So, suppose you decide to learn how to play Irish music on the banjo, despite the abundance of jokes about a frying pan with strings ... Here I tried to collect all the information that you may need when choosing and tuning a banjo, since there is nothing similar in Russian, as far as I know, . The article does not claim to be the ultimate truth, but many statements have been verified by my personal experience.
Banjo device and other technical points.
In principle, the banjo is not much more complicated than the guitar or mandolin, but it has a fundamental difference. Not even in the material of the top deck, but in the fact that the banjo is a modular system. Almost any element of the design can be changed - and the sound of the instrument can be changed, sometimes almost beyond recognition. The basis of the instrument is the wooden parts - neck and body (pot). As a rule, even they are not tightly connected, due to which, by the way, many wonderful pre-war tenors were converted into 5-strings by installing a new fingerboard. On old instruments, the continuation of the neck, bursting the body from the inside, is the so-called. dowel stick. On modern instruments, it has been replaced by two steel rods with nuts that allow you to adjust the angle of the neck. There are 2 tenor banjo scale standards, which are usually indicated by the number of frets. The 17-fret tenors are an earlier design, more comfortable in terms of stretching the left hand (allowing the use of violin fingering), but in such a low tuning as GDAE, they often have problems sounding the G string. These banjos were used by Irish players in the US before the war, and most modern models called "Irish Tenor" are 17-fret instruments. However, 19-fret tenors now dominate among Irish musicians, brighter and louder, but less comfortable for the left hand. Most people who do not have particularly large hands on the 19 fret neck have to use the little finger instead of the ring finger, and to reach the upper C at the 7th fret, change position.
Banjo pegs have a very specific device. Initially, the banjo used friction pegs. According to the principle of operation, they are somewhat reminiscent of violin ones, and also tend to turn back if they are not firmly fixed enough. However, unlike violin pegs, the fixing force is set by a screw in the head of the pegs. Such pegs, if they are rebuilt, are quite viable, but it is still better to have a screwdriver with you, because during temperature changes, for example, when you bring the tool into a room from frost, the pegs may well unwind, and the screws have to be tightened from time to time . In addition, since the banjo uses steel strings with a much higher tension than the violin, tuning with such tuning pegs requires very small movements.
A more modern type is mechanical splitters. Here, too, not everything is simple: on the banjo, apparently for reasons of appearance, tuning pegs with a planetary mechanism are used. They look very similar to the old friction ones, but this is where their advantages end. Planetary tuners have a much lower gear ratio than worm gear guitar tuners (4 to 1 versus 16 to 1), they are much more expensive, and although much less than friction ones, they still tend to sometimes unwind. However, guitar pegs are a sure sign of a cheap, low-quality instrument, and this applies to old American instruments as well as new Chinese ones.
Now back to the body. The 2 traditional materials used for its manufacture are mahogany and maple, maple gives a brighter sound, mahogany is characterized by a softer, with a predominance of medium frequencies. But to a greater extent than the material of the body, the timbre is influenced by tonering, the metal structure on which the plastic (or leather) “head” rests. The 2 fundamental types of tonering are flattop (the head is stretched flush with the rim) and archtop (the head is raised above the level of the rim), the archtop sounds much brighter and has long been the preferred option for Irish music. However, Angelina Carberry, for example, plays a 17-fret flattop and sounds great... Archtop, in combination with thin heads and long scales, can even be overly bright.
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Concerning plastics- Now plastics without spraying or transparent ones are mainly used (they are the thinnest and brightest). On loud and bright instruments, to get softer, it makes sense to use thicker heads - coated, or imitating natural leather (Fiberskin or Remo Renaissance). On modern banjos, the standard head diameter is 11 inches. On vintage instruments, it can be either less or more. Another parameter is the height of the ring along the perimeter of the plastic (crown) - for flattop you need high crown or medium crown plastics, for archtop - low crown. The leading manufacturer of banjo heads is Remo, which produces heads from 10" to 12" in diameter in 1/16" increments. Leather membranes, despite the wonderful sound in the standard CGDA tuning, sound too muffled in the low “Irish” tuning, besides, they react to all changes in humidity, which also changes the height of the strings above the neck. In general - very amateurish. A special wrench is used to tighten the membrane, there are 3 standards for nut diameters, the Gibson 1/4” standard is mainly used now, however 5/16 and 9/32” are more common on vintage instruments. The membrane should be stretched crosswise, with the strings and bridge removed, periodically tapping it with your finger until a sound of the same height is obtained for each screw. On average, the G-G sound # of the first octave is considered the optimal tension, but this greatly depends on the instrument and the sound you are looking for. A stretched membrane sounds dry and loses volume. However, you will most likely not be able to pull it enough to tear it - modern plastics can withstand the weight of a person.
Resonator- an optional piece for the banjo, many models sound good without it. But when it comes to noisy sessions, a resonator becomes essential. In fact, a resonator doesn't even give a boost in volume, it concentrates the sound forward. Therefore, for others, an instrument with a resonator seems much louder, while the open-back player himself hears even better. On some vintage instruments, the resonator was mounted on a central bolt, which made it possible to remove it and use the banjo as an open-back. With modern instruments, this trick does not work - the resonator mounts will interfere with the game.
Concerning bridge/stands - the de facto standard is maple breeches with three legs and an ebony insert under the strings. Many masters now make bridges of experimental forms, often under the influence of violin stands, I have heard a lot of positive reviews about them, but I have not come across them myself. Breeches with 2 legs are lighter and sound a little brighter, but tend to sag in the middle over time.
Another important detail - tailpiece(tailpiece). The general rule for Irish music is that the tailpiece must exert pressure on the strings, this is due to low tuning and, accordingly, low tension and high mass of the strings. Therefore, the No-Knot and Waverly tailpieces often fitted to open-back banjos are not the best option.
Tailpieces such as Presto or Clammshell (the most common on today's instruments) are better, but must be properly tuned, and Presto tends to break on the fold. I personally recommend Kershner - this is a very massive and durable type of tailpiece that gives a good increase in volume and brightness, and slightly improves intonation on the 4th string. The best option is Oettinger, a tailpiece with adjustable pressure on each string separately, which allows, among other things, to compensate for somewhat uneven string tension in the Irish tuning. But such tailpieces are very expensive, especially “native”, but now they produce very good copies specifically for the tenor banjo. All other types, if you don't get a vintage tenor example - usually 5 strings, but that's no problem - just ignore the middle hole. With rare exceptions, tailpieces are designed for looped strings. So let's move on to the painful moment - to strings.
So - the first sad fact, even if you find a set of tenor banjo strings for sale, they are not suitable for the Irish tuning (with very rare exceptions). Even kits called Irish Tenor (for example by D'addario) are too thin for most instruments. Therefore, most likely the kit will have to be assembled by yourself. In case you like a more “growling” sound of bronze - from guitar strings. In the case of brighter nickel strings, you can buy a tenor kit (if you can find one), throw out the 1st string from it, but you still have to pick up the 4th string, in this case, an electric guitar. You can buy strings one by one in Moscow in a couple of places, but in most other cities there is no such luxury, which complicates the task even more. In general, I recommend buying a lot at once in foreign online stores. You can also find Newtone strings there - this English company seems to be the only one that produces strings of acceptable gauges for the Irish tenor. They say they are very good strings, but I haven't tried them yet.
The second sad fact is that you got the strings of the right gauge, but you cannot install them on the banjo. The thing is that all modern guitar strings have a brass barrel at the end. And we need a loop. This is the barrel we will get rid of. We take sharp side cutters and carefully, so as not to touch the core of the string, make notches on the barrel in a circle, soon pieces will begin to break off from it (watch out!), and after a while, most likely the remains of the barrel can be pulled out of the loop. As a rule, the loop diameter is enough to install on a banjo.
You will have to choose specific calibers and string material through experiments, on the 17 fret tenor Vega (flattop) I have a set of 13-20-30-44 nickel. If you prefer the sound of bronze, you can look for strings for an octave mandolin, they are a little heavier, but not critical if everything is in order with the neck. I personally don't like the sound of phosphor bronze on the banjo, 80/20 sounds more interesting but dies faster. On an archtop with its not too deep sound, the situation can be quite different, and nickel can give a saucepan tone to the sound.
For a 19-fret tenor, thinner strings are naturally needed, for example 11-18-28-38, but in any case, the exact calibers will have to be selected. On strings that are too thin - the intonation floats (that's why I would recommend the second one in a braid even for a long scale), too thick - they sound muffled.
Tool selection.
The lower price segment is mainly filled with Chinese-made instruments with a variety of names, outwardly these are mainly variations on the Gibson Mastertone theme. It is precisely such a plan that instruments from time to time come across in music stores in our country. The main thing here is - in addition to the usual tests for neck curvature, etc., make sure that there is tonering. Without it, Irish music is very sad, and even fairly respected companies such as Deering make cheap models without toning. At the same time, they are positioned as Irish tenor (as I already wrote, the presence / absence of the word irish in the title should not be of interest at all). Resonator - in principle, it is not necessary, but on average, models with a resonator are usually made of better quality and will not be lost during the session.
In addition, the GDR Musima banjos live in the same price segment, which are in bulk in the vastness of our country. They have full-fledged archtop toning and, in principle, can sound quite good. However, like most instruments of the Eastern Bloc, they require fine-tuning with a file, replacement of pegs (sometimes the neck dangles back and forth), and so on. Basically a do-it-yourself kit. Plus the long 20 fret neck makes the stretch in the left pretty big.
Somewhere from $ 500 the average price segment begins. There are not many new tools here, that is, in principle, there is Goldtone, which seems to make good tools. But the most interesting thing in the 500-1000+$ range lies in the vintage area. If you have a card, the amount of money you are looking for and a willingness to buy an old instrument, we climb on ebay, type tenor banjo in the search and actively drool. Unfortunately, sellers will not want to send most of all this beauty to Russia, which greatly narrows the choice. So what should you pay attention to:
Vega is the oldest manufacturer of the tenor banjo (they actually invented it). If you come across an instrument called Fairbanks, this is also them, only an even older instrument. Models from StyleN (mahogany)/Little Wonder (the same but made of maple) and further in increasing order of sophistication deserve attention: Whyte Ladie and Tubaphone/Style M. These are all flattop instruments, very good both openback and with a resonator, depending on tasks. They sound quite soft, the timbre is very pleasant. There are both 17th and 19th frets. Banjos under this brand are still being made, but after the war, Martin bought the factory in Boston, in general, post-war Vegas are no longer a cake. By the way, my instrument is Vega Style N 17 frets, with a resonator on the central screw.
All models produced by Wm.Lange - possible brands: Orpheum, Lange, Paramount. Very good Archtops, even the simplest Orpheum No.1. Top Paramount - perhaps already in the highest price range.
Bacon&Day was the second leading banjo manufacturer after Vega between the world wars. The Silver Bell and Senorita models are especially famous. Like Vega, they have their own quite recognizable sound.
The Clifford Essex is an English-made banjo that has long been the choice of professional musicians in Ireland. Including Barney McKenna (Paragon model). archtop.
They also praise the post-war FRG Framus banjos, at least the top series. These are archtops with a very funny feature - adjusting the neck height with a key, like on Soviet guitars.
I do not definitely recommend Harmony and Kay - they mainly occupied the current niche of the Chinese, that is, they made penny instruments in huge quantities. Slingerland and Ludwiig, well-known drum companies with a long history, also made banjos, but as with Framus, it's mostly the top models that deserve attention. In addition, it is worth mentioning small workshops like Stromberg (NOT Stromberg-Voisinet, these are instruments of the level of Kay and Harmony), Weymann and others - they are rare, but as a rule these are quite good instruments.
General points - most vintage tenors do not have a fretboard anchor, so always ask the seller for the height of the strings above the 12th fret. Behavioral necks are difficult and expensive to repair. In principle, crooked necks are much less common on 17-fret banjos. In addition, a thick V - shaped neck (especially with an ebony inlay) holds the load quite well, but the instruments are old, anything can happen. In addition, pay attention to fret wear, on the one hand, this means that the instrument has been played a lot, and it most likely sounds, but on the other hand, you will have to spend some money on seaming / replacing frets. Well, such things as the presence of all tension bolts (or at least most of them), the absence of noticeable rust, etc. Shipping from the USA will cost 100-150 dollars, it is highly desirable that the instrument travel in a hard case, although the banjo is not an instrument as fragile as a guitar or mandolin.
In the upper price range, top vintage instruments such as Paramount Style E, Epiphone Recording A, B and C (generally the “holy grail” of the tenor sound). Plus Gibson, but they cost so much, including because of the name, and the immoderate fanaticism of bluegrass musicians. Of the new ones, there are various artisan instruments such as Clareen and Boyle, but as far as I know, there are no instruments of this level in our country. As a rule, modern instruments of the Irish masters are 19-fret archtops with a resonator, made under the influence of Gibson. Read - very loud and excessively bright, but great for creating the effect of a "musical machine gun" ...
A string-plucked musical instrument, a kind of guitar with a resonator (the extended part of the instrument is covered with leather, like a drum); 4-9 strings. Thomas Jefferson mentions the banjo in 1784 - probably the instrument was brought to America from West Africa, where some Arabic instruments were its predecessors. In the 19th century, the banjo began to be used by minstrels and thus found its way into early jazz bands as a rhythmic instrument.
The banjo is played with a plectrum. The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, a direct descendant of the African lute. But between the mandolin and the banjo there is a sharp difference in sound - the banjo has a more ringing and sharp sound. The membrane gives the banjo a purity and power of sound that makes it stand out from other instruments. Therefore, it gained a place in New Orleans jazz bands, where it performed both rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment. Its four strings are tuned like a violin (sol-re-la-mi) or like a viola (do-sol-re-la). In American folk music, the most commonly used is the five-string banjo. The fifth string is fixed on a peg box on the fretboard itself. On this banjo, chords are played with the right hand using a plectrum (including the thumb for bass). Such a banjo appears in traditional American music groups along with the violin, flat mandolin, folk or dobro guitar. The banjo is also widely used in music styles
Musical Instrument: Banjo
The culture and way of life of the population of any country is always reflected in folk art, which is distinguished by its originality and original inimitable color. In the United States of America, one of the most widespread and popular varieties of national music is incendiary and cheerful country music, which has absorbed many styles and trends of the country's emigrant population, both white European settlers and African Americans. The main musical instruments for country music are the fiddle, the guitar and, of course, the banjo. This instrument is a musical symbol and an integral value of the American people, among whom it is very popular.
The banjo is a very interesting musical instrument with an original unique sound. Playing it is not difficult at all, and if you know a little guitar, then mastering the banjo will not be difficult for you.
Read the history of the banjo and many interesting facts about this musical instrument on our page.
Sound
Banjo sounds very cheerful and perky. But if you describe the voice of the instrument, it cannot be called anything other than sharp, ringing and sharp. Due to the special membrane, it is very clear and resonant. The source of sound on the banjo is the strings, holding them on the frets with the fingers of the left hand, the performer receives the desired pitch.
The technique of playing the instrument is similar to that of the guitar. The main methods of sound production are plucking and striking the strings, performed with the help of special plectrums, which are put on fingers and are very similar to claws. Also, performers can play like a guitar with the fingers of their right hand or with a regular pick.
Particularly used performing techniques on the banjo are tremolo and arpeggiation.
The range of the banjo is almost three octaves. The tuning of the most popular five-string banjo is G; re; salt; si; re.
A photo:
Interesting Facts
- In some African states, the banjo is revered as a sacred instrument and is used exclusively by high priests or rulers.
- A musician who plays the banjo is called a banjo player.
- The legendary guitarist of the world-famous Beatles band John Lennon knew how to play the banjo.In the initial development of this instrument, John was helped by his mother Julia. However, after the banjo, D. Lenon could not play the guitar for a long time, as he muffled the 5th and 6th strings with his thumb.
- The famous American comic actor Steve Martin, known to our audience for many films such as "Father of the Bride", "Pink Panther", "Cool Guy", independently learned to play the banjo in his youth. Having created his own group "Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers", he successfully performs, performing his songs in the bluegrass style.
- At the end of the 19th century in England, an instrument called the banjo became so fashionable that the English classicist Jerome K. Jerome mentioned it very prominently in his famous work "Three Men in a Boat, Not Counting the Dog."
- The famous American composer D. Gershwin used the sound of the banjo in his opera " Porgy and Bess ».
- Frank Convers, who made a significant contribution to the popularization of the banjo, was called by his friends the "Father of the banjo".
- The sound of the banjo is very often used in various television shows, for example, in the world-famous children's television educational program Sesame Street.
- The four-string banjo is widely used in musical performances staged on Broadway. He can be heard in such musicals as "Cabaret", "Hello Dolly", " Chicago ».
- Commercial production of the banjo began in the United States at William Boucher's musical instrument factory. Three instruments, which were made in 1845, are exhibited in one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
- The production of banjos is mainly carried out by manufacturing companies. guitars . The leading manufacturer among them is the American "Fender". Also in high demand among professional performers and music lovers are the instruments of the South Korean company Cort, Chinese - Veston, American Washburn and Gibson.
- The first five-string electric banjo was developed in 1960 by Wilburn Trent and David Jackson.
- The six-string banjo, which has also become very popular and is tuned like a guitar, was invented by an Englishman by origin, William Templett.
Design
A very original design of the banjo includes a round acoustic body and a peculiar neck.
- The body of the instrument resembles a small drum. On the front side there is a membrane stretched with a steel ring, which is fastened with screws - ties. The membrane on modern banjos is usually made of leather or plastic. On the rear side of the instrument, a removable resonator semi-body is installed, slightly enlarged in diameter compared to the membrane. The banjo has a tailpiece attached to the side of the banjo, which is usually made of wood or metal. A support is installed on the membrane, through which the strings are stretched.
- The neck, which is attached to the body with a truss rod, ends with a head with pegs for string tension. The neck is divided by frets into frets, which are arranged in a chromatic sequence. The most popular banjo has five strings. The fifth string on such an instrument is shortened, and the peg for it is located right on the fretboard, at its fifth fret.
Varieties
The popularity and universal recognition of the banjo initially began to gain momentum very quickly. Manufacturers have been constantly working on creating different types of tools, starting with
Piccolo and ending with bass. Today, the banjo has many types with a different number of strings, but the most commonly used are four, five and six-string instruments.
- Five-string - usually used to perform country music or, as the Americans themselves call it, "bluegrass". The instrument has an interesting feature - a shortened fifth string, which is not clamped (open) during performance. The build of this banjo is (sol) re, salt, si, re;
- four-string - banjo - tenor is a classic. It is used for playing in orchestras, accompaniment or solo performance. Instrument build - do, salt, re, la. The same banjo is used to play Irish music only with a slightly different tuning - G, D, A. mi;
- six-string - has the name banjo - guitar. It is very popular with guitarists, since both of these instruments are tuned in the same way - mi, la, re, salt, si, mi 2;
- banjolele - has four single strings tuned to do, sol, re, sol;
- banjo-mandolin - a characteristic feature are four double strings, tuned like a mandolin-prima: sol, re, la, mi.
Application and repertoire
The range of application of the banjo, which attracts attention with its bright and original sound, stands out noticeably from other instruments, is quite extensive. With the advent of the era jazz, blues and ragtime, it confidently and firmly entered the composition of instrumental groups, at that time new musical trends, initially playing the role of a rhythmic and harmonic instrument.
Currently, the banjo, usually associated with music in styles such as country and bluegrass, is widely used in pop music, Celtic punk, punk rock, folk rock, hardcore.
However, the banjo also clearly showed itself as a solo concert instrument. Usually, performing composers compose works for the banjo, among them Buck Trent, Ralph Stanley, Steve Martin, Hank Williams, Todd Taylor, Putnam Smith and others.
It should also be noted that the repertoire list of works is generously supplemented with original transcriptions of works by the great classics: I.S. Bach, P.I. Tchaikovsky, L.V. Beethoven, L. Boccherini, W.A. Mozart, E. Griga, R. Schumann, F. Schubert.
In turn, it is important to note that such composers as George Gershwin, Hans Werner Henze, Daniel Mason included the sound of the banjo in their symphonic works.
Performers
Originally used primarily by the African American population of the United States, the banjo gradually gained the attention of white players. One of the first banjo players who not only successfully brought the instrument to the concert stage, but also made a significant contribution to its improvement, was Joel Walker Sweeney - a true banjo enthusiast.
Subsequently, the instrument, which was gaining more and more recognition from listeners, brought more and more talented performers to the stage - virtuosos, among whom A. Farland especially stood out, who became famous by performing transcriptions of European classical music on the banjo, such as sonatas L.V. Beethoven and overtures by D. Rossini.
As the banjo became very popular not only on the American continent, but all over the world, more and more players proved their love for this instrument.
E. Peabody, D. Bayer, B. Lowry, S. Peterson, D. Bandrowski. B. Trent, R. Stanley, S. Martin, H. Williams, T. Taylor, P. Smith, C. Douglas, D. Garcia, D. Crumb, P. Elwood, P. Seeger, B. Mandrell, D. Gilmour, B. Ives, D. Lennon, B. Mumy, D. Osmond, P. Seeger, T. Swift, P. Tork, D. Dyke - this is just a small list of famous musicians who delighted listeners with their skillful performance.
Since the instrument has found its application in various genres, the performers who adorned jazz compositions with their performance should be especially noted. At an early stage, D. Reinhardt, D. Saint-Cyr, D. Barker should be noted. Today, very famous banja jazzmen are K. Urban, R. Stewart and D. Satriani.
Story
The banjo, which appeared on the American continent, has a very interesting history that can be traced back to 1600, although the ancestors of this instrument appeared in West Africa long before that time, about 6 thousand years ago. To date, studies of West African music present more than 60 different instruments that bear some resemblance to the banjo and may be its likely precursors.
The first description of the instrument was made by the English physician, naturalist Hans Sloan in 1687 after visiting Jamaica, where he saw the banjo from slaves brought from Africa. The early instruments, according to the Englishman, were made from a dried gourd or a wooden case, which was tightly tightened over the top with leather. On a wooden fingerboard, in addition to the main strings, one or more drone strings were added. And the first mention in the press of the banjo, which for a long time was considered an instrument of black slaves, in North America appeared in « New York Weekly by John Peter Zenger in 1736.
Banjo from the beginning of the 19th century, along with violin was the most popular instrument in African American music in the United States. But then white professional performers became actively interested in him, demonstrating the banjo to a wide audience. In the 1830s, Joel Walker Sweeney is the first white musician to not only master the instrument and bring it to the stage, but also gain great recognition as a banjo player. D. Sweeney is also credited with a significant modernization of the banjo: he replaced the pumpkin body with a drum body, delimited the neck of the neck with frets and left five strings: four long and one short. Since the second half of the 19th century, the banjo has become very popular not only at concert venues, but also among music lovers.
In 1848, the first manual for self-learning the instrument was published. There is information about holding various competitions of performing skills on the banjo. The first workshops for the manufacture of these instruments opened in Baltimore and New York, where smaller banjos were produced especially for women. Manufacturers experimented with the design of the instrument, replacing the gut strings with metal ones. In the last quarter of the 19th century, banjos of various sizes were constructed, such as the bass banjo and the banjo piccolo, from which banjo orchestras were subsequently formed. Similar musical groups began to appear in colleges, one of the first was the Hamilton College Ensemble. By the end of the century, the banjo craze reached its peak. Musicians - professionals on concert stages even performed works by classical composers, for example, such masters as L.V. Beethoven and D. Rossini, arranged for banjo. The last decade of the 19th century was marked by the emergence of new styles such as ragtime, jazz and blues, in which the instrument took an important place. However, in the thirties of the XX century, due to the appearance of electric guitars, which had a brighter sound compared to the banjo, interest in the instrument began to wane. However, this did not last long. In the 40s, the banjo again successfully returned to concert venues.
Today, the banjo, once the instrument of black slaves, is in great demand among musicians in all corners of the world with different skin colors. It is successfully used in compositions of various modern musical trends, delighting listeners with its perky and groovy sound. Cheerful and sonorous voice of the instrument tunes to the positive and uplifting.
Video: listen to the banjo
Banjo- a string-plucked musical instrument, a kind of guitar with a resonator (the extended part of the instrument is covered with skin, like a drum); 4-9 strings. The banjo is played with a plectrum.
The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, a direct descendant of the African lute. However, there is a sharp difference in sound between the mandolin and the banjo - the banjo has a more ringing and sharp sound.
The membrane gives the banjo a purity and power of sound that makes it stand out from other instruments. Therefore, it gained a place in the jazz groups of New Orleans, where it also performed rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment. Its four strings are tuned like a violin ( salt-re-la-mi) or like a viola ( do-sol-re-la).
In American folk music, the five-string banjo is used in most cases. The 5th string is fixed on a peg box on the fretboard itself. On this banjo, chords are played with the right hand using a plectrum (including a huge finger for bass). Such a banjo exists in classical American music groups along with the violin, flat mandolin, folk or dobro guitar. The banjo is also widely used in country and bluegrass music.
The African slaves of South America gave the earliest banjos the shape of African instruments that were close to them. Some of the early instruments were known as "pumpkin banjos". Most likely, the main candidate for the progenitors of the banjo is akonting, a folk lute used by the Diola tribe. There are other instruments similar to the banjo (xalam, ngoni). The modern banjo was made popular by minstrel Joel Sweeney. (Joel Sweeney) in the 30s of the XIX century. The banjo was brought to Britain in the 1940s by Sweeney's group, the American minstrels, and very soon became very popular.
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What is a banjo?
Banjo - a string-plucked musical instrument, a kind of guitar with a resonator (the extended part of the instrument is covered with skin, like a drum); 4-9 strings. The banjo is played with a plectrum. The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, a direct descendant of the African lute. However, there is a sharp difference in sound between the mandolin and the banjo - the banjo has a more ringing and sharp sound. The membrane gives...
a stringed plucked musical instrument with a tambourine-shaped body and a long wooden neck with a fingerboard, on which from 4 to 9 core strings are stretched. T. Jefferson mentions the banjo in 1784; apparently, the instrument was brought to America by black slaves from West Africa, where some Arabic instruments were its predecessors. In the 19th century the banjo came to be used by minstrels and thus made its way into early jazz bands as a rhythmic instrument. In modern America, the word "banjo" denotes either its tenor variety with four strings tuned in fifths, the lower of which is up to a small octave, or a five-string instrument with a different tuning.
Collier Encyclopedia. - Open society. 2000 .
Synonyms:See what "BANJO" is in other dictionaries:
4 string banjo Classification String instrument, Chordophone ... Wikipedia
Banjo- Banjo. BANJO (English banjo), a stringed plucked musical instrument. Around the 17th century exported from West Africa to the southern states of the USA. In the 1830s took on a modern form. Varieties of the banjo are used in jazz. Banjo musician... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
- [English] banjo] music. a stringed plucked musical instrument created on the basis of a reconstruction of the folk instrument of American Negroes; widely used in jazz (JAZZ). Dictionary of foreign words. Komlev N.G., 2006. banjo (English banjo) ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
- (English banjo), stringed plucked musical instrument. Around the 17th century exported from West Africa to the southern states of the USA. In the 1830s took on a modern form. Varieties of the banjo are used in jazz... Modern Encyclopedia
- (English banjo) stringed plucked musical instrument. OK. 17th century exported from Zap. Africa to the southern states of the USA. In the 1830s took on a modern form... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
BANJO, uncl., cf. Stringed musical instrument. Play b. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 tool (541) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary
unchanged; cf. [English] banjo]. A stringed plucked musical instrument with a cylindrical leather-covered body and a long neck (originally a folk instrument of American Negroes). * * * banjo (English banjo), string plucked musical ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
banjo- BANJO, indefinitely, cf. A stringed plucked musical instrument with a flat body covered with leather and a long neck, first appeared among American blacks. You can't play country music without a banjo... Explanatory dictionary of Russian nouns
banjo Banjo is a stringed plucked musical instrument with a tambourine-shaped body and a long wooden neck with a fingerboard, on which from 4 to 9 core strings are stretched. T. Jefferson mentions the banjo in 1784 (apparently, the instrument was brought to America ... ... Russian Index to English-Russian Dictionary of Musical Terminology
Books
- Banjo Song, Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling is one of the most popular English poets in Russia, many of his poems translated into Russian have become famous songs. The book is compiled from the work of the participants of the seminar ...
- Banjo. Deliverance, Jack Curtis, James Dickey. This edition includes two action-packed novels by the masters of psychological detective Jack Curtis and James Dickey - "Banjo" and "Deliverance" ...
