Nowadays, banjos are most often associated with white mountain culture and bluegrass music – but they actually have a much deeper history.
Slave Africans used gourd-lutes called akontings as dance and celebration instruments with spiritual meaning, such as banjos. These musical instruments could even be found within sacred ceremonies!
Early Banjos
Early banjos featured skin heads that rested directly on the rim, creating no resonance at all. To address this lack of resonance, some makers added an additional plies into the rim – increasing mass and improving its acoustics but it wasn’t an ideal solution; other issues related to early banjos included tuning.
Some of the earlier banjos utilized metal coordinator rods to adjust tension on the skin head; later these were changed out with frets. Resonators was an issue and manufacturers often tried to solve it by more permanently attaching their resonator flange while other systems allowed it to be fastened by large screws.
Banjos were popular instruments during the 19th-century minstrel show fad and quickly gained widespread acceptance by white musicians. Over time, however, their use spread further throughout America, becoming popular among African Americans who adopted various playing styles – eventually finding its place among American roots music genres such as country bluegrass folk.
Today’s banjo continues to progress and expand. Its original gourd body has been replaced by a wooden rim and its hide head with synthetic or plastic heads; many styles use metal resonators to increase volume; for instance bluegrass players often opt for louder-volume instruments while traditional players tend to favor open-back banjos. Initially popular during the 1940s and ’50s when big bands utilized it as part of their ensembles, tenor banjos began making a comeback during jam sessions and pickin’ sessions during the mid 1960s due to electric guitar’s increased usage; however by then their value had decreased substantially as more guitarists started using one themselves. While once electric guitars became ubiquitous again they’ve since made a return. Just like any musical instrument though a banjo holds much greater potential value than what its perceived price on the street would suggest; just like its apparent price suggests on its surface!
Early Banjo Makers
Early banjos featured multiple strings with variable hole counts; their design differed depending on which instrument was being played. One early image showing an enslaved man playing an instrument similar to what would later become the banjo dates back to 1820s; it features four string and one drone string instrument with flat pieces of wood bisecting it and animal skin stretched across as the soundboard/neck; strings running from its bottom through bridges up and over its body before meeting at triangular points on its underside.
American banjo makers by the 1840s and 1860s had developed an array of styles and types. Popular among African American folk and traditional music players in rural areas, Union soldiers brought this banjo culture back into white society via blackface minstrel shows of that era.
These shows were an incredible hit both domestically and abroad, driving up demand for these instruments as their popularity rose. By the 1860s, manufacturers had begun producing more banjos to meet this increasing demand – these instruments featured rounded bodies with tight drum-like skins attached to metal strings and frets, louder and cheaper production than previous handcrafted versions.
At around this time, Alfred Davis Cammeyer (1862-1949) developed a six-string zither banjo that emulated the sweet sounds of German zithers and could be played using fingerpicking techniques and strung with drone strings – now widely thought of when we hear “banjo.” It remains an integral component of bluegrass, country and other types of folk music genres today.
Early Banjo Players
Early banjo players were often African slaves brought over as enslaved people who brought handmade string instrument traditions with them from Africa, known as akontings in Africa and similar to modern banjos in structure and playing technique. Akontings featured hollowed out gourds fitted with animal skin sound planes attached by string, with short top strings being played by thumb, while longer bottom strings were played using either forefinger or middle finger fingers.
Akontings were widely utilized as entertainment by both enslaved and free Blacks during their limited off time from labor, particularly Black minstrel shows that featured them. Their widespread popularity led to an explosion of banjo playing across America: Carnegie Hall orchestras began featuring banjo music while rural areas in Appalachia and the South also took part, fuelling an image of hillbilly music and reinforcing segregation policies across America.
Metal strings were first developed during this era; these were cheaper to produce and longer-lived than their traditional, professionally produced gut counterparts. Also during this era was when modern banjo was created with its distinctive features – round body with tight skin, frets for string tuning, sound more like drum than guitar and could even be loud enough to override train whistles or other noise.
Blacks and whites began playing together at banjo tournaments and contests held at hotels, race tracks and bars to the cheering and applause of crowds; this practice is known as cultural crossover and contributed significantly to creating the distinct sound of Appalachian banjo music. Many Appalachian banjo players were Black railroad and steamboat workers from the Deep South that shared sounds and rhythms from home with mountain residents resulting in what we now refer to as bluegrass or country music today.
Early Banjo Styles
Although many associate the banjo with black American culture, its roots lie in West Africa. Enslaved Africans brought hide-covered instruments ranging from three to nine strings with lute-like bodies along the Middle Passage for use at plantations farms and port towns where African culture mixed with that brought from elsewhere; many musical traditions eventually becoming part of Caribbean and American South cultures as a result.
Post-Civil War, the banjo continued to be an immensely popular instrument among white musicians who had relocated due to the Great Migration northward. These musicians used it for dances, entertainment and other social and cultural moments – often at dances held during social gatherings. At this point in time, its form began to more closely resemble that of its European counterpart. Also during this era was when its five string counterpart emerged from its four string variety.
Metal strings were developed during this era as well, becoming longer-lived alternatives to gut strings used before them. Manufacturers began designing banjos to take advantage of this innovation; players could now remove one string, called plectrum banjo, to play four string instruments called plectrum banjos instead; rural folk culture generally accepted these newer instruments while 5-string ones remained popular with parlor-room music entertainment and college music clubs.
During the 1920s, jazz music created by Louis Armstrong became immensely popular and elevated the banjo to become an essential rhythm instrument. Its loud, strumming sound cut through brass and reed instruments used in dance music; therefore making Earl Scruggs famous. At this time he created an innovative playing style using rolls involving thumb and first two fingers of right hand to play rolls; additionally he devised a fingering system which allowed one person to switch keys quickly with ease while creating more complex sounds from this instrument.
Early Banjo Variations
There are instruments around the world that resemble banjos in both appearance and sound. Some, such as China’s Sanxian and Japan’s Samisen, trace back to ancient gourd-lutes brought over from Asia by Asian slaves who eventually spread these instruments across Africa and America; other descendants include West African instruments ngoni, kora, and xalam that directly descend from its design; these African instruments became integral components of Black musical culture, used for religious services and cultural events alike.
Joel Sweeney and others put the banjo on its path to greater popularity through their minstrel shows, featuring white performers dressed up in blackface with exaggerated costumes. Though their performances were racist and repugnant, these performances introduced it to much larger audiences and established it as an instrument widely played among white Americans.
At its birth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the banjo quickly gained wide-scale acceptance as an American folk instrument – often played by non-blackface artists – making it a part of folk and bluegrass music, followed by country and jazz bands as an accompaniment. It became one of the primary instruments used in concert today.
By the mid-20th century, inexpensive banjos had become readily available as home-made instruments and commercially made products by companies like Kay and Harmony. Used primarily for parlour music or college music clubs at home and universities alike. Now this traditional instrument has been taken up by contemporary rock, jazz and even hip hop musicians who utilize it.
Robert Winans, professor of history at George Mason University and author of Banjo Roots and Branches (University of Illinois Press 2018), will join us on the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour this week to share his cutting edge scholarship on its West African origins, adaptations, and circulation in both Caribbean and United States settings.