I'll never joke about banjo players again...

[Steve DeRosa]

Watch what this guy does with a plectrum banjo:

[steelvibe]

James Dupuis is also one heck uva guitar player too. I smiled within the first few bars of Rondo Alla Turca. He is like the Ewan Dobson for banjo playing XD!

Good stuff!

[frankmcr]

Roy Smeck, the Wizard of the Strings:

[SpruceTop]

The thing is that banjo players are perhaps even OCD-goofier than guitar players when it comes to deciding on a banjo or modifications to their ax!

[stevo58]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Watch what this guy does with a plectrum banjo:

This one is playing 'Lollipops,' originally written and recorded in the 1920s by Harry Reser, at the same tempo -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdWRWwHfY98

Harry Reser was, so to speak, the Jimi Hendrix of the tenor. Maybe Joe Pass would be a better comparison.

4-string jazz banjo (tenor and plectrum) doesn't get much attention these days, but there are some incredible musicians. Check out Cynthia Sayer or Eddie Davis, for example. I was pushed into it against my will last year and have become fascinated by it.

steven

[Denny B]

This thread reinforces some things I've come to realize recently about instruments that I've never had much interest in...

I'm realizing that I do like some banjo music ...I do like some mandolin music...

I simply don't like them played in the Bluegrass genre...

Thanks for posting, I enjoyed the vids...

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

The thing is that banjo players are perhaps even OCD-goofier than guitar players when it comes to deciding on a banjo or modifications to their ax!

That’s because even the tiniest change in things like the drum head tension or the tailpiece tension can cause enormous, profound changes in the tone. And have you ever noticed how most banjoplayers stand stock still like statues onstage, barely moving hardly a millimeter in any direction?

I used to think that they were just concentrating so hard that they couldn’t or wouldn’t be bothered with showmanship, but that’s not it at all. Once I got good enough on banjo to start gigging out with it I realized that the real reason most banjoplayers never move onstage is because banjos are fiendishly difficult to mic.

Which would have never occurred to me; I thought, as most people would, that since they’re so loud they’d be no problem at all to mic. But it’s tough to get a good tone from a banjo on a microphone, and - here’s the really frustrating part - if you move the banjo a fraction of an inch while you’re playing it, it completely changes the sound that the mic picks up.

I can’t stand still when I perform, I move around some, so for me the best solution was to get a pickup on the banjo - a Baggs on my five string and a K&K on my guitar-banjo - PLUS use an instrument mic that I can step up to and away from as needed.

That makes life much easier, believe me, and the people running the soundboard find it easier to get a good sound out of the banjo because they’ve got two signals to work with.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[H165]

I heard the Kruger Brothers yesterday in the Wintergrass stage. As a 70-year old lifelong bluegrass fan, I've heard lots of banjo; none better than yesterday. Check out the last four minutes of this vid:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9zvyp7icRI

If you like way more speed and enough notes to make an "anthill", or perhaps even a nice mellow ballad, check out their other tunes.

[Mandobart]

Wintergrass was a banjo lover's dream this year, especially "We Banjo 3's" set in the Grand, when Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn sat in with them.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

Wintergrass was a banjo lover's dream this year, especially "We Banjo 3's" set in the Grand, when Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn sat in with them.

I thought that they were going to have to carry people out of there on stretchers. High energy was hardly descriptive enough. The other Irish band, "I Draw Slow," was awesome as well.

And three different 50 minutes sets with Darrell Scott. Sweet baby jubus...

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

Wintergrass was a banjo lover's dream this year, especially "We Banjo 3's" set in the Grand, when Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn sat in with them.

And...



Down the Youtube rabbithole we go...

[H165]

Sweet baby jubus...

... in velvet trousers!

The banjo took over the Wintergreass World this year.

[varmonter]

There was this fellow that bought a bar on dec 23. He desperately needed a
band for new years eve. He went to
his buddys bar asking for help.
His friend reached under the bar
and blew some dust off a card.
The card said Banjo and Clarinet duo.
The guy called them and they excitedly
took the job.
NYE rolled around and the duo showed
up on time and set up their stuff.
As the night progressed the new owner
thought to himself " hey these guys arnt too bad" People were enjoying themselves and no one was leaving.
At the end of the night the owner
paid them thanked them for doing
it on short notice. He then offered them
a gig for next NYE.
The Banjo players eyes lit up and
he said "Thanks...can we leave our stuff?

[PeteCady]

Once, years ago, a friend had brought a banjo-guitar (banjo with six strings, tuned to standard guitar tuning) to a jam. He offered it to me to try out. I tried various things on it for quite a while, then handed it back to him, telling him "I must Never touch one of these things again! Now I know what they mean by the Lure of the Dark Side of the Force!"

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by PeteCady

Once, years ago, a friend had brought a banjo-guitar (banjo with six strings, tuned to standard guitar tuning) to a jam. He offered it to me to try out. I tried various things on it for quite a while, then handed it back to him, telling him "I must Never touch one of these things again! Now I know what they mean by the Lure of the Dark Side of the Force!"

I own and perform with a late 1990s Deering B6 guitar-banjo, very similar to this one:

Deering B6 guitar-banjo

It's a marvelous instrument, and because I can play all of my guitar rhythm patterns on it as well as five string banjo rhythm parts, I actually play it more than I do my five string.

What I've learned, though, is that it's not a good idea to bring it out at the music parties I host at my home. What I've discovered is that every guitarist present will want to play it, and after making the (seemingly mandatory) rude jokes about banjos and banjoplayers, will play it FAR longer than courtesy requires.

Generally the next guitarist waiting a turn to play it will have to pry it loose from whoever's playing it at the moment.

So unless I truly want to hear banjo music for the rest of the evening, I don't even bring it out at parties anymore.


Wade Hampton Miller