888, saying,
In the guitar style of Banjo-playing...the little finger of the right hand is rested upon the head near the bridge...[and] serves as a rest to the hand and a resistance to the movement of picking the strings...In the beginning it is best to acquire a knowledge of picking the strings with the use of the first and second fingers and thumb only, allowing the third finger to remain idle until the other fingers have become thoroughly accustomed to their work...the three fingers are almost invariably used in playing chords and accompaniments to songs."[40]
Banjo, from the Musical Instruments series (N82) for Duke brand cigarettes, 1888
The banjo, although popular, carried low-class associations from its role inblackface minstrel shows, medicine shows, tent shows, and variety shows or vaudeville.[45] There was a push in the 19th century to bring the instrument into "respectability."[45] Musicians such asWilliam A. Huntley made an effort to "elevate" the instrument or make it more "artistic," by "bringing it to a more sophisticated level of technique and repertoire based on European standards."[46] Huntley may have been the first white performer to successfully make the transition from performing in blackface to being himself on stage, noted by the Boston Herald in November 1884.[46] He was supported by another former blackface performer, Samuel Swaim Stewart, in his corporate magazine that popularized highly talented professionals.[47]
As the "raucous" imitations of plantation life decreased in minstrelsy, the banjo became more acceptable as an instrument of fashionable society, even to be accepted into women's parlors.[29][48] Part of that change was a switch from the stroke style to the guitar playing style.[29][48][43] An 1888 newspaper said, "All the maidens and a good many of the women also strum the instrument, banjo classes abound on every side and banjo recitals are among the newest diversions of fashion...Youths and elderly men too have caught the fever...the star strummers among men are in demand at the smartest parties and have the choosing of the society of the most charming girls."[49]
Some of those entertainers, such asAlfred A. Farland, specialized in classical music. However, musicians who wanted to entertain their audiences, and make a living, mixed it in with the popular music that audiences wanted.[50] Farland's pupilFrederick J. Bacon was one of these. A former medicine show entertainer, Bacon performed classical music along with popular songs such asMassa's in de cold, cold ground, aMedley of Scotch Airs, aMedley of Southern Airs, and Thomas Glynn’sWest Lawn Polka.
Banjo innovation which began in the minstrel age continued, with increased use of metal parts, exotic wood, raised metal frets and a tone-ring that improved the sound.[51] Instruments were designed in a variety of sizes and pitch ranges, to play different parts in banjo orchestras.[51] Examples on display in the museum includebanjorines and piccolo banjos.
New styles of playing, a new look, instruments in a variety of pitch ranges to take the place of different sections in an orchestra – all helped to separate the instrument from the rough minstrel image of the previous 50–60 years.[51] The instrument was modern now, a bright new thing, with polished metal sides.[51]
Ragtime era (1895–1919) and Jazz Age era (1910s–1930s)
In the early 1900s, new banjos began to spread, four-string models, played with a plectrum rather than with the minstrel-banjo clawhammer stroke or the classic-banjo fingerpicking style. The new banjos were a result of changing musical tastes. New music spurred the creation of "evolutionary variations" of the banjo, from the five-string model current since the 1830s to newer four-stringplectrum andtenor banjos.[52]
The instruments became ornately decorated in the1920s to be visually dynamic to a theater audience.[52] The instruments were increasingly modified or made in a new style – necks that were shortened to handle the four steel (not fiber as before) strings, strings that were sounded with a pick instead of fingers, four strings instead of five and tuned differently.[52] The changes reflected the nature of post-World-War-I music.[52] The country was turning away from European classics, preferring the "upbeat and carefree feel" of jazz, and American soldiers returning from the war helped to drive this change.[52]
The change in tastes toward dance music and the need for louder instruments began a few years before the war, however, with ragtime.[52] That music encouraged musicians to alter their 5-string banjos to four, add the louder steel strings and use a pick or plectrum, all in an effort to be heard over the brass and reed instruments that were current in dance-halls.[52] The four string plectrum and tenor banjos did not eliminate the five-string variety. They were products of their times and musical purposes—ragtime and jazz dance music and theater music.
The Great Depression is a visible line to mark the end of theJazz Age.[52] The economic downturn cut into the sales of both four- and five-stringed banjos, and by World War 2, banjos were in sharp decline, the market for them dead.[53]
Hubby Jenkins performing on solo banjo at theIBMA Bluegrass Live! festival in Raleigh, North Carolina on October 2, 2021
In the years after World War II, the banjo experienced a resurgence, played by music stars such asEarl Scruggs (bluegrass),Bela Fleck (jazz, rock, world music),Gerry O'Connor (Celtic and Irish music),Perry Bechtel (jazz, big band),Pete Seeger (folk), andOtis Taylor (African-American roots, blues, jazz).[54]
Pete Seeger "was a major force behind a new national interest in folk music."[24] Learning to play a fingerstyle in the Appalachians from musicians who never stopped playing the banjo, he wrote the book,How to Play the Five-String Banjo, which was the only banjo method on the market for years.[24] He was followed by a movement of folk musicians, such asDave Guard ofThe Kingston Trio andErik Darling of theWeavers andTarriers.[24]
Earl Scruggs was seen both as a legend and a "contemporary musical innovator" who gave his name to his style of playing, theScruggs Style.[55] Scruggs played the banjo "with heretofore unheard of speed and dexterity," using a picking technique for the 5-string banjo that he perfected from 2-finger and 3-finger picking techniques in rural North Carolina.[55] His playing reached Americans through theGrand Ole Opry and into the living rooms of Americans who didn't listen to country or bluegrass music, through the theme music ofThe Beverly Hillbillies TVsitcom.[55]
For the last one hundred years, the tenor banjo has become an intrinsic part of the world of Irish traditional music.[56] It is a relative newcomer to the genre.
Two techniques closely associated with the five-string banjo arerolls anddrones. Rolls are right handaccompanimental fingering patterns that consist of eight (eighth) notes thatsubdivide eachmeasure.[57] Drone notes are quick little notes (typically eighth notes), usually played on the 5th (short) string to fill in around the melody notes (typically eighth notes).[58][clarification needed] Both rolls and drones areidiomatic to the banjo in all styles, and their sound is characteristic of bluegrass.[citation needed]
Historically, the banjo was played in theclaw-hammer style by the Africans who brought their version of the banjo with them.[59] Several other styles of play were developed from this. Clawhammer consists of downward striking of one or more of the four main strings with the index, middle or both fingers while the drone or fifth string is played with a 'lifting' (as opposed to downward pluck) motion of the thumb. The notes typically sounded by the thumb in this fashion are, usually, on the off beat. Melodies can be quite intricate adding techniques such as double thumbing and drop thumb. In old time Appalachian Mountain music, a style called two-finger up-pick is also used, and a three-finger version thatEarl Scruggs developed into the"Scruggs" style picking was nationally aired in 1945 on theGrand Ole Opry.[60] In this style the instrument is played by plucking individual notes. Modern fingerstyle is usually played usingfingerpicks, though early players and some modern players play either with nails or with a technique known as on the flesh. In this style the strings are played directly with the fingers, rather than any pick or intermediary.[61]
While five-string banjos are traditionally played with either fingerpicks or the fingers themselves,tenor banjos andplectrum banjos are played with a pick, either to strum full chords, or most commonly inIrish traditional music, play single-note melodies.
The modern banjo comes in a variety of forms, including four- and five-string versions. A six-string version, tuned and played similarly to a guitar, has gained popularity. In almost all of its forms, banjo playing is characterized by a fastarpeggiated plucking, though many different playing styles exist.
The body, or "pot", of a modern banjo typically consists of a circular rim (generally made of wood, though metal was also common on older banjos) and a tensioned head, similar to a drum head. Traditionally, the head was made from animal skin, but today is often made of various synthetic materials. Most modern banjos also have a metal "tone ring" assembly that helps further clarify and project the sound, but many older banjos do not include a tone ring.
The banjo is usually tuned with frictiontuning pegs orplanetary gear tuners, rather than theworm gearmachine head used on guitars. Frets have become standard since the late 19th century, though fretless banjos are still manufactured and played by those wishing to executeglissando, play quarter tones, or otherwise achieve the sound and feeling of early playing styles.
Modern banjos are typically strung with metal strings. Usually, the fourth string iswound with either steel or bronze-phosphor alloy. Some players may string their banjos with nylon or gut strings to achieve a more mellow, old-time tone.
Some banjos have a separate resonator plate on the back of the pot to project the sound forward and give the instrument more volume. This type of banjo is usually used in bluegrass music, though resonator banjos are played by players of all styles, and are also used in old-time, sometimes as a substitute for electric amplification when playing in large venues.
Open-back banjos generally have a mellower tone and weigh less than resonator banjos. They usually have a different setup than a resonator banjo, often with a higher distance between strings and fret, also known asstring action.[62]
The modern five-string banjo is a variation on Sweeney's original design. The fifth string is usually the same gauge as the first, but starts from the fifth fret, three-quarters the length of the other strings. This lets the string be tuned to a higher open pitch than possible for the full-length strings. Because of the short fifth string, the five-string banjo uses areentrant tuning – the string pitches do not proceed lowest to highest across the fingerboard. Instead, the fourth string is lowest, then third, second, first, and the fifth string is highest.
The short fifth string presents special problems for acapo. For small changes (going up or down one or two semitones, for example), simply retuning the fifth string is possible. Otherwise, various devices called "fifth-string capos" effectively shorten the vibrating part of the string. Many banjo players use model-railroad spikes or titanium spikes (usually installed at the seventh fret and sometimes at others), under which they hook the string to press it down on thefret.
Five-string banjo players use many tunings. (Tunings are given in left-to-right order, as viewed from the front of the instrument with the neck pointing up for a right-handed instrument. Left handed instruments reverse the order of the strings.) Probably the most common, particularly in bluegrass, is the Open-G tuning G4 D3 G3 B3 D4. In earlier times, the tuning G4 C3 G3 B3 D4 was commonly used instead, and this is still the preferred tuning for some types of folk music and forclassic banjo. Other tunings found in old-time music include double C (G4 C3 G3 C4 D4), "sawmill" (G4 D3 G3 C4 D4) also called "mountain modal" and open D (F#4 D3 F#3 A3 D4). These tunings are often taken up a tone, either by tuning up or using a capo. For example, "double-D" tuning (A4 D3 A3 D4 E4) – commonly reached by tuning up from double C – is often played to accompany fiddle tunes in the key of D, and Open-A (A4 E3 A3 C#4 E4) is usually used for playing tunes in the key of A. Dozens of other banjo tunings are used, mostly in old-time music. These tunings are used to make playing specific tunes easier, usually fiddle tunes or groups of fiddle tunes.
The size of the five-string banjo is largely standardized, with a scale length of 26.25 in (667 mm), but smaller and larger sizes exist, including the long-neck or "Seeger neck" variation designed byPete Seeger. Petite variations on the five-string banjo have been available since the 1890s. S.S. Stewart introduced thebanjeaurine, tuned one fourth above a standard five-string. Piccolo banjos are smaller, and tuned one octave above a standard banjo. Between these sizes and standard lies the A-scale banjo, which is two frets shorter and usually tuned one full step above standard tunings. Many makers have produced banjos of other scale lengths, and with various innovations.
A five-string banjo
Americanold-time music typically uses the five-string, open-back banjo. It is played in a number of different styles, the most common beingclawhammer or frailing, characterized by the use of a downward rather than upward stroke when striking the strings with a fingernail. Frailing techniques use the thumb to catch the fifth string for adrone after moststrums or after each stroke ("double thumbing"), or to pick out additional melody notes in what is known as drop-thumb. Pete Seeger popularized afolk style by combining clawhammer with up picking, usually without the use offingerpicks. Another common style of old-time banjo playing is fingerpicking banjo or classic banjo. This style is based uponparlor-style guitar.[63]
Bluegrass music, which uses the five-string resonator banjo almost exclusively, is played in several common styles. These include Scruggs style, named after Earl Scruggs; melodic, orKeith style, named forBill Keith; and three-finger style with single-string work, also called Reno style afterDon Reno. In these styles, the emphasis is on arpeggiated figures played in a continuous eighth-note rhythm, known asrolls. All of these styles are typically played with fingerpicks.
The first five-string, electric, solid-body banjo was developed byCharles Wilburn (Buck) Trent, Harold "Shot" Jackson, and David Jackson in 1960.
The four-string plectrum banjo is a standard banjo without the short drone string. It usually has 22 frets on the neck and a scale length of 26 to 28 inches, and was originally tuned C3 G3 B3 D4. It can also be tuned like the top four strings of a guitar, which is known as "Chicago tuning".[64] As the name suggests, it is usually played with a guitar-stylepick (that is, a single one held between thumb and forefinger), unlike the five-string banjo, which is either played with athumbpick and two fingerpicks, or with bare fingers. The plectrum banjo evolved out of the five-string banjo, to cater to styles of music involving strummed chords. The plectrum is also featured in many early jazz recordings and arrangements.[65]
Four-string banjos can be used for chordal accompaniment (as in early jazz), for single-string melody playing (as in Irish traditional music), in "chord melody" style (a succession of chords in which the highest notes carry the melody), in tremolo style (both on chords and single strings), and a mixed technique called "duo style" that combines single-string tremolo and rhythm chords.[66]
Two Gibson tenor banjos from the early 20th century at theAmerican Banjo Museum. (Right) A 15 fret tenor banjo. (Left) A 19 fret tenor banjo.
The shorter-necked, tenor banjo, with 17 ("short scale") or 19 frets, is also typically played with a plectrum. It became a popular instrument after about 1910. Early models used for melodic picking typically had 17 frets on the neck and a scale length of 191⁄2 to 211⁄2 inches. By the mid-1920s, when the instrument was used primarily for strummed chordal accompaniment, 19-fret necks with a scale length of 213⁄4 to 23 inches became standard. The usual tuning is theall-fifths tuning C3 G3 D4 A4, in which exactly sevensemitones (aperfect fifth) occur between theopen notes of consecutivestrings; this is identical to the tuning of aviola. Other players (particularly in Irish traditional music) tune the banjo G2 D3 A3 E4 like anoctave mandolin, which lets the banjoist duplicate fiddle and mandolin fingering.[67] The popularization of this tuning is usually attributed to the lateBarney McKenna, banjoist withThe Dubliners.[68]
The tenor banjo was a common rhythm instrument in early 20th-century dance bands. Its volume and timbre suited early jazz (and jazz-influenced popular music styles) and could both compete with other instruments (such asbrass instruments and saxophones) and be heard clearly on acoustic recordings.George Gershwin'sRhapsody in Blue, inFerde Grofe's original jazz-orchestra arrangement, includes tenor banjo, with widely spaced chords not easily playable on plectrum banjo in its conventional tunings. With development of the archtop and electric guitar, the tenor banjo largely disappeared from jazz and popular music, though keeping its place in traditional "Dixieland" jazz.
Some 1920s Irish banjo players picked out the melodies of jigs, reels, and hornpipes on tenor banjos, decorating the tunes with snappy triplet ornaments. The most important Irish banjo player of this era was Mike Flanagan of the New York-basedFlanagan Brothers, one of the most popular Irish-American groups of the day. Other pre-WWII Irish banjo players included Neil Nolan, who recorded with Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band in Boston, and Jimmy McDade, who recorded with the Four Provinces Orchestra in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, in Ireland, the rise ofceili bands provided a new market for a loud instrument like the tenor banjo. Use of the tenor banjo in Irish music has increased greatly since the folk revival of the 1960s.[68]
The six-string banjo began as a British innovation by William Temlett, one of England's earliest banjo makers. He opened a shop in London in 1846, and sold seven-string banjos which he marketed as "zither" banjos from his 1869 patent.[69] A zither banjo usually has a closed back and sides with the drum body and skin tensioning system suspended inside the wooden rim, the neck and string tailpiece mounted on the outside of the rim, and the drone string led through a tube in the neck so that the tuning peg can be mounted on the head. They were often made by builders who used guitar tuners that came in banks of three, so five-stringed instruments had a redundant tuner; these banjos could be somewhat easily converted over to a six-string banjo.
American Alfred Davis Cammeyer (1862–1949), a young violinist turned concert banjo player, devised the six-string zither banjo around 1880. British opera divaAdelina Patti advised Cammeyer that the zither banjo might be popular with English audiences as it had been invented there, and Cammeyer went to London in 1888. With his virtuoso playing, he helped show that banjos could make more sophisticated music than normally played byblackface minstrels. He was soon performing for London society, where he met SirArthur Sullivan, who recommended that Cammeyer progress from arranging the music of others for banjo to composing his own music.
Modern six-string bluegrass banjos have been made. These add a bass string between the lowest string and the drone string on a five-string banjo, and are usually tuned G4 G2 D3 G3 B3 D4.Sonny Osborne played one of these instruments for several years. It was modified by luthier Rual Yarbrough from a Vega five-string model. A picture of Sonny with this banjo appears in Pete Wernick'sBluegrass Banjo method book.[70]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in vogue in plucked-string instrument ensembles – guitar orchestras,mandolin orchestras, banjo orchestras – was when the instrumentation was made to parallel that of the string section in symphony orchestras. Thus, "violin, viola, 'cello, bass" became "mandolin, mandola, mandocello, mandobass", or in the case of banjos, "banjolin, banjola, banjo cello, bass banjo". Because the range of pluck-stringed instrument generally is not as great as that of comparably sized bowed-string instruments, other instruments were often added to these plucked orchestras to extend the range of the ensemble upwards and downwards.[citation needed]
The banjo cello was normally tuned C2-G2-D3-A3, one octave below the tenor banjo like the cello and mandocello. A five-string cello banjo, set up like a bluegrass banjo (with the short fifth string), but tuned one octave lower, has been produced by the Goldtone company.[71]
Bass banjo
Bass banjos have been produced in both upright bass formats and with standard, horizontally carried banjo bodies. Contrabass banjos with either three or four strings have also been made; some of these had headstocks similar to those of bass violins. Tuning varies on these large instruments, with four-string models sometimes being tuned in 4ths like a bass violin (E1-A1-D2-G2) and sometimes in 5ths, like a four-string cello banjo, one octave lower (C1-G1-D2-A2).[72]
Also called Seeger banjos for having been invented byPete Seeger, these banjos feature three extra frets, giving the instrument a longer neck and greater playing versatility.[73] With three extra frets, these banjos can be played one-and-a-half steps lower than a regular banjo, which some players find advantageous for singing or playing along. They are almost always open-backed. Notably, the drone strings on Seeger banjos are not pushed three frets back, so the tuning peg for the 5th string is in line with the 8th fret instead of the 5th fret.
A number of hybrid instruments exist, crossing the banjo with other stringed instruments. Most of these use the body of a banjo, often with a resonator, and the neck of the other instrument. Examples include thebanjo mandolin (first patented in 1882)[74] and thebanjo ukulele, most famously played by the English comedianGeorge Formby.[75] These were especially popular in the early decades of the 20th century, and were probably a result of a desire either to allow players of other instruments to jump on the banjo bandwagon at the height of its popularity, or to get the natural amplification benefits of the banjo resonator in an age before electric amplification.
Conversely, thetenor and plectrum guitars use the respective banjo necks on guitar bodies. They arose in the early 20th century as a way for banjo players to double on guitar without having to relearn the instrument entirely.[76]
Instruments that have a five-string banjo neck on a wooden body (for example, a guitar,bouzouki, ordobro body) have also been made, such as thebanjola. A 20th-centuryTurkish instrument similar to the banjo is called thecümbüş, which combines a banjo-like resonator with a neck derived from anoud. At the end of the 20th century, a development of the five-string banjo was theBanSitar.[77] This features a bone bridge, giving the instrument asitar-like resonance.
The Brazilian samba banjo is basically acavaquinho neck on a banjo body, thereby producing a louder sound than the cavaquinho. It is tuned the same as the top 4 strings of a 5-string banjo up an octave (or any cavaquinho tuning).
Joel Sweeney (1810–1860), also known as Joe Sweeney, was a musician and earlyblackfaceminstrel performer. He is known for popularizing the playing of the banjo and has often been credited with advancing the physical development of the modern five-string banjo.
Vess Ossman (1868–1923) was a leading five-string banjoist who started playing banjo at age 12. He was a popular recording artist, and in fact one of the first recording artistsever, when audio recording first became commercially available. He formed various recording groups, his most popular being the Ossman-Dudley trio.[78][79]
Clifford Essex (1869–1946), a British banjoist, who was also a musical instrument manufacturer
Uncle Dave Macon (1870–1952) was a banjo player and comedian from Tennessee known for his "plug hat, gold teeth, chin whiskers, gates ajar collar and that million dollar Tennessee smile".
Fred Van Eps (1878–1960) was a noted five-string player and banjo maker who learned to play from listening to cylinder recordings of Vess Ossman. He recorded for Edison's company, producing some of the earliest disk recordings, and also the earliest ragtime recordings in any medium other than player piano.[80]
Frank Lawes (1894–1970), of the United Kingdom, developed a unique fingerstyle technique on the four-string plectrum instrument, and was a prolific composer of four-string banjo music, much of which is still performed and recorded today.
Pasquale Troise (1895-1957), Italian emigrant to the UK in the 1920s. Formed Troise and his Banjoliers in 1933, which recorded withDecca and performed regularly on the BBC's long-running seriesMusic While You Work.[81]
Harry Reser (1896–1965), plectrum and tenor banjo, was regarded by some as the best tenor banjoist of the 1920s. He wrote a large number of works for tenor banjo, as well as instructional material including numerous banjo method books,[82] over a dozen other instrumental method books (for guitar, ukulele, mandolin etc.), and was well known in the banjo community. Reser's accomplished single string and "chord melody" technique set a "high mark" that many subsequent tenor players still endeavor to attain.
Eddie Peabody (1902–1970) was a great proponent of the plectrum banjo who performed for nearly five decades (1920–1968) and left a considerable legacy of recordings.[83] An early reviewer dubbed him "King of the Banjo", and his was a household name for decades. He went on to develop new instruments, produce records, and appear in movies.
Ola Belle Reed (1916–2002) was an American folk singer, songwriter and banjo player.
Pete Seeger (1919–2014), a singer-songwriter who performed solo as well as with folk groupthe Weavers, included five-string banjo among his instruments. His 1948 method bookHow to Play the Five-String Banjo has been credited by thousands of banjoists, including prominent professionals, with sparking their interest in the instrument. He is also credited with inventing thelong-neck banjo (also known as the "Seeger Banjo"), which adds three lower frets to the five-string banjo's neck, and tunes the four main strings down by a minor third, to facilitate playing in singing keys more comfortable for some folk guitarists.
Earl Scruggs (1924–2012), whose career ranged from the end of World War II into the 21st century, is widely regarded as the father of the bluegrass style of banjo playing.[84] The three-finger style of playing he developed while playing withBill Monroe's band is known by his name:Scruggs Style.[85]
Barney McKenna (1939–2012) was an Irish musician and a founding member of The Dubliners. He played the tenor banjo, violin, mandolin, and melodeon. He was most renowned as a banjo player. Barney used GDAE tuning on a 19-fret tenor banjo, an octave below fiddle/mandolin and, according to musician Mick Moloney, was single-handedly responsible for making the GDAE-tuned tenor banjo the standard banjo in Irish music. Due to his skill level on the banjo, fans all around the world and other members ofThe Dubliners nicknamed him "Banjo Barney".
Béla Fleck (b. 1958) is widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players.[86] His work spans many styles and genres, including jazz, bluegrass, classical, R&B, avant garde, and "world music", and he has produced a substantial discography and videography. He works extensively in both acoustic and electric media. Fleck has been nominated for Grammy Awards in more categories than any other artist, and has received 13 as of 2015[update].[87]
Noam Pikelny (b. 1981) is an American banjoist who plays eclectic styles including traditional bluegrass, classical, rock, and jazz music. He has won the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass in 2010.[88] He has been nominated for eight Grammy Nominations and has been awarded one with his band, the Punch Brothers, in 2018.[89]
Other important four-string performers wereMike Pingitore, who played tenor for thePaul Whiteman Orchestra through 1948, andRoy Smeck, early radio and recording pioneer, author of many instructional books, and whose influential performances on many fretted instruments earned him the nickname "Wizard of the Strings", during his active years (1922–1950). Prominent tenor players of more recent vintage includeNarvin Kimball (d. 2006) (left-handed banjoist ofPreservation Hall Jazz Band fame).
Noted four-string players currently active includeragtime anddixieland stylistsCharlie Tagawa (1935–2017) and Bill Lowrey (b. 1963). Jazz guitaristHoward Alden (b. 1958) began his career on tenor banjo and still plays it at traditional jazz events.Cynthia Sayer (b. 1962) is regarded as one of the top jazz plectrum banjoists. Rock and country performerWinston Marshall (b. 1988) plays banjo (among other instruments) for the Britishfolk rock groupMumford and Sons, a band that won the 2013Grammy Award for "Best Album of the Year".
^abOdell, Jay Scott."Banjo".Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved23 February 2015.(subscription required)
^Winans, Bob; Gibson, George (2018). "Black Banjo, Fiddle and Dance in Kentucky and the Amalgamation of Black American Folk Music".Banjo Roots and Branches. Urbana: University of Illinois. pp. 226, 231,242–246.
^Webb, Robert Lloyd (1993). "Confidence and Admiration: The Enduring Ringing of the Banjo". In Heier, Uli; Lotz, Rainer E. (eds.).Banjo on Record: A Bio-Discography(PDF). UCSB Historical Discography Series. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 8.ISBN9780313284922. Retrieved13 February 2024.
^abcMetro Voloshin,The Banjo, from Its Roots to the Ragtime Era: An Essay and Bibliography Music Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 6(3) 1998.
^abcdef"Banjo History".banjomuseum.org. American Banjo Museum. Archived fromthe original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved10 February 2020.[Taken from a May 15, 2009 archived version of the American Banjo Museums website.]
^Gibson, George R. and Robert B. Winans. "Black Banjo Fiddle and Dance in Kentucky and the Amalgamation of African American and Anglo-American Folk Music." InBanjo Roots and Branches, 224. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018.
^Tutwiler, Edward (18 November 2016)."About That Banjo".Americana Rhythm Music Magazine. Retrieved9 February 2020.
^abcWebb, Robert Lloyd (1984).Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory. Anaheim Hills, California: Centerstream Publishing. p. 16.
^Carlin, Bob (2007).The Birth of the Banjo. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company. p. 145.
^Schreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. p. 64.
^Schreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. p. 162.
^Webb, Robert Lloyd (1984).Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory. Anaheim Hills, California: Centerstream Publishing. p. 12.
^abcSchreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. pp. 83–84.
^abcdeSchreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. pp. 85–86.
^Schreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. p. 128.
^Schreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. p. 127.
^abSchreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. p. 232.
^abStewart, Samuel Swaim (1888).The Banjo! A Dissertation. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: S. S. Stewart. pp. 43–45.
^Schreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. pp. 151, 170.
^Webb, Robert Lloyd (1984).Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory. Anaheim Hills, California: Centerstream Publishing. p. 13.
^abWebb, Robert Lloyd (1984).Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory. Anaheim Hills, California: Centerstream Publishing. p. 15.
^Schreyer, Lowell H. (2007).The Banjo Entertainers. Mankato, Minnesota: Minnesota Heritage Publishing. p. 126.
^"Banjo History".banjomuseum.org. American Banjo Museum. Archived fromthe original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved10 February 2020.The resulting catastrophic collapse of the stock market and Great Depression which followed marked the end of the jazz age – the final years in which the banjo held a place of prominence in American popular music. By 1940, for all practical purposes, the banjo was dead.
^Entry display at the American Banjo Museum (motion picture, music, signs, 3-dimensional displays, posters, voiceover). Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: American Banjo Museum.
^abcEarl Scruggs.... Bluegrass Pioneers... New Traditions (Sign inside museum).Oklahoma City: American Banjo Museum. n.d.[This ref takes from three signs from the same area in the museum]
^e.g.,Harry Reser's Manual for Tenor Banjo Technique (Robbins Music Corporation, 1927);Harry Reser's Let's Play the Tenor Banjo (Remick Music Crop, 1959);Picture-Chords for Tenor Banjo (Remick Music Crop, 1960);et al
^The Banjo Wizardry of Eddie Peabody, Dot Records DLP-3023 (mono) (date not known), liner notes
^Willis, Barry R.;America's Music: Bluegrass : A History of Bluegrass Music in the Words of Its Pioneers; Pine Valley Music, 1997.ISBN0-965240-70-3
^Trischka, Tony, "Earl Scruggs",Banjo Song Book, Oak Publications, 1977
Castelnero, Gordon and Russell, David L.Earl Scruggs: Banjo Icon. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
Conway, Cecelia (1995).African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions, University of Tennessee Press. Paper:ISBN0-87049-893-2; cloth:ISBN0-87049-892-4. A study of the influence of African Americans on banjo playing throughout U.S. history.
De Smaele G. (1983). "Banjo a cinq cordes". Brussels: Musée Instrumental (MIM), Brussels. D 1983-2170-1
De Smaele G. (2015). "Banjo Attitudes." Paris: L'Harmattan, 2015.
De Smaele G. (2019). "A Five-String Banjo Sourcebook." Paris: L'Harmattan, 2019.
Epstein, Dena (1977).Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. University of Illinois Press, 2003. Winner of the Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association, 1979. Winner of the Chicago Folklore Prize. The anniversary edition of a classic study of black slave music in America.
Gaddy, Kristina (2022).Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History. W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.ISBN978-0393866803. The author uncovers the banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion.
Gibson, George R. (2018). "Black Banjo, Fiddle and Dance in Kentucky and the Amalgamation of African American and Anglo-American Folk Music."Banjo Roots and Branches(Winans, 2018). University of Illinois Press, 2018. Gibson's historiographic chapter uncovers much new information about black banjo and fiddle players, and dance, in Kentucky, and their influence on white musicians, from the 1780s.
Gura, Philip F. and James F. Bollman (1999).America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century. The University of North Carolina Press.ISBN0-8078-2484-4. The definitive history of the banjo, focusing on the instrument's development in the 1800s.
Katonah Museum of Art (2003).The Birth of the Banjo. Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York.ISBN0-915171-64-3.
Linn, Karen (1994).That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Culture. University of Illinois Press.ISBN0-252-06433-X. Scholarly cultural history of the banjo, focusing on how its image has evolved over the years.
Tsumura, Akira (1984).Banjos: The Tsumura Collection. Kodansha International Ltd.ISBN0-87011-605-3. An illustrated history of the banjo featuring the world's premier collection.
Webb, Robert Lloyd (1996).Ring the Banjar!. 2nd edition. Centerstream Publishing.ISBN1-57424-016-1. A short history of the banjo, with pictures from an exhibition at the MIT Museum.
Winans, Robert (2018).Banjo Roots and Branches. University of Illinois Press, 2018. The story of the banjo's journey from Africa to the western hemisphere blends music, history, and a union of cultures. In Banjo Roots and Branches, Robert B. Winans presents cutting-edge scholarship that covers the instrument's West African origins and its adaptations and circulation in the Caribbean and United States.
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