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4 and 5 String Banjos!
Four-string banjo
The plectrum banjo has four strings, lacking the
shorter fifth string, and 22 frets; it is usually tuned CGBD. As the name
suggests, it is usually played with a guitar-style pick (that is, a single one
held between thumb and forefinger), unlike the five-string banjo, which is
almost always played with a set of three fingerpicks, or occasionally with bare
fingers. The plectrum banjo evolved out of the five-string banjo to cater for
styles of music involving strummed chords. A further development is the tenor
banjo, which also has four strings and is typically played with a plectrum too.
It has a shorter neck of 19 frets is usually tuned CGDA, like a viola, or GDAE,
like a violin (but an octave lower), and has become quite a standard instrument
for Irish traditional music where is mainly used in its shorter 17 frets
variant. Eddie Peabody (plectrum) and Harry Reser (tenor and plectrum) are
regarded as two of the best four-string banjo players of all times.
The origins of the
five-string banjo
can be traced back to Joel Walker Sweeney, an
American minstrel performer. He wanted an instrument similar to the banjar
played by African-Americans in the American south, but at the same time, he
wanted to implement some new ideas. He worked with a New York drum maker to
replace the banjar's skin-covered gourd with the modern open-backed drum-like
pot, and added another string to give the instrument more range. This new banjo
came to be tuned gCGBD; somewhat higher than the eAEG#B tuning of the banjar.
The banjo can be played in several styles and is used in various forms of music.
In bluegrass music, which uses the five-string resonator banjo extensively, it
is often played in Scruggs style, named after Earl Scruggs, melodic or Keith
style, or two-finger style, also called Reno style after Don Reno, legendary
father of Don Wayne Reno. In these styles the emphasis is on arpeggiated figures
played in a continuous eighth-note rhythm.
American Old-time music typically uses the five-string open back banjo. It is
played in a number of different styles, the most common of which are called
clawhammer (or "claw-hammer") and frailing, characterised by the use of a
downward rather than upward motion when striking the strings with the fingers.
Frailing techniques use the thumb to catch the fifth string for a drone after
each strum, or to pick out additional melody notes in what is known as
'drop-thumb'. Pete Seeger popularised a folk style by combining clawhammer with
"up picking" without the use of finger picks.
Many tunings are used for the five-string banjo. Probably the most common,
certainly in bluegrass, is the open G tuning: gDGBd. In earlier times, the
tuning gCGBd was commonly used instead. Other tunings common in old-time music
include double C (gCGCd), sawmill or mountain minor (gDGCd) also called Modal or
Mountain Modal, and open D (f#DF#Ad). These tunings are often taken up a tone,
either by tuning up or using a capo.
The fifth (drone) string is the same gauge as the first, but it is five frets
shorter, three quarters the length of the rest. This presents special problems
for using a capo to change the pitch of the instrument. For small changes (going
up or down one or two semitones, for example) it is possible to simply retune
the fifth string. Otherwise various devices are available to effectively shorten
the string. Many banjo players favour the use of model railroad spikes (usually
installed at the seventh fret and sometimes at others), under which the string
can be hooked to keep it pressed down on the fret.
The source of this article is
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this
article is licensed under the
GFDL
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