Banjo

The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, in modern forms usually made of plastic, originally of animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African 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 century minstrel show fad, followed by mass-production and mail-order sales, including instruction method books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but 5-string and 4-string banjos also became popular for home parlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 21st century, the banjo was most frequently associated with folk, bluegrass and country music, but was also used in some rock, pop and even hip-hop music.^[3] Among rock bands, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Some famous pickers of the banjo are Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs.

For other uses, see Banjo (disambiguation).

String instrument

321.312 (resonator) or 321.314 (open-backed)
(Composite chordophone with a neck that passes diametrically through the resonator, sounded by plectrum, finger picks, or the bare fingers)

18th century, United States

Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in Black American traditional music and rural folk culture before entering the mainstream via the minstrel shows of the 19th century.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] Along with the fiddle, the banjo is a mainstay of American styles of music, such as bluegrass and old-time music. It is also very frequently used in Dixieland jazz, as well as in Caribbean genres like biguine, calypso, mento and troubadour.

(1810–1860), also known as Joe Sweeney, was a musician and early blackface minstrel 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.

Joel Sweeney

(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 artists ever, when audio recording first became commercially available. He formed various recording groups, his most popular being the Ossman-Dudley trio.^[77]^[78]

Vess Ossman

(1869–1946), a British banjoist, who was also a musical instrument manufacturer

Clifford Essex

(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".

Uncle Dave Macon

(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.^[79]

Fred Van Eps

(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.

Frank Lawes

(1895-1957), Italian emigrant to the UK in the 1920s. Formed Troise and his Banjoliers in 1933, which recorded with Decca and performed regularly on the BBC's long-running series Music While You Work.^[80]

Pasquale Troise

(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,^[81] 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.

Harry Reser

(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.^[82] 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.

Eddie Peabody

(1916–2002) was an American folk singer, songwriter and banjo player.

Ola Belle Reed

(1919–2014), a singer-songwriter who performed solo as well as with folk group the Weavers, included five-string banjo among his instruments. His 1948 method book How 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 the long-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.

Pete Seeger

(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.^[83] The three-finger style of playing he developed while playing with Bill Monroe's band is known by his name: Scruggs Style.^[84]

Earl Scruggs

(1927–2016) had a long career, both with his brother as the Stanley Brothers and with his band the Clinch Mountain Boys. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by Lincoln Memorial University, is a member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. He won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Ralph Stanley

(1933–2018)

Roy Clark

(1937–2001)

John Hartford

(1937-2021)

Sonny Osborne

(b. 1938)

Ben Eldridge

(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 of The Dubliners nicknamed him "Banjo Barney".

Barney McKenna

(1939–2015)

Bill Keith

(b. 1946)

Pete Wernick

(b. 1949)

Tony Trischka

(b. 1958) is widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players.^[85] 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.^[86]

Béla Fleck

(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.^[87] He has been nominated for eight Grammy Nominations and has been awarded one with his band, the Punch Brothers, in 2018.^[88]

Noam Pikelny

Other important four-string performers were , who played tenor for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra through 1948, and Roy 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 include Narvin Kimball (d. 2006) (left-handed banjoist of Preservation Hall Jazz Band fame).

Mike Pingitore

Noted four-string players currently active include and dixieland stylists Charlie Tagawa (1935–2017) and Bill Lowrey (b. 1963). Jazz guitarist Howard 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 performer Winston Marshall (b. 1988) plays banjo (among other instruments) for the British folk rock group Mumford and Sons, a band that won the 2013 Grammy Award for "Best Album of the Year".

ragtime

Akonting

Banjo (samba)

Banjo ukulele

Benju

Bulbul tarang

Cuatro (instrument)

Double-neck guitjo

Stringed instrument tunings

Castelnero, Gordon and Russell, David L. Earl Scruggs: Banjo Icon. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017

. Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). 1911.

"Banjo"

The Banjo in Irish Traditional Music

200 banjo makers pre 2nd WW

BANJO ATTITUDES - Le banjo à cinq cordes : son histoire générale, sa documentation, Gérard De Smaele - livre, ebook, epub

19th Century Banjo Instruction Manuals

1947 Alan Lomax film (16 minutes)

To Hear Your Banjo Play

Fingerstyle Tenor Banjo

Banjo Newsletter

Banjo Hangout

Dr Joan Dickerson, , and George Gibson with host Michael Johnathon explore the African-American History of the Banjo through conversation and music on show 350 of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Both audio and video are provided.