Folk Scene--Man with Banjo. Banjo Chair. Pete Seeger. Vega Tu-ba-phone Banjo. American Five-String Banjo. Huron Mountain Banjo. How has the Banjo Changed Over Time? American Five-String Fretless Banjo.
Gibson Tenor Banjo. Teed Six-String Banjo. Stewart Five-String Banjo. Gibson Tenor Banjo, used by Frances Chenoweth. Self-Portrait with Banjo. Fairbanks Five-String Banjo. Thompson Artillery Shell Banjo. They performed music crudely mocking African-American culture in many cases, appearing with burnt cork rubbed into their skin in a practice known as blackface.
Their bands typically consisted of a banjo, a fiddle, bones, and a tambourine. By the s, hundreds of minstrel troupes and formed and could be seen across the United States and beyond. The minstrel shows brought with them a more modern banjo with several important developments, most important among them the fifth string.
As production techniques became more sophisticated, performance techniques such as rapid-fire picking followed suit. During the Civil War, banjo players entertained the troops on both sides.
After the war, many white musicians tried to disassociate the banjo from the lowbrow entertainment offered by blackface minstrelsy. At Universities, banjo orchestras arose, employing several different sizes of banjo to play more orchestral European dance music like the waltz. Virtuoso banjo players would even tour as solo acts, playing classical concertos with piano accompaniment in the late s.
By the early twentieth century, vaudeville had replaced blackface minstrelsy as the popular entertainment of the day, but the banjo remained a major part of many comedy acts with jokes, funny songs, and general entertainment.
Meanwhile, in the rural South, the banjo continued to grow in popularity as a folk instrument, and immigrants from Europe played versions of folk music from the old world on the banjo. Regional styles of playing evolved over time, such that the first big star of the Grand Ole Opry, Uncle Dave Macon, could play in as many as 17 distinct styles.
Also in the South, the banjo played a crucial role in the development of early jazz music and the blues. Jazz bands in New Orleans and elsewhere generally favored the banjo over the guitar in the rhythm section in the early years.
Even the early jazz musicals of the s in the northeast used one or more banjos in the orchestra. The Great Depression, however, led most jazz bands to move to the guitar, which was about one-third as expensive as a banjo. Modern day bluegrass music s olidified as a genre in the s and s. Its roots are in folk music from Scotland, Ireland, and England, played by settlers in the Appalachian mountains. The best-known bluegrass banjo player of all, Earl Scruggs — , was responsible for truly popularizing the instrument nationwide, inspiring legions of followers who copied his technique and formed bluegrass bands from sea to shining sea.
In bluegrass, as in jazz, the musicians typically trade off improvisatory solos based on well-known tunes. This one can be used for Traditional Jazz Dixieland and Irish music. The fret tenor is popular with the well known Dropkick Murphys Band. The fret four string banjo is called a Plectrum banjo and is tune C,G,B,D which 5-string players may recognize as drop C tuning.
Here is an interesting historical note. Yes, that is where the plectrum banjo got its name because it is traditionally played with a flat pick. This is used for traditional jazz music and you all may have seen the players at Disneyland with their straw hats and plectrum banjo picking away for the street crowds. This one can also be tuned to D,G,B,E also know as Chicago tuning so you guitar players out there should really get one of these banjos! Banjo is experiencing a new Renaissance.
More and more folks are coming to banjo for the first time or are returning to it after many years. Some of the interest is coming from the guitar playing musician who wants to expand his musical repertoire.
Many of them would like to take their existing skill set and transfer it to the banjo. Enter the 6-string! While this is not a new instrument created by Deering Banjos and has been part of the banjo world for decades, we do make the best 6-string on the market today. The musical versatility of this banjo is legend. You can play jazz on it as did the famous Johnny St. You can play country like any number of main stream artists today.
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