Banjo, advice needed!

[rudolph]

Ive been thinking about investing in a banjo for a while now & have been looking at various different models online, most recently a 6 string banjo.

Does anyone around here play banjo & could give me some advice/info on some models & what might be the best thing to go for....Bearing in mind i have never touched a banjo in my life & im not rich! But i do play guitar

Thanks

[Guest DustyDeviada]

I have a banjo, in fact I used to do gigs as "Banjo Boy" but that's a different story.

Mine is five string, which equates to four "normal" strings, then a funny high g string on the top.

If you want to just strum it it's easy. if you want to do Billy Connolly stuff it's really difficult and you will need to get finger picks and stuff. I wouldn't spend a lot on one if I was you as there is bound to be a fair chance it will end up sitting in a corner after you get bored with it.

[flossie suvara]

I've got 2 banjos, so here's my tuppence worth.

5 string banjo (as described above) is completely different to guitar - mainly used in bluegrass music, to play it really well you do need to put in a fair amount of time and effort practising - 3 finger picking is the norm for bluegrass style, with thumb and fingerpicks. There are various tunings - normally to an open chord (mine is in G).

(My 5 string banjo does indeed sit in a corner gathering dust most of the time)

4 string banjo (also known as tenor banjo) - tuned in fifths - normally CDDA, but often tuned up to GDAE for irish/scottish folk music - It was quite a common instrument in jazz bands, and if you listen to early jazz recordings, you can hear the banjo sound quite clearly.

6 string banjo - essentaily a guitar with a banjo body - tuning and chord shapes are exactly the same as a standard guitar.

Other banjos - mandolin banjos (I've got one of these, but have only got 4 instead of 8 strings on it, as it tends to go out of tune when fully strung), banjoleles (ukelele with banjo body - as played by George Formby)

As you can probably work out, the sound of the banjo doesn't come from the tuning, but from the construction of the beast - the parchment skin gives a very distincitive tone, which is loud and cuts through effectively, but which gives almost no sustain.

I would probably go for a 6 string banjo if you're just looking to get a banjo sound - it would allow you to play straight away, but you'd have to adapt your playing style to cope with the lack of sustain. It would depend on what style of music you're into if you fancied another type:

Bluegrass - 5 string

Irish/Scottish Folk - Tenor or mandolin banjo

A banjolele is probably the cheapest option (via ebay) - the 4 strings of the ukelele are separeted by the same intervals as the top 4 strings of a guitar, so chord shapes are pretty easy to pick up (but obviously they wouldn't be the same chords)

There's plenty of banjo sites on the web - www.frets.com has got heaps of good stuff, useful to all acoustic musicians. www.mugwumps.com is more banjo orientated but from a historical point of view.

And always remember - "Welcome to heaven, here's your harp. Welcome to hell, here's your banjo"

Hope that helps

Flossie (poofbat player and occasional banjo plucker)

[shaun]

i've got a 5 string banjo for sale, if you're interested.

i'm looking for offers over 250

[nullmouse]

I too was bored and looking at buying a banjo - I got some reports that the 6 string ones are a bastard to tune / keep in tune. This could be bollocks, of course, but if anyone's got any experience or opinions I'd like to hear them.

[Alan Cynic]

I've got a 5-string one (ancient!) which I use for recording.....it's not too bad to play, if you just use the 'extra' string as a drone. Sounds to me like flossie's advice about the six string is good, as the learning curve would be easier (these things are important to me, as I am a poor musician, and lazy with it!!!).

[Lemonade]

I wouldn't spend a lot on one if I was you as there is bound to be a fair chance it will end up sitting in a corner after you get bored with it.

Listen to DustyDeviada. I bought a 5 string banjo in December, took it out of the box, realised it was hard to play, and now it's back in it's box under my bed.

[murphybridget837]

On 10/3/2005 at 9:38 PM, flossie suvara said:

I've got 2 banjos, so here's my tuppence worth.

5 string banjo (as described above) is completely different to guitar - mainly used in bluegrass music, to play it really well you do need to put in a fair amount of time and effort practising - 3 finger picking is the norm for bluegrass style, with thumb and fingerpicks. There are various tunings - normally to an open chord (mine is in G).

(My 5 string banjo does indeed sit in a corner gathering dust most of the time)

4 string banjo (also known as tenor banjo) - tuned in fifths - normally CDDA, but often tuned up to GDAE for irish/scottish folk music - It was quite a common instrument in jazz bands, and if you listen to early jazz recordings, you can hear the banjo sound quite clearly.

6 string banjo - essentaily a guitar with a banjo body - tuning and chord shapes are exactly the same as a standard guitar.

Other banjos - mandolin banjos (I've got one of these, but have only got 4 instead of 8 strings on it, as it tends to go out of tune when fully strung), banjoleles (ukelele with banjo body - as played by George Formby)

As you can probably work out, the sound of the banjo doesn't come from the tuning, but from the construction of the beast - the parchment skin gives a very distincitive tone, which is loud and cuts through effectively, but which gives almost no sustain.

I would probably go for a 6 string banjo if you're just looking to get a banjo sound - it would allow you to play straight away, but you'd have to adapt your playing style to cope with the lack of sustain. It would depend on what style of music you're into if you fancied another type:

Bluegrass - 5 string

Irish/Scottish Folk - Tenor or mandolin banjo

A banjolele is probably the cheapest option (via ebay) - the 4 strings of the ukelele are separeted by the same intervals as the top 4 strings of a guitar, so chord shapes are pretty easy to pick up (but obviously they wouldn't be the same chords)

There's plenty of banjo sites on the web - www.frets.com has got heaps of good stuff, useful to all acoustic musicians. www.mugwumps.com is more banjo orientated but from a historical point of view.

And always remember - "Welcome to heaven, here's your harp. Welcome to hell, here's your banjo"

Hope that helps

Flossie (poofbat player and occasional banjo plucker)

We're glad someone with that variety of banjo share their experiences on each one.