Archive for the ‘Banjo Setup’ Category
History Of Banjos
Banjo plating is synonymous with country, folk, Irish tradition music and blue grass. But the interesting thing is that it started manifesting in Africa. As enslaved Africans, they adapted other instruments with the same basic design. The influences that Africans had in the development of the music that we hear today are phenomenal.
Through the introduction of the banjo and other musical techniques the banjo with the fiddle is a mainstay. Banjos and fiddles have various strings and some form of drone. Banjos have evolved in style and you can even find electric banjos as well.
You can find just about every musical instrument in some kind of electrical fashion. The most common are electric guitars. You can even find an electric violin. Every musical instrument nowadays has a rock type of feel to it.
The use of electric banjos is most common with blue grass and country music. It has a distinctive sound to it. You can point it out in any song that it used in. It is amazing the different techniques that are used for playing instruments.
With the holidays come a time of camaraderie and kinship with our family, friends and loved ones. No matter who you are or where you are, we all experience the holiday spirit at its best when we’re sharing it with the people we care about. And if your home is anything like mine there will be plenty of celebrating. With celebration comes music and that means singing and instruments. So this year, before you start playing, make sure your instrument is in top condition so you can avoid those unsavory notes or off-key tones.
Top-quality banjo strings are more affordable than what you might think. And since the holidays have finally arrived there’s no better time to get some new ones. New strings can make a world of difference when you’re playing for your friends and family this year. They can even keep you from having to worry about broken strings. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as truly enjoying the music and having a string break. So do yourself a favor this year and don’t subject yourself to the pitfalls of an out-of-shape instrument.
One thing you will find that is popular in the Irish capital is traditional folk music. By going around the streets of Dublin like the Whelan’s in Camden Street, you will surely find traditional and folk music. This is one exciting spot has the best of Ireland’s talented folk performers.
A vast array of instruments are utilized in Irish folk music; and while fiddles and flutes are the first that come to mind, the banjo and guitar are now commonly used as well. Some famous Irish bands who have been very successful in taking traditional Irish folk music to the world are the Clancy brothers, The Dubliners and The Chieftans, Tommy Makem and Altan. These bands were even given tribute by the Irish post office by means of coming up with stamps of these iconic bands. Because of the distinct and mesmerizing sound of traditional Irish folk music, The Chieftans music, as well as The Dubliners’ and Clancy Brothers’ has been very popular all over the world.
There are lots of banjo-player jokes. One goes “You can drop a shoe on the banjo and make music,” due to the “open G” tuning that is standard among bluegrass banjoists. Unlike a guitar or mandolin, which must be fretted to make a proper chord, merely strumming the open strings of a banjo (or dropping a shoe on it) will produce a G major chord. This tuning of D-B-G-D-g (from first to fifth string) provides two G notes an octave apart, two D notes an octave apart, and one B note, thus filling in the three notes of a G major triad. While the vast majority of bluegrass banjo work is performed with this tuning, alternate tunings are sometimes employed. The “drop C” tuning of D-B-G-C-g was considered the standard tuning in the classical banjo era around 1900 and is sometimes used by bluegrass players to provide a low root note when playing in the C position. Bluegrass banjo standards traditionally performed in C tuning include Home Sweet Home and Farewell Blues as recorded by Earl Scruggs.
The next most-common tuning for bluegrass banjo is open D, either D-A-F#-D-F# or D-A-F#-D-a (the fifth string can either be tuned down one fret from G to provide the third note of the D major triad, or tuned up two frets to provide the fifth note). Reuben and John Henry are traditionally played in this tuning, and Ron Block has used it to great advantage in his work with Alison Krauss and Union Station. Rare alternate tunings include G minor (D-Bb-G-D-g) as used by Ben Eldridge in his original instrumental Appalachian Rain recorded with The Seldom Scene, and D minor (aDFAD) as featured by Earl Scruggs in Nashville Blues.
The world of old-time clawhammer banjo makes use of a much greater variety of tunings including “double C” (D-C-D-Cg) and open C (E-C-D-C-g), to name just two. . . but that’s a subject for another post!
Why are bluegrass banjos so heavy? That’s what everyone wants to know when they pick one up. The reason is that higher-end bluegrass banjos are equipped with a metal tone ring-a casting of a brass alloy weighing around three pounds. It rests between the wooden rim and the drum head. A quality tone ring can greatly increase the volume and power of a banjo.
Tone rings are available in two major configurations-an arch-top tone ring provides a somewhat smaller vibrating surface on the head (usually around 9 inches measured side-to-side) for a quicker, brighter sound. A flathead tone ring leaves the entire head (usually 11 inches) free to vibrate, generating more depth and richness of sound. Flathead tone rings are associated with the classic sound of such bluegrass greats as Sonny Osborne, J.D. Crowe, and Earl Scruggs; legendary players who have relied on the brighter sound of an arch-top tone ring include Ralph Stanley, Allen Shelton, Doug Dillard and Steve Martin.
We banjo players have a luxury unknown to players of other stringed instruments-the sounding board of our instrument is a drum head that can be replaced easily and inexpensively. That enables us to experiment with different sounds. Once upon a time, all banjo heads were made of animal hide (usually calfskin). The warm tone of a real calfskin head is hard to beat, but their susceptibility to changes in humidity makes them very high-maintenance.
Plastic or mylar heads have been the standard since their introduction in the early 1960s. They are available with a white frosted coating which gives a traditional appearance and sound for bluegrass banjo, or in a clear, uncoated version for extra brightness and response. Synthetic calfskin heads more closely mimic the look and sound of real animal hide and are especially popular with open-back (clawhammer) banjo players. Recent years have seen more options in banjo heads with eye-catching colors now available, and even heavy mesh heads for quiet practice.
The choice of wood type for your banjo may seem to be solely a cosmetic consideration, but it can have a big impact on the sound of your instrument as well. While it may seem counterintuitive, wood choice can have the biggest effect on tone through the neck. While bluegrass banjo rims are almost always made of maple and the veneers on the resonator have little impact on tone, the neck of your banjo is usually a solid chunk of mahogany, walnut, or maple and represents a significant proportion of the banjo’s vibrating mass.
Conventional wisdom is that mahogany, being a less-dense wood, is the warmest of the three woods and tends to accentuate the bass response of a banjo. Maple, a very dense hardwood, is considered to be at the opposite end of the scale with more “bite” and “edge” and enhanced treble response. Walnut is generally thought to fall somewhere in between mahogany and maple tonally. Keep in mind, however, that variations in setup and in individual instruments can make for a brighter mahogany banjo or a deeper-sounding maple one.