John Roberts: A History of the Banjo

History and Origins of the Banjo

And Bluegrass Music
(Bluegrass banjo pickers do it with three fingers)

The banjo and Bluegrass music has been around for a long time and yet little is
know about them.
When you mention the word banjo, people automatically assume it’s used in
Bluegrass music and played with great speed and that the musician is from
space because it seems impossible that anyone could play an instrument at that
speed, But when it is played correctly the sound is unmistakable and distinct,
It’s a sound that’s not easily appreciated but once you have it in your head you
will love it.
Earliest references to the banjo
African slaves from the American South and Appalachian mountains were
thought to have fashioned the earliest form of banjos after some of the
instruments familiar to them in their native Africa which were sometimes
referred as “Gourd banjos”
One such instrument the Akonting is a spike folk lute from Senegambia
And another is Xalam of Senegal which is supposed to have been dated back to
ancient Egypt
Banza was the preferred term for the instrument in the French and Spanish
colonies. Yet, it certainly wasn't the only name for the early gourd lute of the
African Diaspora. Many other different ones appear in the historical record:
• Strum-strump (Jamaica, 1687);
• Strum-strum (Jamaica, 1740);
• Bangil (Barbados, 1708; Jamaica, 1739);
• Bangar (New York City, 1737, the earliest report of the banjo in North
America);
• Banjo (Pennsylvania, 1749; Maryland and Virginia, 1774; North Carolina,
(1787);
• Banshaw (St. Kitts, 1763);
• Creole Bania (Suriname, 1773-77);
• Banjar (Virginia, 1781; Antigua, 1788; Barbados, 1796);
• Bonjaw (Jamaica, 1823)
• Banza Haiti, 1840-1841

People began to experiment like string variations and adding frets, and adding a
5th string this version became so popular that most of America had one. It could
be found in most households, early settlers took it with them as they travelled
west, farmers, miners and even trained opera singers like Adelina Patti
(February 10, 1843 – September 27, 1919) would play one just for amusement

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 John Roberts: A History of the Banjo

Though they differed in what they were called, these early banjos all shared
certain structural characteristics:
• A gourd body (either round or oval) topped with a skin head;
• A full "spike" fretless neck which ran under the head for the length of the
gourd body to pierce its tail end;
• A footed bridge (string-bearer) which sat upright on the instrument's skin
head
Typically, 3 to 4 strings, the 4-string configuration being the most commonly
documented. In reports of 4-string early banjos, the instrument's 4th top string
(the one closest to the player's chest) was described as being a short,
unstopped drone string, ( the 5th "thumb string" on the later 5-string banjo). The
modern day banjo was credited (but not proved) to a
Joel Walker Sweeney (October29, 1860)
Also known as Joe Sweeney, a musician and early
black face minstrel performer. Born in Buckingham
County, Virginia, He claimed to have learned to play
the banjo from local African-Americans and is the
earliest documented white banjo player. Also he is
the earliest known person to have played the banjo
on stage.
He is credited with improving the development of the Joel W. Sweeney
modern 5 string banjo. The instrument's resonating
chamber had formerly been constructed from a gourd. He popularized the use
of a drum-like resonating chamber (he adapted a cheese box for this purpose).
He is also credited with adding the banjo's fifth string, between 1831 and 1840.
He supposedly added the fifth string because he was unhappy with the limited
rhythm and melodic variation of four-string banjos, there is no hard evidence to
prove that Sweeney introduced either innovation. The thumb or drone string
(the fifth on a modern banjo) can be seen on surviving 18th-century four-string
banjos and illustrations that pre-date Sweeney's time. The fifth-string invention
has even been traced back to ancient Greece.
Playing Styles
The banjo can be played in variety of styles and is used in various forms of
music.
American old-time music
Typically uses the five-string open back banjo. The most common styles are
claw hammer, the use of a downward rather than upward motion when striking
the strings with a fingernail. Frailing uses the thumb to catch the fifth string for a
drone after each strum or twice in each action, double thumbing, or to pick out
additional melody notes known as "drop-thumb". Pete Seeger used a folk style
combining clawhammer with "up picking", without the use of fingerpicks.
Folk music (Irish)
Basically using a pick or plectrum to pick out the melody using an up/down
double stroke giving it its distinctive sound including Ragtime and Jazz.

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 John Roberts: A History of the Banjo

Bluegrass music
Almost exclusively uses the five-string resonator banjo, and is played in several
styles. These include melodic, two and three-finger style and single string using
a plectrum (or flat pick)
Various right hand finger picking rolls are used in bluegrass music the forward
roll, forward backward roll, and alternating thumb roll, foggy mountain roll, index
leading roll to name a few (the variations are endless).
The most commonly known is the Scruggs style named after Earl Scruggs.
Earl was born in Shelby, North Carolina, to a musical
family. George, his father, a farmer and bookkeeper,
played fiddle and banjo; Mother Lula played the organ;
Earl's older brothers, Junie and Horace, and his two older
sisters, Eula Mae and Ruby, played the banjo and guitars.
At age ten, he developed a style, utilizing three fingers
that was to become known world-wide as "Scruggs-
Style." The banjo as a musical instrument was reborn.
He relates on how he developed the three finger style that
was later to bear his name. He and his brother had been
arguing, Earl went into his room and closed the door. He
started playing a tune on the banjo called "Ruben". He Horace Scruggs, guitar
was subconsciously picking when he suddenly realized Earl Scruggs, banjo
he was using three fingers rather than the usual two, the
thumb, index and middle finger. His brother said Earl came out of the room
yelling, “I've got it! I've got it! I can play with three fingers!" He did not try playing
anything else for about a week, he worked to improve the three finger style. His
brother asked him if that was all he could play! He hadn’t realized he had the
banjo in a D tuning all the time and had not even tried another tune, when he
did change the tuning, he was able to play other tunes on the banjo with his
three finger method. He had the ability to develop a different approach from the
style of other banjo players in the area. He smoothed the rolls into a syncopated
rhythm pattern; emphasized the melody lines, and with excellent timing and
tone control, he had developed a style that had not been heard before - a
bluegrass legend was born.

Earl Scruggs

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 John Roberts: A History of the Banjo

In the early years of the 20th Century, America went crazy for the sound of the
banjo. Manufacturers combined the necks off the guitar and mandolin with
banjo bodies to create a new type of instrument; it retained the sound of the
banjo but played using the method of guitars and mandolin.
The Banjo Family
• 5-string as modern bluegrass and old-time
• Plectrum Long neck 4-string, favoured for jazz
• Tenor Short neck 4-string, favoured for Irish music
• Banjolin Mandolin length neck 4 string
• Mandolin-banjo Mandolin length neck and 8 strings (4 double courses)
• These banjos look and sound the same as the five string version they
use different tunings and styles of playing and are thought of as different
instruments by banjo players

A Five String Tenor Banjo

Head or Skin
Machine Heads
Neck
Bridge
Frets

Tail Piece

Fret Markers
3rd 5th and 7th
Frets

Clamps
Th
5 String
Or Drone
Tone Ring

Resonator or Pot

Banjo Picks (Or Claws)

Usual set of finger picks consist of a plastic thumb pick and two metal picks one
on the index and one on the middle fingers.

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Banjo Tunings
5 String Banjo (Open G)
D - 1st string
B - 2nd string
G -3rd string (one octave lower than the 5th string)
D - 4th string (one octave lower and the 1st string)
G -5th string (the short string on top when holding the banjo)
Tenor Banjo (4 strings)
G.D.A.E
Mandolin (Banjolin)
G.D.A.E this is the most common tuning. It probably dates back to the 19th
century and is identical to the standard violin tuning.
Ukele (Banjo)
G.C.E.G
Also known as slack key tuning, this is a common tuning for the ukulele.
All musical instruments can be tuned in a variety of ways.
The banjo is primarily tuned in Open G although the chords of A and D are
regularly used and all instruments are tuned to what is called concert C.
Concert C is the standard musical pitch if every instrument has been tuned to
concert C if you play the chord of C on a guitar, banjo, piano or violin it is the
same note so everyone will be in tune.
Musical Genres
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is an offshoot of
country music. Inspired by the music from the African-Americans and
immigrants from the United Kingdom, and Ireland (Scottish and Irish from
Appalachia) and through musical influences such as jazz and blues.
Traditional bluegrass is based around a set of stringed instruments the
mandolin, acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, guitar and upright bass, with or without
vocals.
In contrast to old-time music where all instruments play the melody together or
one instrument carries the lead, bluegrass style of playing is similar to some
forms of jazz, one or more instruments will take turns playing the melody while
the others perform accompaniment this is usual in tunes called breakdowns.
Bluegrass developed during the mid-1940s. War rationing limited recording
during the Second World War and it would be most accurate to say that
bluegrass was played some time after World War II, no earlier. No one person
can claim to have "invented" bluegrass nevertheless, bluegrass beginnings can
be traced to one band. Today, Bill Monroe is referred to as the "founding father"
of bluegrass music; the bluegrass style was named for his band, the Blue Grass
Boys, formed in 1939. Earl Scruggs joined the band in 1945 and introduced his
three finger picking technique originally developed by Dewitt Snuffy (Snuffy was
born Oct 28th 1908 in North Carolina) Jenkins but now almost universally
known as "Scruggs style".

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Over the following years bluegrass continued to develop and improve;

companies like Fender, Epiphone, Ozark, Barnes and Mullins, Deering were
making better instruments and new innovations like fretted necks, all metal
tuning heads, floating bridge, also steel string were becoming the preferred
choice of musicians.
Conclusion
A new breed of players brought their own style of playing to bluegrass which
other musicians adapted to make their own. Better quality recording and radio
helped its popularity by giving people more access. Musicians started writing
instructional books, giving lessons to those who wanted to learn.
Tablature was introduced (a form of self teach for musicians) and bluegrass
went from strength from strength
All of today’s bluegrass musicians Pete (Doctor Banjo) Wernick, Tony Trischka,
Bella Fleck, and even comedians Billy Connolly and Steve Martin have their
own preferred style but the quality of playing is incredible. The banjo and its
music has grown over the years. New materials and inventions helped to
improve the quality and sound of the instruments and with television shows like
CMTV (Country Music TV), bluegrass festivals and the World Banjo
Championship, more people are getting to know and love the instrument.
If the early pioneers of bluegrass could hear the music now they would be
amazed at the talent and skill of the performers, and it was due to them that the
standard is so high today.
Year Event
1620 Explorer Richard Jobson mentions "gourd with neck and strings”
in Africa
1678 Banza noted in Martinique as played by black people
1813 Joel Walker Sweeney born (d:1860)
1843 First documented minstrel show by Dan Emmett & Virginia
Minstrels
1840/1850 Minstrel Craze; banjo becomes urban instrument
1846 6 string banjo invented by British Manufacturer William Temlett
1850s Boucher of Baltimore first "shop-made" banjos
Metal strings invented; James Ashhorn, guitar and banjo maker.
1859 Dan Emmett writes "Dixie"
Stephen Van Hagen patents 7 string (1 short) guitar banjos with
frets
1860s/1870s First closed back banjos and first top tension banjos marketed by
Dobson (i.e. Buckbee) in US & England
1878 Henry Dobson produces 5 string with frets (made by Buckbee)
SS. Stewart Co. of Philadelphia Made 25,000 banjos
1880 Gibson guitar company formed
1881 Dobson patents a tone ring
1884 First patent for a banjo mute
1890s Steel strings widely available: cheaper than gut strings
1894 First Grover bridge patent
1907 J. B. Schall of Chicago invents Tenor banjo or 4 string banjo
tuned like a mandolin.
1908 Dewitt (Snuffy) Jenkins born (October 27, 1908 - April 29, 1990)

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Year Event
1914 Dave "Stringbean" Akeman (June 17, 1916–November 10, 1973)
Lester Raymond Flatt (June 19, 1914 – : May 11, 1979)
1918 First Gibson banjos
1919 Pete Seeger (May 3)
1920 flange and resonator by William Lange & Paramount banjos
1921 Mc Hugh of Gibson Company patents adjustable tension rods for
banjo & adjustable bridge
1923 First geared tuners patented by C. Kremp
1924 Earl Scruggs (January 6)
1925 Gibson "Mastertone" introduced
1927 Ralph Stanley (February 25)
1929 Modern banjo arm rest invented by L.A. Elkington
1930 -1945 5 string banjo almost disappears. No strings available due to war
Bill Monroe & Bluegrass Boys on Grand Ole Opry without banjo
1940 Earl Scruggs develops his 3 finger style based on classical style
1941 Bill Monroe adds a banjo to his band "Stringbean" Ackerman 2
finger style
1943 Pete Seeger creates long-neck for banjo
1945 Earl Scruggs joins Bill Monroe band with his 3 finger style
K&F Manufacturing Corporation started (Fender)
1948 Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt leave Monroe's band and
formed the Foggy Mountain Boys.
1950s Plastic heads become available
1955 Arthur Smith wrote an instrumental called "Feudin' banjos".
(Later known as Dueling banjos)
1960s Folk boom, Gibson and Vega were only companies to still have
banjos in their catalogues as compared to 200 makers in 1900,
and only Vega still had banjos in production
1969 Flatt and Scruggs win a Grammy for the instrumental Foggy
mountain breakdown
1972 The film Deliverance was released Featuring dueling banjos by
Eric Weisberg and Steve Mandell
1975 Deering Banjo Company formed, manufacturing 4-string, 5-
string, 6-string, and 12-string banjos.

Bibliography

Websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/banjo#banjo_variants
http://countrymusic.about.com/od/history/a/country101_b_2.htm
http://bluegrassbanjo.org/banhist.html

Authors of images
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Scruggs

Non ICT source

“Banjo for Dummies” by Bill Evans (Paperback - 10 Aug 2007)
“How to Play the 5-String Banjo: Third Edition” by Pete Seeger (Paperback -
Jun 2002)