When purchasing a banjo for beginners, look for one with a shorter neck – this will make the instrument simpler to play.
As you become more proficient, find and master several popular banjo songs and their tablature (music for the banjo that tells you what string and fret create each note). There are numerous resources online which offer such tablature.
Origins
The five-string banjo has many precursors; its most likely ancestor being West African plucked spike folk lutes like the akonting. These instruments feature gourd bodies which act as resonators and can be tuned to different pitches; three to five strings can then be plucked by pressing against a circular fretboard, creating the sound signature associated with modern banjos.
African slaves introduced these stringed instruments to America and quickly adopted them for various musical genres including blackface minstrelsy and ragtime. Rural white folk musicians also widely utilized them, using them for vernacular music creation in rural settings. Over time these stringed instruments became part of popular American musical forms like bluegrass.
By the 1940s, Pete Seeger had become a celebrated banjo player who helped popularize folk music. He utilized this instrument for use as both social activist and advocate of folk music and group singing; particularly important were his collaborations with The Weavers who reached multiple top-10 charts due to Pete Seeger’s contributions on banjo.
Earl Scruggs had an enormous influence on five-string banjo playing, developing his own signature style using picks – tiny metal devices which fit over thumb and first finger of right hand to provide enhanced precision, speed, and power than could otherwise be achieved using just fingers alone.
The banjo first entered Irish music during the 1920s, becoming one of its signature instruments. While originally intended as rhythm and percussion instruments, its melodic qualities became increasingly prominent during Irish dance hall performances and ceili bands.
Robert Winans recently wrote “Banjo Roots and Branches,” an in-depth book exploring this musical instrument’s journey from Africa to Western countries. In it he discusses its origins among African people before spreading across cultures to become popular worldwide. Additionally he describes how its design changed from being open-backed to adopting a resonator design which increased volume during band performances.
Construction
A banjo consists of a round body called a pot or shell and a neck attached with lag bolts or truss rods to it by way of fingerboard, tuning pegs, tuning pins and metal head. Many banjos feature an additional sound reflector which increases volume while giving it its signature tone; five string plectrum banjos and tenor banjos are most often played.
Resonators (or tone rings) are constructed using plastic membrane stretched over a frame or cavity in the shell. Their hooks consist of twenty-four evenly spaced metal rods which catch on the upper rim and pass through holes on side-mounted brackets before screwing onto threaded bottom ends in the center of the shell and creating tension to vibrate membrane soundboard. By adjusting pressure on these rods downward force is exerted on counterhoop to vibrate membrane soundboard and create tension required for vibrating membrane soundboard membrane soundboard to vibrate.
An additional factor influencing the sound of a banjo is its neck construction. Traditionally, this was constructed out of wood without internal reinforcement to minimize chances of neck deformation; however, in order to accommodate heavier steel strings used later, an increased capacity reinforced neck became necessary.
Modern banjos differ significantly from their predecessors in that they do not utilize friction pegs that require extensive hand manipulation to change tunings, opting instead for geared tuners which allow one full turn of their rear knob to generate half turn in string pegs that hold them.
Banjos require more than just the resonator; in addition to this piece of equipment is requires a head and pegblock that houses tuning pegs and the string. Both these pieces of wood typically make up one piece. Some modern banjos feature dual coordinator rods which connect their necks directly to their rim, enabling truss rod adjustments while maintaining consistent angles between these elements of playback.
A five-string banjo’s distinctive sound can be attributed to its taut membrane soundboard and pan-shaped acoustic reflector on its back, as well as to the forward sound projection capabilities of its resonator and its chromatic tuning. Most often found playing bluegrass music, its use can also be found in melodic Keith style played by Bill Keith or three finger single string work known as Reno style made popular by Don Reno himself.
Frets
A fretted banjo features metal pegs to secure its strings to their frets. Strings 1 through 4 travel through an ivory, bone or plastic nut while string 5 terminates at its neck where it is tuned with a tuning peg attached to its side of the neck.
As metal nuts and pegs need to be protected from extreme temperature changes, rain, or snow, it’s vitally important that they remain clean and dry. A rag dampened with 99% alcohol should be used to wipe down both pegs and fingerboard. Frets wear down over time causing the string to “stretch over,” producing sharp notes in your music; to prevent this happening use just enough pressure to create clear sounds on each fret without pressing beyond its upper back edge of frets.
Older banjos often had narrow, shallow frets that required greater gripping force for clear sound production. As such, players who grew up playing these classic instruments tend to grip new Deering banjos too tightly, distorting intonation by making notes too sharp. A skilled technician can remedy this by raising or lowering individual fret heights.
One method of altering intonation is by altering the angle of a fret’s apex over time. This change may occur at certain spots on the neck, and be quite noticeable to banjo players; experienced banjo technicians should usually detect this trend through changes to fretted string tone that occur over time.
Fretless banjos can be great fun to play for both children and adults alike. Tuned similarly to ukuleles but with only four strings instead of five, fretless banjos provide endless harmonic possibilities and are especially suited to clawhammer players. Tuning can be difficult due to shorter strings; however this can be corrected with an adequate tuning kit.
Sound
The sound of a banjo is instantly recognisable. The distinctive tone is produced by a membrane or “head”, mounted above a circular rim called the pot (older instruments frequently featured metal heads). When tensioned appropriately, 24 rods hook onto this upper rim and attach to threaded brackets around its circumference – exerting downward pressure onto its vibrating head to vibrate it further and create its signature sound. Historically animal skin heads were commonly used; modern banjos feature metal “tone ring” assemblies to enhance and project their tone further and project their sound more effectively.
The sound of a banjo is determined by its tuning and playing style. The five string instrument has a deep, full tone associated with folk and old-time music genres; as these genres gained more relevance for Black musicians’ performances – blues, rhythm and blues, gospel music etc – they became less often played.
Jazz musicians enjoyed playing the tenor banjo because its sound fit into the fast tempo rhythm of jazz music perfectly, matching other instruments such as brass and reeds in dance bands. But as ragtime and other dance styles developed, demand increased for louder instruments leading to four string plectrum banjos and six string guitar-tuned banjos being created to meet demand.
Earl Scruggs made the banjo famous through his signature finger pickin’ sound and later through Flatt and Scruggs’ formation in 1948 and 1949 respectively, by joining the Blue Grass Boys and then later Flatt & Scruggs and popularizing bluegrass music to wider audiences with his use of a pick to play his banjo often featuring open G tuning on his tenor banjos.
An authentic reproduction of early or Civil War era banjos requires a nylon strung banjo with a not too tight Fiberskyn head and without resonator strings, as well as medium gauge strings that were more likely used prior to microphone and amplifier technology. For best results, medium gauge strings may also provide greater historical accuracy as they would likely have been more prevalent prior to microphone technology being widely available.