What does a banjo sound like? Banjo: history, video, interesting facts. Traditional American instrument

The instrument was probably brought to America from West Africa, where some Arabic instruments were its predecessors. In the 19th century, the banjo began to be used by minstrels and thus found its way into early jazz bands as a rhythmic instrument. The banjo is played using a plectrum, the so-called “claws” (three specially designed plectrums worn on the thumb, index and middle fingers of the right hand) or simply with your fingers.

The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, a direct descendant of the African lute. But there is a sharp difference in sound between the mandolin and the banjo - the banjo has a more ringing and harsh sound.

A design feature of the banjo is its acoustic body, which looks a little like a small drum, on the front side of which a steel ring is attached with two dozen adjustable ties-screws, tensioning the membrane, and on the back side - with a gap of 2 cm. A slightly larger diameter wooden removable half-body is installed -resonator (removable if necessary to lower the volume of the instrument or to access the anchor rod that secures the neck and regulates the distance from the strings to the plane of the neck). The strings are tensioned through a wooden (less often steel) “filly” resting directly on the membrane. The diaphragm and resonator give the banjo a purity and power of sound that allows it to stand out from other instruments. Therefore, it found a place in New Orleans jazz groups, where it performed both rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment, and sometimes short, energetic solos and transitions. The four strings of a jazz tenor banjo are usually tuned like an alto ( do-sol-re-la) or (less commonly) like a violin ( sol-re-la-mi).

American folk music most often uses a bluegrass banjo (sometimes called a western banjo, country banjo) with 5 strings, a longer scale and specific tuning. The shortened fifth string is not tensioned on the peg head, but on a separate peg on the neck itself (at the fifth fret). Chord playing with a plectrum, which existed initially, was later supplanted by arpeggiated playing with “claws” worn on the fingers. Playing without the use of “claws” and various percussion techniques are also used. The 5-string banjo appears in traditional American music groups along with the fiddle, flat mandolin, and folk or dobro guitar.

The banjo is also widely used in country and bluegrass music. Prominent banjo players include Wade Meiner and Earl Scruggs, who are known for their innovative playing techniques. In Europe, the Czech band Banjo Band of Ivan Mládek became famous.

The 6-string banjo is a relatively rare instrument; it is popular with guitarists because its tuning is completely identical to that of a guitar, but not in the classic E tuning, but a tone lower, in D (D-A-F-C-G-D).

Write a review about the article "Banjo"

Notes

1. In Australian slang, the word "banjo" means 10 Australian dollars.

Literature

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Encyclopedia of a young musician / Igor Kubersky, E. V. Minina. - St. Petersburg: LLC “Diamant”, 2001. - 576 p.
• Everything about everything (Le Livre des Instruments de Musique) / Translation from French. - M.: AST Publishing House LLC, 2002. - 272 p.

Links

Banjo Game techniques Genres People

Bowed Plucked Percussion strings Percussion keyboards Plucked-keyboards Friction-keyboards Other

Typical tools Stylistic origin Sub- and fusion genres Famous festivals Other

Excerpt describing Banjo

Absolute continuity of movement is incomprehensible to the human mind. The laws of any movement become clear to a person only when he examines arbitrarily taken units of this movement. But at the same time, from this arbitrary division of continuous movement into discontinuous units stems most of human error.
The so-called sophism of the ancients is known, which consists in the fact that Achilles will never catch up with the tortoise in front, despite the fact that Achilles walks ten times faster than the tortoise: as soon as Achilles passes the space separating him from the tortoise, the tortoise will walk ahead of him one tenth of this space; Achilles will walk this tenth, the tortoise will walk one hundredth, etc. ad infinitum. This task seemed insoluble to the ancients. The meaninglessness of the decision (that Achilles would never catch up with the tortoise) stemmed from the fact that discontinuous units of movement were arbitrarily allowed, while the movement of both Achilles and the tortoise was continuous.
By taking smaller and smaller units of movement, we only get closer to the solution of the problem, but never achieve it. Only by admitting an infinitesimal value and an ascending progression from it to one tenth and taking the sum of this geometric progression do we achieve a solution to the question. A new branch of mathematics, having achieved the art of dealing with infinitesimal quantities, and in other more complex questions of motion, now provides answers to questions that seemed insoluble.
This new, unknown to the ancients, branch of mathematics, when considering issues of motion, admits infinitesimal quantities, that is, those at which the main condition of motion is restored (absolute continuity), thereby correcting that inevitable mistake that the human mind cannot help but make when considering instead of continuous movement, individual units of movement.
In the search for the laws of historical movement, exactly the same thing happens.
The movement of humanity, resulting from countless human tyranny, occurs continuously.
Comprehension of the laws of this movement is the goal of history. But in order to comprehend the laws of continuous movement of the sum of all the arbitrariness of people, the human mind allows for arbitrary, discontinuous units. The first method of history is to take an arbitrary series of continuous events and consider it separately from the others, whereas there is not and cannot be the beginning of any event, and one event always follows continuously from another. The second technique is to consider the action of one person, a king, a commander, as the sum of the arbitrariness of people, while the sum of human arbitrariness is never expressed in the activity of one historical person.
Historical science, in its movement, constantly accepts smaller and smaller units for consideration and in this way strives to get closer to the truth. But no matter how small the units that history accepts, we feel that the assumption of a unit separated from another, the assumption of the beginning of some phenomenon and the assumption that the arbitrariness of all people is expressed in the actions of one historical person are false in themselves.
Every conclusion of history, without the slightest effort on the part of criticism, disintegrates like dust, leaving nothing behind, only due to the fact that criticism selects a larger or smaller discontinuous unit as the object of observation; to which it always has the right, since the historical unit taken is always arbitrary.
Only by allowing an infinitely small unit for observation - the differential of history, that is, the homogeneous drives of people, and having achieved the art of integrating (taking the sums of these infinitesimals), can we hope to comprehend the laws of history.
The first fifteen years of the 19th century in Europe represented an extraordinary movement of millions of people. People leave their usual occupations, rush from one side of Europe to the other, rob, kill one another, triumph and despair, and the whole course of life changes for several years and represents an intensified movement, which at first increases, then weakens. What was the reason for this movement or according to what laws did it occur? - asks the human mind.

From West Africa, where its predecessors were some Arabic instruments. In the 19th century, the banjo began to be used by minstrels and thus found its way into early jazz bands as a rhythmic instrument. The banjo is played using a plectrum, the so-called “claws” (three specially designed plectrums worn on the thumb, index and middle fingers of the right hand) or simply with your fingers.

The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, a direct descendant of the African [[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] lutes But there is a sharp difference in sound between the mandolin and the banjo - the banjo has a more ringing and harsh sound.

A design feature of the banjo is its acoustic body, which looks a little like a small drum, on the front side of which a steel ring is attached with two dozen adjustable ties-screws, tensioning the membrane, and on the back side - with a gap of 2 cm. A slightly larger diameter wooden removable half-body is installed -resonator (removable if necessary to lower the volume of the instrument or to access the anchor rod that secures the neck and regulates the distance from the strings to the plane of the neck). The strings are tensioned through a wooden (less often steel) “filly” resting directly on the membrane. The diaphragm and resonator give the banjo a purity and power of sound that allows it to stand out from other instruments. Therefore, it found a place in New Orleans jazz groups, where it performed both rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment, and sometimes short, energetic solos and transitions. The four strings of a jazz tenor banjo are usually tuned like an alto ( do-sol-re-la) or (less commonly) like a violin ( sol-re-la-mi).

American folk music most often uses a bluegrass banjo (sometimes called a western banjo, country banjo) with 5 strings, a longer scale and specific tuning. The shortened fifth string is not tensioned on the peg head, but on a separate peg on the neck itself (at the fifth fret). Chord playing with a plectrum, which existed initially, was later supplanted by arpeggiated playing with “claws” worn on the fingers. Playing without the use of “claws” and various percussion techniques are also used. The 5-string banjo appears in traditional American music groups along with the fiddle, flat mandolin, and folk or dobro guitar.

The banjo is also widely used in country and bluegrass music. Prominent banjo players include Wade Meiner and Earl Scruggs, who are known for their innovative playing techniques. In Europe, the Czech band Banjo Band of Ivan Mládek became famous.

The 6-string banjo is a relatively rare instrument; it is popular with guitarists because its tuning is completely identical to that of a guitar, but not in the classic E tuning, but a tone lower, in D (D-A-F-C-G-D).

Write a review about the article "Banjo"

Notes

1. In Australian slang, the word "banjo" means 10 Australian dollars.

Literature

• Banio // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Encyclopedia of a young musician / Igor Kubersky, E. V. Minina. - St. Petersburg: LLC “Diamant”, 2001. - 576 p.
• Everything about everything (Le Livre des Instruments de Musique) / Translation from French. - M.: AST Publishing House LLC, 2002. - 272 p.

Links

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View this template Banjo Game techniques Genres People

View this template Bowed Plucked Percussion strings Percussion keyboards Plucked-keyboards Friction-keyboards Other

View this template Typical tools Stylistic origin Sub- and fusion genres Famous festivals Other

Excerpt describing Banjo

Almost a month has passed since my first visit to the cellars. There was no one nearby with whom I could even say a word. Loneliness oppressed more and more deeply, planting in the heart an emptiness, acutely seasoned with despair...
I really hoped that Morone still survived, despite the “talents” of the Pope. But she was afraid to return to the cellars, because she was not sure whether the unfortunate cardinal was still there. My return visit could bring upon him the real anger of Caraffa, and Morona would have to pay really dearly for this.
Remaining fenced off from any communication, I spent my days in complete “silence of loneliness.” Until, finally, unable to bear it any longer, she went down to the basement again...
The room in which I found Morone a month ago was empty this time. One could only hope that the brave cardinal was still alive. And I sincerely wished him good luck, which, unfortunately, the prisoners of Caraffa clearly lacked.
And since I was already in the basement anyway, after thinking a little, I decided to look further and carefully opened the next door...
And there, on some terrible torture “instrument” lay a completely naked, bloody young girl, whose body was a real mixture of living burnt meat, cuts and blood, covering her from head to toe... Neither the executioner nor the more - Caraffa, fortunately for me, there were no tortures in the torture room.
I quietly approached the unfortunate woman and carefully stroked her swollen, tender cheek. The girl moaned. Then, carefully taking her fragile fingers into my palm, I slowly began to “treat” her... Soon clear, gray eyes looked at me in surprise...
- Quiet, honey... Lie quietly. I will try to help you as much as possible. But I don’t know if I’ll have enough time... You’ve been hurt a lot, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to “fix” it all quickly. Relax, my dear, and try to remember something kind... if you can.
The girl (she turned out to be just a child) groaned, trying to say something, but for some reason the words did not come out. She mumbled, unable to pronounce even the shortest word clearly. And then a terrible realization struck me - this unfortunate woman had no tongue!!! They tore it out... so as not to say too much! So that she wouldn’t scream the truth when they burn her at the stake... So that she wouldn’t be able to say what they did to her...
Oh God!.. Was all this really done by PEOPLE???
Having calmed my deadened heart a little, I tried to turn to her mentally - the girl heard. Which meant that she was gifted!.. One of those whom the Pope hated so fiercely. And who did he so brutally burn alive on his terrifying human bonfires....
- What did they do to you, dear?!.. Why did they take away your speech?!
Trying to pull higher the coarse rags that had fallen from her body with naughty, trembling hands, I whispered in shock.
“Don’t be afraid of anything, my dear, just think about what you would like to say, and I will try to hear you.” What's your name, girl?
“Damiana...” the answer whispered quietly.
“Hold on, Damiana,” I smiled as gently as possible. - Hold on, don’t slip away, I’ll try to help you!
But the girl only slowly shook her head, and a clean, lonely tear rolled down her battered cheek...
- Thank you... for your kindness. But I’m no longer a tenant... – her quiet “mental” voice rustled in response. - Help me... Help me “go away.” Please... I can't stand it anymore... They'll be back soon... Please! They desecrated me... Please help me “leave”... You know how. Help... I will thank you “there” and remember you...
She grabbed my wrist with her thin fingers, disfigured by torture, clutching it with a death grip, as if she knew for sure that I could really help her... could give her the peace she wanted...
A sharp pain twisted my tired heart... This sweet, brutally tortured girl, almost a child, begged me for death as a favor!!! The executioners not only wounded her fragile body - they desecrated her pure soul, raping her together!.. And now Damiana was ready to “leave.” She asked for death as deliverance, even for a moment, without thinking about salvation. She was tortured and desecrated, and did not want to live... Anna appeared before my eyes... God, was it really possible that the same terrible end awaited her?!! Will I be able to save her from this nightmare?!

Banjo is a stringed musical instrument with a tambourine-shaped body and a long wooden neck with a neck on which 4 to 9 strand strings are stretched. A type of guitar with a resonator (the extended part of the instrument is covered with leather, like a drum). Thomas Jefferson mentions the banjo in 1784 - the instrument was probably brought to America by black slaves from West Africa, where some Arab instruments were its predecessors. In the 19th century, the banjo began to be used by minstrels and thus found its way into early jazz bands as a rhythmic instrument. In modern America, the word “banjo” refers to either its tenor variety with four strings tuned in fifths, the lower of which is up to a small octave, or a five-string instrument with a different tuning. The banjo is played using a plectrum.

The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, similar in shape to it. But there is a sharp difference in sound between them - the banjo has a more ringing and harsh sound. In some African countries, the banjo is considered a sacred instrument that can only be touched by high priests or rulers.

Origin
African slaves in South America shaped the earliest banjos into closely related African instruments. Some of the early instruments were known as “pumpkin banjos.” Most likely, the leading candidate for the ancestor of the banjo is the akonting, a folk lute used by the Diola tribe. There are other instruments similar to the banjo (xalam, ngoni). The modern banjo was made popular by minstrel Joel Sweeney in the 1830s. The banjo was brought to Britain in the 1840s by the Sweeneys, American minstrels, and quickly became quite popular.

Modern types of banjo
The modern banjo comes in a wide variety of styles, including five- and six-string versions. The six-string version, tuned like a guitar, has also become very popular. Almost all types of banjo are played with a distinctive tremolo or arpeggiated right hand, although there are many different styles of playing.

Application
Today, the banjo is commonly associated with country and bluegrass music. However, from a historical perspective, bando has a central place in African-American traditional music, as did 19th-century minstrel shows. In fact, African-Americans greatly influenced the early development of country and bluegrass music through the introduction of the banjo, as well as through innovative banjo and fiddle playing techniques. Recently, the banjo has been used in a variety of musical genres, including pop and Celtic punk. Even more recently, hardcore musicians have begun to show interest in the banjo.

History of the banjo

Back in the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson described a similar homemade instrument called a bonjar, made from a dried pumpkin cut in half, a mutton skin as a top, strings from mutton sinew, and a fret board. And many sources mentioned that similar instruments were known on the island of Jamaica back in the 17th century. Many scholars of the history of American folk music believe that the banjo is a Negro folk instrument either smuggled out of Africa or reproduced on an African model in America. Consequently, it is much older than Russian (Tatar origin) balalaikas and Russian (German origin) accordions (but not gusli, horns and some types of folk bowed ones, almost forgotten now). Initially there were from 5 to 9 strings, there were no saddles on the neck. This is due to the peculiarities of the musical scale of blacks. There is no precise intonation in African black music. Deviations from the main tone reach 1.5 tones. And this has been preserved in the American stage to this day (jazz, blues, soul).

Not everyone knows the following fact: North American blacks did not really like to show whites the pearls of their culture. Gospel music and spirituals were literally dragged out to the white public from the black community by force of pincers. The banjo was pulled out of the black environment by the white minstrel-show. What kind of phenomenon is this? Imagine cultural life in Europe and America around the 1830s. Europe is operas, symphonies, theater. America - nothing but home singing of old grandfather's (English, Irish, Scottish) songs. But if you want some culture, give a simple American a simple culture. And so in the 1840s, a simple provincial white American received mobile, nomadic musical theaters with a troupe of 6-12 people throughout the country, showing the common man a simple repertoire (skits, skits, dances, etc.). Such a performance was usually accompanied by an ensemble consisting of 1-2 violins, 1-2 banjos, a tambourine, bones, and later an accordion began to join them. The composition of the ensemble was borrowed from slave household ensembles.

The dance on the minstrel stage was inseparable from the sound of the banjo. From the 40s until the end of the “minstrel era,” the stage was dominated by two inextricably linked artistic figures - the soloist-dancer and the soloist-banjo player. In a certain sense, he combined both functions in his person, because, in anticipation of playing and singing, as well as in the process of playing music itself, he stamped, danced, swayed, revealing and exaggerating (for example, with the help of additional sounds extracted from a wooden stand in circuses) complex rhythms Negro dances. It is characteristic that the minstrel piece for banjo even bore a name that was associated with any dance on the pseudo-Negro stage - “jig”. Of all the variety and diversity of instruments of European and African origin that took root on American soil, minstrels chose the sounds of the banjo as the most harmonious with their dominant system of images. Not only as a solo instrument, but also as a member of the future minstrel ensemble (band), the banjo retained its leading role...”

The sound of the banjo supported not only the rhythm, but also the harmony and melody of the music being played. Moreover, subsequently the melody began to be replaced by virtuoso instrumental texture. This required extraordinary performance skills from the performer. The instrument itself came to a 4- or 5-string version, and frets appeared on the neck.

However, black Americans suddenly lost interest in the banjo and categorically expelled it from their midst, replacing it with the guitar. This is due to the “shameful” tradition of portraying blacks in white minstrel shows. Negroes were depicted in 2 forms: either a lazy half-fool-idler from a plantation in rags, or a kind of dandy copying the manners and clothes of whites, but also a half-fool. Black women were depicted as full of erotic lust, extremely dissolute...

Later, from 1890, the era of ragtime, jazz, and blues came. Minstrel shows are a thing of the past. The banjo was picked up by white, and a little later by black brass bands playing syncopated polkas and marches, and later ragtimes. Drums alone did not provide the required level of rhythmic pulsation (swing), a moving rhythmic instrument was required to syncopate the sound of the orchestra. White orchestras immediately began to use a four-string tenor banjo (tuning c, g, d1, a1), black orchestras first used a guitar banjo (tuning a six-string guitar E, A, d, g, h, e1), and later relearned the tenor banjo.

During the first jazz recording in 1917 by the white orchestra “Original Dixieland Jazz Band”, it turned out that all the drums except the snare drum on the record were poorly heard, but the banjo rhythm was even very good. Jazz developed, the “Chicago” style arose, recording technology developed, better electromechanical sound recording appeared, the sound of jazz bands became softer, rhythm sections needed a more harmonically flexible guitar, and the banjo disappeared from jazz, migrating to a jazz band that had been experiencing a real boom since the 20s. last century country music. After all, not all whites wanted to listen to jazz.

Based on the melodies of English, Irish, Scottish songs and ballads, country music has also formed its own instrumentation: guitar, mandolin, fiddle, resonator guitar invented by the Domani brothers, ukulele, harmonica, banjo. The tenor banjo got a tuner on the 5th fret, a 5th string as thick as the first, and changed the tuning to (g1,c, g, h, d1). The playing technique has changed; instead of playing chords with a pick, arpeggiated playing with the so-called “claws” - Fingerpicking - has appeared. And a new child was named - American or bluegrass banjo.

Meanwhile, Europe recognized the tenor banjo. The great composers mostly died out, and Europe was suddenly drawn to the medieval-Renaissance song roots. The war slowed down this process, but after the war skiffles music appeared in England.

Then the famous Chieftains and Dubliners and Celtic music appeared. The Dubliners, for example, had both a tenor and an American banjo in their lineup. After the war, some jazz musicians wanted to return to their roots; the Dixieland movement arose in America and Europe, led by trumpeter Max Kaminski, and the tenor banjo sounded again in jazz. And it sounds now even in our Dixielands.

Basic information

A stringed plucked musical instrument with a tambourine-shaped body and a long wooden neck with a neck on which 4 to 9 core strings are stretched. Rod with a resonator (the extended part of the instrument is covered with leather, like a drum). Thomas Jefferson mentions the banjo in 1784 - the instrument was probably brought to America by black slaves from West Africa, where its predecessors were some Arab instruments. In the 19th century, the banjo began to be used by minstrels and thus found its way into early jazz bands as a rhythmic instrument. In modern America, the word “banjo” refers to either its tenor variety with four strings tuned in fifths, the lower of which is up to a small octave, or a five-string instrument with a different tuning. The banjo is played using a plectrum.

A relative of the well-known European one, similar in shape. But there is a sharp difference in sound between them - the banjo has a more ringing and harsh sound. In some African countries, the banjo is considered a sacred instrument that can only be touched by high priests or rulers.

Origin

African slaves in South America shaped the earliest banjos into closely related African instruments. Some of the early instruments were known as "pumpkin banjos". Most likely, the main candidate for the ancestors of the banjo is akonting, folk, used by the Diola tribe. There are other instruments similar to the banjo (xalam, ngoni). The modern banjo was made popular by minstrel Joel Sweeney in the 1830s. The banjo was brought to Britain in the 1840s by the Sweeneys, American minstrels, and quickly became quite popular.

Modern types of banjo

The modern banjo comes in a wide variety of styles, including five- and six-string versions. The six-string version, tuned like , has also become very popular. Almost all types of banjo are played with a distinctive tremolo or arpeggiated right hand, although there are many different styles of playing.

Application

Today, the banjo is commonly associated with country and bluegrass music. However, from a historical perspective, bando has a central place in African-American traditional music, as did 19th-century minstrel shows. In fact, African-Americans greatly influenced the early development of country and bluegrass music - through the introduction of the banjo, as well as through innovative musical techniques for playing the banjo and the . Recently, the banjo has been used in a variety of musical genres, including pop and Celtic punk. Even more recently, hardcore musicians have begun to show interest in the banjo.

History of the banjo

Back in the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson described a similar homemade instrument called a bonjar, made from a dried pumpkin cut in half, a mutton skin as a top, strings from mutton sinew, and a fret board. And many sources mentioned that similar instruments were known on the island of Jamaica back in the 17th century. Many students of the history of American folk music believe that the banjo is a Negro folk instrument either smuggled out of Africa or reproduced after an African model in America. Consequently, it is much older than Russian (Tatar origin) balalaikas and Russian (German origin) accordions (but not gusli, horns and some types of folk bowed ones, almost forgotten now). Initially there were from 5 to 9 strings, there were no saddles on the neck. This is due to the peculiarities of the musical scale of blacks. There is no precise intonation in African black music. Deviations from the main tone reach 1.5 tones. And this has been preserved in the American stage to this day (jazz, blues, soul).

Not everyone knows the following fact: North American blacks did not really like to show whites the pearls of their culture. Gospel music and spirituals were literally dragged out to the white public from the black community by force of pincers. The banjo was pulled out of the black environment by the white minstrel-show. What kind of phenomenon is this? Imagine cultural life in Europe and America around the 1830s. Europe is operas, symphonies, theater. America - nothing but home singing of old grandfather's (English, Irish, Scottish) songs. But if you want some culture, give a simple American a simple culture. And so in the 1840s, a simple provincial white American received mobile, nomadic musical theaters with a troupe of 6-12 people throughout the country, showing the common man a simple repertoire (skits, skits, dances, etc.). Such a performance was usually accompanied by an ensemble consisting of 1-2 violins, 1-2 banjos, a tambourine, bones, and later an accordion began to join them. The composition of the ensemble was borrowed from slave household ensembles.

The dance on the minstrel stage was inseparable from the sound of the banjo. From the 1940s until the end of the “minstrel era,” the stage was dominated by two inextricably linked artistic figures—the soloist-dancer and the soloist-banjo player. In a certain sense, he combined both functions in his person, because, in anticipation of playing and singing, as well as in the process of playing music itself, he stamped, danced, swayed, revealing and exaggerating (for example, with the help of additional sounds extracted from a wooden stand in circuses) complex rhythms Negro dances. It is characteristic that the minstrel piece for banjo even bore a name that was associated with any dance on the pseudo-Negro stage - “jig”. Of all the variety and diversity of instruments of European and African origin that took root on American soil, minstrels chose the sounds of the banjo as the most harmonious with their dominant system of images. Not only as a solo instrument, but also as a member of the future minstrel ensemble (band), the banjo retained its leading role..."

The sound of the banjo supported not only the rhythm, but also the harmony and melody of the music being played. Moreover, subsequently the melody began to be replaced by virtuoso instrumental texture. This required extraordinary performance skills from the performer. The instrument itself came to a 4- or 5-string version, and frets appeared on the neck.

However, black Americans suddenly lost interest in the banjo and categorically expelled it from their midst, replacing it with the guitar. This is due to the “shameful” tradition of portraying blacks in white minstrel shows. Negroes were depicted in 2 forms: either a lazy half-fool-idler from a plantation in rags, or a kind of dandy copying the manners and clothes of whites, but also a half-fool. Black women were depicted as full of erotic lust, extremely dissolute...

Later, from 1890, the era of ragtime, jazz, and blues came. Minstrel shows are a thing of the past. The banjo was picked up by white, and a little later by black brass bands playing syncopated polkas and marches, and later ragtimes. Drums alone did not provide the required level of rhythmic pulsation (swing), a moving rhythmic instrument was required to syncopate the sound of the orchestra. White orchestras immediately began to use a four-string tenor banjo (tuning c, g, d1, a1), black orchestras first used a guitar banjo (tuning a six-string guitar E, A, d, g, h, e1), and later relearned the tenor banjo.

During the first jazz recording in 1917 by the white orchestra “Original Dixieland Jazz Band”, it turned out that all the drums except the snare drum on the record were poorly heard, and the banjo rhythm was even very good. Jazz developed, the “Chicago” style arose, recording technology developed, better electromechanical sound recording appeared, the sound of jazz groups became softer, rhythm sections needed a more harmonically flexible guitar, and the banjo disappeared from jazz, migrating to a jazz band experiencing a real boom since the 20s. last century country music. After all, not all whites wanted to listen to jazz.

Based on the melodies of English, Irish, Scottish songs and ballads, country music has also formed its own instrumentation: guitar, mandolin, fiddle, resonator guitar invented by the Domani brothers, ukulele, harmonica, banjo. The tenor banjo got a tuner on the 5th fret, a 5th string as thick as the first, and changed the tuning to (g1,c, g, h, d1). The playing technique has changed; instead of playing chords with a pick, arpeggiated playing with the so-called “claws” - Fingerpicking - has appeared. And a new child was named - American or bluegrass banjo.

Meanwhile, Europe recognized the tenor banjo. The great composers mostly died out, and Europe was suddenly drawn to the medieval-Renaissance song roots. The war slowed down this process, but after the war skiffles music appeared in England.

Then the famous Chieftains and Dubliners and Celtic music appeared. The Dubliners, for example, had both a tenor and an American banjo in their lineup. After the war, some jazz musicians wanted to return to their roots; the Dixieland movement arose in America and Europe, led by trumpeter Max Kaminski, and the tenor banjo sounded again in jazz. And it sounds now even in our Dixielands.

Video: Banjo on video + sound

Thanks to these videos, you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch a real game on it, listen to its sound, and feel the specifics of the technique:

Sale: where to buy/order?

The encyclopedia does not yet contain information about where you can buy or order this instrument. You can change this!

So, suppose you decide to learn to play Irish music on a banjo, despite the abundance of jokes about a frying pan with strings... Here I tried to collect all the information that may be needed when choosing and tuning a banjo, since, as far as I know, nothing like this exists in Russian . The article does not claim to be the ultimate truth, but many of the statements have been verified by my personal experience.

The structure of the banjo and other technical aspects.
In principle, a banjo is not much more complicated than a guitar or mandolin, but it is fundamentally different. Not even in the material of the top deck, but in the fact that the banjo is a modular system. Almost any design element can be changed - and the sound of the instrument can be changed, sometimes almost beyond recognition. The basis of the instrument are wooden parts - the neck and body (pot). As a rule, even they are not tightly connected, thanks to which, by the way, many wonderful pre-war tenors were converted into 5-strings by installing a new neck. On older instruments, the continuation of the neck, pushing the body out from the inside, is the so-called. dowel stick. On modern instruments it has been replaced by two steel rods with nuts that allow you to adjust the angle of the neck. There are 2 scale standards for tenor banjos, which are usually designated by the number of frets. 17-fret tenors are an earlier design, more convenient in terms of stretching the left hand (allowing the use of violin fingering), but in such a low tuning as GDAE, they often have problems with the sound of the G string. Such banjos were used by Irish musicians in the United States before the war, and most modern models called “Irish Tenor” are 17-fret instruments. However, Irish musicians are now dominated by 19-fret tenors, which are brighter and louder, but less comfortable for the left hand. Most people who don't have particularly large hands will have to use their pinky finger instead of their ring finger on the 19-fret neck, and change positions to reach the high B at the 7th fret.

Banjo pegs have a very specific design. Banjos originally used friction pegs. According to the principle of operation, they are somewhat reminiscent of violin ones, and also tend to turn back if they are not fastened tightly enough. However, unlike violin pegs, the locking force is set by a screw in the head of the peg. Such pegs, if they are rebuilt, are quite viable, but it is still better to have a screwdriver with you, since when the temperature changes, for example, when you bring the instrument into a room from the cold, the pegs may well come loose, and the screws have to be tightened from time to time . In addition, since the banjo uses steel strings with a much higher tension than the violin, tuning with these pegs requires very small movements.

A more modern type is mechanical pegs. Here, too, not everything is simple: the banjo, apparently for reasons of appearance, uses pegs with a planetary mechanism. They look very similar to the old friction ones, but that's where their advantages end. Planetary pegs have a significantly lower gear ratio compared to guitar tuners with a worm gear (4 to 1 versus 16 to 1), they are much more expensive, and although to a much lesser extent than friction ones, they still tend to sometimes unwind. However, guitar pegs are a sure sign of a cheap, low-quality instrument, and this applies to both old American instruments and new Chinese ones.

Now let's get back to the body. 2 traditional materials used for its manufacture are mahogany and maple, maple gives a brighter sound, mahogany is characterized by a softer one, with a predominance of midrange frequencies. But to a greater extent than the body material, the timbre is influenced by tonering, the metal structure on which the plastic (or leather) “head” rests. There are 2 fundamental types of toners - flattop (the head is stretched flush with the rim) and archtop (the head is raised above the level of the rim), archtop sounds much brighter and has long been the preferred option for Irish music. However, for example, Angelina Carberry plays a 17-fret flattop and sounds great... Archtop, in combination with thin heads and a long scale, can even be overly bright.

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Concerning plastics– now mostly non-coated or transparent plastics are used (they are the thinnest and brightest). On loud and bright instruments, to obtain a softer sound, it makes sense to use thicker plastics - coated, or imitating natural leather (Fiberskin or Remo Renaissance). On modern banjos, the standard head diameter is 11 inches. On vintage instruments it can be either smaller or larger. Another parameter is the height of the ring around the perimeter of the plastic (crown) - for flattop you need high crown or medium crown plastics, for archtop - low crown. The leading manufacturer of banjo heads is Remo, they produce heads from 10 to 12 inches in diameter in 1/16" pitches. Leather membranes, despite the wonderful sound in the standard CGDA tuning, sound too dull in the low “Irish” tuning, and also react to all changes in humidity, which also changes the height of the strings above the fingerboard. In general, it’s quite an acquired taste. A special wrench is used to tighten the diaphragm; there are 3 standards for nut diameters; the Gibson 1/4” standard is currently used, but 5/16 and 9/32” are more common on vintage instruments. The membrane should be tensioned crosswise, with the strings and bridge removed, periodically tapping it with your finger until a sound of the same height is obtained for each screw. On average, the optimal tension is considered to be the Sol-Sol# sound of the first octave, but this greatly depends on the instrument and the desired sound. An overstretched membrane sounds dry and loses volume. However, you most likely will not be able to tighten it enough to break it - modern plastics can withstand the weight of a person.

Resonator– an optional thing for banjo; many models sound good without it. But when it comes to noisy sessions, a resonator becomes a must. In fact, a resonator doesn't even add volume, it concentrates the sound forward. Therefore, for those around you, an instrument with a resonator seems much louder, while the player himself can hear the open-back even better. On some vintage instruments, the soundhole was mounted on a center bolt, allowing it to be removed and used as an open-back banjo. This trick does not work with modern instruments - the resonator mounts will interfere with playing.

Concerning bridge/ bridges – the de facto standard is a maple bridge with three legs and an ebony insert under the strings. Many craftsmen now make breeches of experimental shapes, often under the influence of violin stands; I have heard a lot of positive reviews about them, but have not come across them myself. Bridges with 2 legs are lighter and sound somewhat brighter, but tend to sag in the middle over time.

Another important detail - tailpiece(tailpiece). The general rule for Irish music is that the tailpiece must exert pressure on the strings, this is due to the low tuning and correspondingly low tension and large mass of the strings. Therefore, tailpieces such as No-Knot and Waverly, which are often installed on open-back banjos, are not the optimal option.
Tailpieces such as Presto or Clammshell (the most common on modern instruments) are better suited, but must be adjusted accordingly, in addition, Presto tends to break at the bend. I personally recommend the Kershner - this is a very massive and durable type of tailpiece that gives a good increase in volume and brightness, and slightly improves intonation on the 4th string. The best option is Oettinger, a tailpiece with adjustable pressure on each string separately, which allows, among other things, to compensate for the somewhat uneven tension of the strings in the Irish tuning. But such tailpieces are very expensive, especially the “original” ones, however, they are now producing very good copies specifically for tenor banjo. All other types, unless you come across a vintage tenor copy - usually 5 strings, but this does not cause problems - just ignore the middle hole. With rare exceptions, tailpieces are designed for looped strings. Therefore, let's move on to the sore point - to strings.

So - the first sad fact, even if you find a set of tenor banjo strings on sale, they are not suitable for the Irish tuning (with very rare exceptions). Even kits called Irish Tenor (for example from D'addario) are too thin for most instruments. Therefore, most likely you will have to assemble the kit yourself. If you like a more “growling” sound of bronze – from guitar strings. In the case of nickel strings, which are brighter, you can buy a set for tenor (if you find one), throw out the 1st string from it, but you will still have to select the 4th string, in this case an electric guitar. You can buy strings one at a time in Moscow in a couple of places, but in most other cities there is no such luxury, which complicates the task even more. In general, I recommend buying a lot at once and in foreign online stores. You can also find Newtone strings there - this English company seems to be the only one that produces strings of acceptable gauges for the Irish tenor. They say they are very good strings, but I haven’t tried them yet.
The second sad fact is that you got the strings of the required gauge, but you won’t be able to install them on the banjo. The thing is that all modern guitar strings have a brass barrel at the end. And we need a loop. This is the barrel we will get rid of. We take sharp side cutters and carefully, so as not to touch the core of the string, make notches on the barrel in a circle, soon pieces will begin to break off from it (watch out for your eyes!), and after a while, most likely, the remains of the barrel can be pulled out of the loop. As a rule, the diameter of the loop is sufficient for installation on a banjo.
You will have to select specific gauges and string material through experimentation; on the 17 fret Vega (flattop) tenor I have a set of 13-20-30-44 nickel. If you prefer the sound of bronze, you can look for octave mandolin strings, they are a little heavier, but not critical if the neck is okay. I personally don't like the sound of phosphor bronze on a banjo, 80/20 sounds more interesting but goes dead faster. On an archtop with its not too deep sound, the situation may be completely different, and nickel can give a saucepan-like tint to the sound.
For a 19-fret tenor, naturally you need thinner strings, for example 11-18-28-38, but in any case you will have to select the exact gauges. On strings that are too thin, the intonation floats (therefore, I would recommend a second braided one even for a long scale), too thick, and they sound dull.

Selecting a tool.
The lower price segment is mainly filled with Chinese-made instruments with a variety of names, externally they are mostly variations on the Gibson Mastertone theme. It is precisely this type of instrument that one comes across from time to time in music stores in our country. The main thing here is that in addition to the usual tests for neck curvature, etc., make sure that there is tonering. Without it, Irish music is very sad, and even fairly respected companies such as Deering make cheap models without tonering. At the same time, they are positioned as Irish tenor (as I already wrote, the presence/absence of the word irish in the name should not be of interest at all). A resonator is, in principle, not necessary, but on average, models with a resonator are usually made of better quality and will not get lost at a session.
In addition, GDR Musima banjos, of which there are plenty in the vastness of our country, live in the same price segment. They have a full-fledged archtop tone and, in principle, can sound quite good. However, like most Eastern Bloc instruments, they require modification with a file, replacement of pegs (sometimes the neck dangles here and there), and so on. Basically a do-it-yourself kit. Plus, the long neck with 20 frets makes the stretch in the left quite large.

The middle price segment starts somewhere from $500. There are not many new instruments here, that is, in principle, there is Goldtone, which seems to make good instruments. But the most interesting thing in the $500-$1000+ range lies in the vintage area. If you have a card, the required amount of money and a willingness to buy an old instrument, go to ebay, type tenor banjo in the search and actively drool. Unfortunately, sellers will not want to send most of all this beauty to Russia, which greatly narrows the choice. So what you should pay attention to:
Vega is the oldest manufacturer of tenor banjos (they actually invented it). If you come across a tool called Fairbanks, it’s also them, only an even older tool. Noteworthy models include StyleN (mahogany)/Little Wonder (the same but made of maple) and further in order of increasing sophistication: Whyte Ladie and Tubaphone/Style M. These are all flattop instruments, very good both openback and with a resonator, depending on the tasks. They sound quite soft, the timbre is very pleasant. There are both 17- and 19-fret ones. Banjos are still made under this brand, but after the war the factory in Boston was bought by the Martin company, in general, the post-war Vegas are no longer cake. By the way, my instrument is Vega Style N 17 frets, with a resonator on the central screw.
All models produced by Wm.Lange - possible brands: Orpheum, Lange, Paramount. Very good Archtops, even the simplest Orpheum No.1. The top Paramount ones are perhaps already in the highest price range.
Bacon&Day is the second leading interwar banjo manufacturer after Vega. The Silver Bell and Senorita models are especially famous. Like Vega, they have their own completely recognizable sound.
The Clifford Essex banjo is an English made banjo and has long been the choice of professional musicians in Ireland. Including Barney McKenna (Paragon model). Archtop.
The post-war German Framus banjos are also praised, at least the top series. These are archtops with a very funny feature - adjustable neck height with a key, like on Soviet guitars.
I definitely don’t recommend Harmony and Kay - they mainly occupied the current niche of the Chinese, that is, they made cheap instruments in huge quantities. Slingerland and Ludwiig, well-known drum companies with a long history, also made banjos, but as with Framus, it’s mainly the top models that deserve attention. In addition, it is worth mentioning small workshops like Stromberg (NOT Stromberg-Voisinet, these are instruments of the Kay and Harmony level), Weymann, etc. - they are rare, but as a rule they are very good instruments.
General points - most vintage tenors do not have a truss rod in the neck, so always check with the seller about the height of the strings above the 12th fret. Damaged vultures are difficult and expensive to repair. In principle, crooked necks are much less common on 17-fret banjos. In addition, the thick V-shaped neck (especially with an ebony inlay) holds the load quite well, but the instruments are old, anything can happen. In addition, pay attention to the wear of the frets, on the one hand, this means that the instrument has been played a lot, and it most likely sounds, but on the other hand, you will have to spend some money on rolling/replacing the frets. Well, such things as the presence of all tension bolts (or at least most of them), the absence of noticeable rust, etc. Shipping from the USA will cost 100-150 dollars; it is highly desirable that the instrument travel in a hard case, although the banjo is not as fragile an instrument as a guitar or mandolin.

At the higher end of the price range are top vintage instruments such as Paramount Style E, Epiphone Recording A, B and C (this is generally the “holy grail” of tenor sound). Plus Gibson, but they cost so much, partly because of the name, and the immoderate fanaticism of bluegrass musicians. Among the new ones are various craftsmen’s instruments such as Clareen and Boyle, but as far as I know, we do not have instruments of this level in our country. As a rule, modern instruments from Irish makers are 19-fret archtops with a resonator, made under the influence of Gibson. Read - very loud and excessively bright, but perfect for creating the effect of a “musical machine gun”...