Difference between revisions of "Banjo" - New World Encyclopedia

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[[Image:Banjos.jpg|right|thumb|250px|4-string banjos]]   
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[[Image:old_plantation.jpg|thumb|Detail from "The Old Plantation"]]   
  
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The banjo is a [[stringed instrument]] of [[African-American]] origin. The defining characteristic of the banjo is the use of a stretched membrane, originally an animal skin, to amplify the vibration of its strings. This arrangement creates the banjo's characteristic sound and differentiates it from instruments of European origin known in the Americas. Early banjos consisted of a gourd body topped with an animal skin for the sound chamber and a fretless wooden neck. The cultural history of the banjo and its place in the history of American race relations may well be the most profound from among all musical instruments. Its unique participation in American music speaks positively for the fruits of cultures in dialogue.
+
The banjo is a stringed instrument of African origin. The defining characteristic of the  
 +
banjo is the use of a stretched membrane, originally an animal skin, to amplify the  
 +
vibration of its strings. This arrangement creates the banjo's characteristic sound and  
 +
differentiates it from instruments of European origin known in the Americas. The cultural
 +
history of the banjo and its place in the history of American race relations may well be the  
 +
most profound from among all musical instruments. The instrument’s evolution and the music
 +
surrounding its development may be characterized a synthesis African and European
 +
traditions.
 +
__TOC__
 +
==Africa and the Caribbean==
 +
The earliest documentation of banjo-type instruments is found in writings of 17th century
 +
travelers to Africa and the Americas. These writings document instruments in East Africa,
 +
North America, and the Caribbean that share common distinguishing characteristics: a gourd
 +
body topped with animal skin and with a fretless wooden neck. The number and composition of
 +
strings varied, but three or four strings were the general rule. Richard Jobson was the
 +
first to record the existence of such an instrument. While exploring the Gambra River in
 +
Africa in 1620 he described an instrument "...made of a great gourd and a neck, thereunto
 +
was fastened strings." Adrien Dessalles in his ''Histoire des Antilles'' published in 1678,
 +
records the use of a "banza" among the slave population of Martinique. Jamaican historian
 +
Edward Long describes the four stringed "merry whang" as a "rustic guitar" made from a
 +
"calabash" covered with a "a dried bladder, or skin." Similarly the "banshaw" was noted in
 +
St. Kitts and the "bangil" in Barbados.
 +
==The American Plantation==
 +
Thomas Jefferson in his ''Notes on Virginia, Vol. IV (1782 to 1786)'' states in a footnote,
 +
"The instrument proper to them is the Banjar, which they brought hither from Africa…." By
 +
the middle of the 18th century the banjo was so well known that it did not require a
 +
description. In 1749 the Pennsylvania Gazette carried a notice regarding a runaway slave
 +
named Scipio which, by way of description states that he "plays the banjo."
 +
The sort of banjo Scipio may have played is documented in a Watercolor entitled "The Old
 +
Plantation" probably painted between 1790 and 1800. The composition features a banjo player
 +
accompanying several dancers in front of the slave quarters of a plantation. The banjo
 +
depicted has four strings, one of which is affixed to a tuning peg at the side of the neck.
 +
This short-scale string, called a "drone" string or “chanterelle” is a significant feature
 +
which is present on modern five string banjos. It allows the player to create the exciting
 +
rhythms associated with the banjo. It is also a feature that sets the banjo apart from
 +
stringed instruments of Europe origin.
  
−
The etymology of the word "banjo" is the subject of scholarly inquiry. It is possibly derived from the [[Kimbundu]] term ''mbanza'' or from a dialectal pronunciation of ''bandore'' (pronounced "banjore"). Recent research suggests that it may come from a [[Senegambia]]n term for the [[bamboo]] stick used for the instrument's neck.
+
It was not long before the banjo crossed racial and social barriers. Philip Fithian, a tutor
 +
at Nominy Hall in Virginia, recorded in a diary entry dated February 4, 1774  "This evening,
 +
in the School-Room, which is below my Chamber, several Negroes & Ben, & Harry are playing on
 +
a banjo and dancing!" Fithian’s apparent chagrin at this scene is amplified by the writings
 +
of a contemporary, the Reverend Jonathan Boucher who described the banjo as "in use,
 +
chiefly, if not entirely, among people of the lower classes." In the context of his writing,
 +
it is apparent that he includes lower-class whites among those who played the banjo. Fithian
 +
and Boucher's identification of the banjo with racial and class stereotypes has persisted
 +
subtly or overtly throughout the banjo's history. Despite this stigma, the banjo became
 +
driving force in one of America's first mass-cultural phenomena: the minstrel show.
 +
==The Minstrel Show==
 +
The form of entertainment that brought the banjo to the attention of the masses also
 +
represents a shameful exposition of overt racism in American popular culture. Blackface
 +
comedic and musical acts predated the minstrel show by several decades. Thomas Dartmouth
 +
“Daddy” Rice developed a stage persona called Jim Crow, a carefree, shiftless slave dressed
 +
in shabby clothes. Rice’s  Jim Crow act was immediately successful and brought him acclaim
 +
during the 1820s and 1830s. Blackface performances were common between acts of plays and as
 +
circus acts. Minstrel shows were staged performances that included music, dance, and a  
 +
variety of comedic performances. The stock-in-trade of the minstrel show was the parody of
 +
the lifestyles of slaves and free African Americans. Stock characters of the minstrel show
 +
included Jim Crow, Mr. Tambo, a joyous musician, and Zip Coon, a free black attempting to
 +
put on airs in imitation of white gentry. Skits and satirical speeches were delivered in
 +
stylized black dialect. These savage caricatures of the lives of African Americans were met
 +
with overwhelming approbation among white audiences.  
  
−
Modern banjos come in a variety of forms. Four string banjos, used in the performance of jazz, include plectrum and tenor models. Five string banjos are sibdivided into "resonator" banjos principly used in bluegrass music and "open back" banjos principally used for folk and old time music. Five string banjos feature a short string mounted at the side of the neck. This string can be fretted and used for melody, but is used mostly to produce the complex rythms associated with bluegrass, folk and old time styles. Other instruments in the banjo family include hybrids such as banjo ukulele, banjo mandolin and banjo guitar.
+
The staging of Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels at New York's Bowery Amphitheatre in 1843
 +
marks the beginning of the full-blown minstrel show in which the entire cast “blackened up.”
 +
Emmett’s core group included Emmett on fiddle, Billy Whitlock on banjo, a tambourine player,  
 +
and a bones player. These instruments constituted the basic minstrel ensemble and this
 +
formula was imitated by professional and amateur musicians alike.
  
−
[[Image:Banjo.png|left|thumb|250px|Old 6-string zither banjo]]
+
The overwhelming popularity of the minstrel show created a new class of professional
−
The modern banjo's sound chamber consists of a wooden or metal rim with a plastic or skin "head" stretched by means of metal brackets. Jazz and bluegrass banjos often utilize a resonator which encloses the open end of the rim and reflects the sound forward. The neck mounted to the side of the rim across from a tailpiece which secures the ends of the strings. A wooden bridge sits on the banjo head and transferrs the string vibration to the head. The woods used in construction vary. Maple, walnut and mahogany are commonly used for necks. Rims are mostly made from maple. Banjo fingerboards are usually ebony or rosewood.
+
banjoists and a demand for high-quality instruments. By the 1840s gourd-bodied banjos had
 +
generally given way to construction of a drum-like sound chamber. This new arrangement
 +
offered two major advantages: The size of the drum shell or was not limited to the size of a
 +
natural gourd (eight inches, or so in diameter), and the tension on the drum head could be
 +
adjusted to counteract the effects of humidity on the natural skin. The banjo of the  
 +
minstrel stage featured a range of head diameters, generally of 12 to 13 inches and five gut
 +
strings, one of which was a short-scale drone string, and a fretless neck.
  
−
Until the latter 1800s banjo necks were fretless as were like the African instruments that inspired them. A revival of interest in older banjo styles has caused a resurgence in fretless and antique-style instruments, but the vast majority of banjos produced today are fretted. Banjo strings are commonly metal, although [[nylon]] and gut are sometimes used.
+
To meet the new demand furniture makers, drum makers, guitar manufacturers and others got
 +
into the business of making banjos. Gradually luthiers specializing in banjo production
 +
emerged. One of the most prominent of these was William Esperance Boucher (1822-99).
 +
Boucher’s Baltimore, Maryland firm sold drums, violins and guitars. Many of his banjos
 +
featured an elegant scroll peghead and decorative profiling of the drone-string side of the  
 +
neck. Boucher set a high standard of quality and aesthetics. His banjos were popular among
 +
professional musicians. Another banjo maker of note was British-born guitar maker James
 +
Ashborn whose Connecticut factory produced banjos in the late 1840s. His unadorned and  
 +
practical instruments were common on the minstrel stage and set a high standard for
 +
professional instruments. Ashborn is also credited with producing some of the first banjos  
 +
featuring fretted necks.
 +
==Jazz==
 +
Between 1890 to 1920 the popularity of the minstrel music was eclipsed by early jazz forms,
 +
such as ragtime. The popularity of the banjo as a parlor instrument fell into decline. The
 +
features which made the banjo ideal for minstrel music became liabilities when attempting
 +
the complex chord structures of jazz. These include a reliance on “open” tunings (strings  
 +
tuned to a major chord) and the drone string which plays at a constant pitch.
  
−
== Five-string banjo ==
+
New configurations of the banjo were invented to meet this new musical challenge. Popularity
 +
of the mandolin was concurrent with the banjo’s popularity in the latter 19th century. The
 +
mandolin’s tuning arrangement (in fifths as in a violin) is inherently more versatile.
 +
Banjo-mandolin hybrids emerged, resulting ultimately in banjos suitable to jazz playing. The
 +
availability of metal strings also gave the banjo more volume and facilitated this
 +
transformation. Ultimately two types of four string banjos emerged in the jazz period,
 +
plectrum and tenor banjos. Plectrum banjos are similar to five-string banjos of the late
 +
minstrel period, but without the short-scale drone string. Tenor banjos are an outgrowth of
 +
the mandolin banjo, featuring scale length somewhat shorter than the plectrum banjo and
 +
strings tuned in intervals of fifths.
  
−
Until the late 1800s there was little standardization in the production of banjos. Most banjos were hand crafted individually. They differed in rim construction, scale length and the number of strings employed. A common arrangement was a four string instrument with a short-scale drone string at the position of the fifth or seventh fret. Some standardization began to emerge with the popularization of minstrel shows which featured virtuoso banjo performances. The sudden popularity of the minstrel show called for the production of higher quality instruments. The gourd gave way to a round rim of drum-like construction that could be tightened or loosened depending on how humidity in the air affected the skin head.
+
The decline of popularity of the five string banjo is evident from the history of the Gibson
 +
Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Gibson was the preeminent mandolin manufacturing company of  
 +
its day and began marketing banjos for the jazz market in 1918. Gibson sold four string
 +
banjos and every other sort of banjo hybrid instrument but did not produce five string
 +
banjos for the first several years of production. The Gibson company introduced the
 +
"Mastertone" which by the 1930s incorporated it's most notable innovation, a heavy
 +
cast-bronze tone ring. This, in combination with a tone chamber backed by an improved
 +
resonator, created an instrument of impressive volume and tonal clarity. The Gibson company
 +
is also responsible for the invention of the truss rod which, when embedded in a banjo neck,
 +
counteracts string tension and allows for necks of thinner construction. Thus, by the mid
 +
1930s the modern banjo reached a state of development which has remained essentially
 +
unchanged.
 +
==Styles of Play==
 +
There is no detailed record of how early banjos were played. The first banjo tutors
 +
published in response to the popularity of minstrelsy. One such tutor is Briggs Banjo
 +
Instructor published in 1855. The method for the right hand described in Briggs’ tutor
 +
likely represents an unbroken tradition from the early banjo of the plantation to his day.  
 +
It requires the player to strike the strings with the fingernails using downward movement.
 +
This basic right hand movement has had various names according to region and time period.
 +
Modern players use the terms “clawhammer” and “frailing” among others.
 +
===The Parlor===
 +
By the late 19th century the banjo had become a popular parlor instrument. A new class of
 +
banjo players emerged, including middle- and upper-middle-class ladies. Banjo manufacturers,
 +
eager to supply this market began to produce ornate instruments of more delicate proportions
 +
that included ebony fingerboards with engraved mother of pearl and necks with carved floral
 +
patterns. Buckley's New Banjo Method published in 1860 offered the players instruction in
 +
“classical” banjo. The classical style featured right hand technique similar to classical
 +
guitar in which the fingertips pluck the strings upward.
 +
===Dixieland===
 +
Four string banjos were developed to respond to the popularity of jazz music in the early
 +
1900s. Tenor banjos and plectrum banjos became standard instruments in jazz ensembles and
 +
remained popular until they were supplanted by the electric guitar. Jazz banjos are played
 +
with a plectrum, like the modern “flat pick.” The use of banjos in jazz was curtailed by the
 +
advent of electric guitars and relegated to early jazz forms, such as Dixieland. Virtuoso
 +
plectrum and tenor players were frequently seen on the Vaudeville stage.
 +
===Rural String Band===
 +
While 19th century northern urbanites played their dandified pearl-inlayed banjos, and unbroken tradition of finger styles and frailing styles continued on in rural areas of the South and elsewhere. These traditions probably go back as far as the colonial period and it can be argued that in these areas, the transfer of banjo playing from black musicians to white musicians was direct and that isolation kept the playing styles relatively free of interpretation. In rural communities, fiddle and banjo, and sometimes banjo alone, were the mainstay of were the mainstays rural dance.
  
−
By 1860, five string banjos were the rule. Preeminent banjo player of the period, [[Joel Walker Sweeney]], an American [[minstrel show|minstrel]] performer did not, as many assert, invent the short-scale fifth string. It is likely that he popularized the use of the bass string string which gave the banjo more range. The playing style of Mr. Sweeney and his contemporaries involved a downward motion of the hand using the fingernail to strike the strings. This basic motion is the origin of old time styles called variously frailing, clawhammer, knock down, rapping.  
+
From the end of the minstrel period to the advent of the recording industry, five string  
 +
banjo traditions were kept alive by rural banjo players. Rural string bands recorded in the  
 +
20S and 30S played a mix of Traditional fiddle tunes, ballads, country blues, and
 +
ragtime-influenced compositions. This new admixture proved a popular and created a new genre
 +
of “hillbilly” offerings. The predominant style of banjo playing in these recordings was
 +
essentially the minstrel “knock down” style, though early three-finger picking styles also
 +
were recorded.
 +
===Bluegrass===
 +
By the 1930s record labels, such as Brunswick sought out rural talent recording string bands
 +
and individual talent. What emerges form these early recordings is a mosaic of regional
 +
styles. Notable among these was banjoist Doc Boggs who employed eccentric banjo tunings and
 +
a blues influenced fingerstyle. This contrasts sharply with the straight-ahead frailing
 +
style of artists such as Hobart Smith and Clarence Ashley.
 +
[[Image:bluegrass_banjo.jpg|thumb|A Bluegrass Banjo]]
 +
Among the successful recording artists of the 1930s was a young man named Bill Monroe who
 +
recorded as a duet with his brother Charlie. In the 1940s Bill Monroe remade the rural string band format into the driving sound later called Bluegrass in honor of his native Kentucky.  
 +
Monroe was a master mandolin player and surrounded himself with the best talent of his day.
 +
Early incarnations of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys included Dave "Stringbean" Akeman who played
 +
in the frailing style. Monroe favored having a banjo in the ensemble, but even the talented
 +
Akeman could not keep pace with Monroe's pyrotechnic mandolin playing. Akeman was eventually
 +
sacked. One of Monroe’s sidemen happened to hear the playing of a young and shy North
 +
Carolinian, Earl Scruggs, and encouraged Monroe to audition him. Monroe was skeptical but
 +
agreed to the audition. Scruggs skill and style impressed Monroe and he was quickly hired.
 +
Earl Scruggs’ style is based on rapid picking if the thumb, index finger and middle finger
 +
of the right hand and employs metal picks for the fingers and a plastic thumb pick. Scruggs
 +
had predecessors in the tree-finger style and may have inherited some concepts from artists
 +
such as “Snuffy” Jenkins but Scruggs’ sublime mastery of the style set him apart and
 +
completed the Bluegrass formula.
  
−
The first major departure from these styles appeared in the late 1800s. By this time the banjo had become popular in urban centers like New York, Boston and Philadelphia and was acceptable as a parlor instrument to be played by women as well as men. This new sophistication called for "European" styles of play which called for strings to be plucked upward as they are on a guitar. To support these new styles, the banjos began to feature smaller diameter heads and "tone rings," metal rings of varied design that sit between the banjo head and the rim. The late 1800s and early 1900s companies like Vega in Boston produced ornate banjos featuring engraved metal parts, fancy pearl inlay and floral carved necks.
+
===Melodic Style===
 +
Variations on Earl's pioneering work soon followed. The next two decades saw a new
 +
generation of bluegrass players, some of them born and bred in the suburbs and the city.  
 +
Bill Keith was one such player who pioneered the "melodic" style of play. Melodic
 +
style differs from scruggs style in that it is less dependent on roll patterns and
 +
seeks the melody more directly, particularly on melody intensive numbers such as fiddle
 +
tunes. Keith played with Monroe's bluegrass boys and Monroe noted with satisfaction that
 +
Keith had accomplished what he suspected that the banjo was capable of.
  
−
The Civil War exposed the banjo to soldiers from rural areas who may never have seen a minstrel show. The banjo was popular among Union and Confederate soldiers alike. Small impromptu minstrel groups formed from among the troops featuring banjo, fiddle, bones and other instruments. It is likely that the appearance of banjos in rural areas, such as appalachians, can be traced back to this exposure. Regional styles of banjo playing that developed after the civil war were popularized during the folk boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Master clawhammer players such as Clarence Ashley and Hobart Smith were honored at folk festivals around the country and featured on numerous recordings.
+
A survey of modern banjo playing would not be complete without mention of the influence of  
−
 
+
Bela Fleck. At an early age Fleck was a master of Scruggs and melodic styles. He later
−
In the 1940s "three-finger" emerged principally in North Carolina. Early masters include Snuffy Jenkins, Don Reno and Earl Scruggs, but it was Earl Scruggs playing in the ensemble of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe whose name is most closely associated with the style. Three finger style incorporates two metal finger picks and a plastic thumb pick and features a rolling and an upward motion of the fingers against the string. The picks allow for speed and a ringing tone. As had occurred at different junctures, banjo construction was modified to accomodate new styles of play. The Gibson company developed a banjo with a resonator and a heavy bronze tone ring that is ideally suited to bluegrass and three-finger style.
+
pioneered jazz styles for five string banjo.  
−
 
+
===Folk===
−
The five string banjo, depending on the style of play, can utilize many tunings. Most bluegrass music is performed in open G tuning (gDGBd) and less frequently in "drop C" (gCGBd) or D tuning (aDF#Ad). Clawhammer players also favor open G and drop C, but add "double C" (gCGcd) and "G modal" (gDGCd). Numerous other tunings exist. Banjo master Doc Boggs was famous for playing in exotic tunings to suit the mood of his songs.
+
The folk boom of the 50s and 60s brought old time players to the attention of young players.  
−
 
+
Almost in a parallel course to before the rural instrument was once again adopted by urban
−
== Four-string banjo ==
+
players. This time recordings and performances such as Newport Folk Festival featured
−
 
+
diverse banjo styles including bluegrass, clawhammer, and the styles of Pete Seeger and  
−
Four string banjos are used as a principally as a rythm instrument in jazz music, particularly in the "dixieland" style jazz. The advent of the electric guitar and changes in jazz styles relegate its use to older jazz forms. It has also been employed as a solo instrument by four string virtuosos. Four string banjos may be either "plectrum" or "tenor" banjos.
+
George Grove of the Kingston Trio.
−
 
 
−
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 flat guitar-style [[plectrum|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 [[fingerpick]]s, 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.
 
−
 
 
−
== Other uses of "banjo" ==
 
−
 
 
−
* 'Banjo' was the nickname of Australian poet [[Banjo Paterson|A.B. Paterson]].
 
−
* In [[baseball]], a "[[List of baseball jargon|banjo hitter]]" is a hitter who lacks power.
 
−
* Banjo was a classic [[Rareware]] computer game character in the 1998 game [[Banjo-Kazooie]]
 
−
 
 
−
== See also ==
 
−
* [[List of banjo players]]
 
−
* [[Prewar Gibson banjo]]
 
  
 
== Further reading ==
 
== Further reading ==

Revision as of 23:39, 30 January 2006


File:Old plantation.jpg
Detail from "The Old Plantation"

The banjo is a stringed instrument of African origin. The defining characteristic of the banjo is the use of a stretched membrane, originally an animal skin, to amplify the vibration of its strings. This arrangement creates the banjo's characteristic sound and differentiates it from instruments of European origin known in the Americas. The cultural history of the banjo and its place in the history of American race relations may well be the most profound from among all musical instruments. The instrument’s evolution and the music surrounding its development may be characterized a synthesis African and European traditions.

Africa and the Caribbean

The earliest documentation of banjo-type instruments is found in writings of 17th century travelers to Africa and the Americas. These writings document instruments in East Africa, North America, and the Caribbean that share common distinguishing characteristics: a gourd body topped with animal skin and with a fretless wooden neck. The number and composition of strings varied, but three or four strings were the general rule. Richard Jobson was the first to record the existence of such an instrument. While exploring the Gambra River in Africa in 1620 he described an instrument "...made of a great gourd and a neck, thereunto was fastened strings." Adrien Dessalles in his Histoire des Antilles published in 1678, records the use of a "banza" among the slave population of Martinique. Jamaican historian Edward Long describes the four stringed "merry whang" as a "rustic guitar" made from a "calabash" covered with a "a dried bladder, or skin." Similarly the "banshaw" was noted in St. Kitts and the "bangil" in Barbados.

The American Plantation

Thomas Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia, Vol. IV (1782 to 1786) states in a footnote, "The instrument proper to them is the Banjar, which they brought hither from Africa…." By the middle of the 18th century the banjo was so well known that it did not require a description. In 1749 the Pennsylvania Gazette carried a notice regarding a runaway slave named Scipio which, by way of description states that he "plays the banjo." The sort of banjo Scipio may have played is documented in a Watercolor entitled "The Old Plantation" probably painted between 1790 and 1800. The composition features a banjo player accompanying several dancers in front of the slave quarters of a plantation. The banjo depicted has four strings, one of which is affixed to a tuning peg at the side of the neck. This short-scale string, called a "drone" string or “chanterelle” is a significant feature which is present on modern five string banjos. It allows the player to create the exciting rhythms associated with the banjo. It is also a feature that sets the banjo apart from stringed instruments of Europe origin.

It was not long before the banjo crossed racial and social barriers. Philip Fithian, a tutor at Nominy Hall in Virginia, recorded in a diary entry dated February 4, 1774 "This evening, in the School-Room, which is below my Chamber, several Negroes & Ben, & Harry are playing on a banjo and dancing!" Fithian’s apparent chagrin at this scene is amplified by the writings of a contemporary, the Reverend Jonathan Boucher who described the banjo as "in use, chiefly, if not entirely, among people of the lower classes." In the context of his writing, it is apparent that he includes lower-class whites among those who played the banjo. Fithian and Boucher's identification of the banjo with racial and class stereotypes has persisted subtly or overtly throughout the banjo's history. Despite this stigma, the banjo became driving force in one of America's first mass-cultural phenomena: the minstrel show.

The Minstrel Show

The form of entertainment that brought the banjo to the attention of the masses also represents a shameful exposition of overt racism in American popular culture. Blackface comedic and musical acts predated the minstrel show by several decades. Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice developed a stage persona called Jim Crow, a carefree, shiftless slave dressed in shabby clothes. Rice’s Jim Crow act was immediately successful and brought him acclaim during the 1820s and 1830s. Blackface performances were common between acts of plays and as circus acts. Minstrel shows were staged performances that included music, dance, and a variety of comedic performances. The stock-in-trade of the minstrel show was the parody of the lifestyles of slaves and free African Americans. Stock characters of the minstrel show included Jim Crow, Mr. Tambo, a joyous musician, and Zip Coon, a free black attempting to put on airs in imitation of white gentry. Skits and satirical speeches were delivered in stylized black dialect. These savage caricatures of the lives of African Americans were met with overwhelming approbation among white audiences.

The staging of Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels at New York's Bowery Amphitheatre in 1843 marks the beginning of the full-blown minstrel show in which the entire cast “blackened up.” Emmett’s core group included Emmett on fiddle, Billy Whitlock on banjo, a tambourine player, and a bones player. These instruments constituted the basic minstrel ensemble and this formula was imitated by professional and amateur musicians alike.

The overwhelming popularity of the minstrel show created a new class of professional banjoists and a demand for high-quality instruments. By the 1840s gourd-bodied banjos had generally given way to construction of a drum-like sound chamber. This new arrangement offered two major advantages: The size of the drum shell or was not limited to the size of a natural gourd (eight inches, or so in diameter), and the tension on the drum head could be adjusted to counteract the effects of humidity on the natural skin. The banjo of the minstrel stage featured a range of head diameters, generally of 12 to 13 inches and five gut strings, one of which was a short-scale drone string, and a fretless neck.

To meet the new demand furniture makers, drum makers, guitar manufacturers and others got into the business of making banjos. Gradually luthiers specializing in banjo production emerged. One of the most prominent of these was William Esperance Boucher (1822-99). Boucher’s Baltimore, Maryland firm sold drums, violins and guitars. Many of his banjos featured an elegant scroll peghead and decorative profiling of the drone-string side of the neck. Boucher set a high standard of quality and aesthetics. His banjos were popular among professional musicians. Another banjo maker of note was British-born guitar maker James Ashborn whose Connecticut factory produced banjos in the late 1840s. His unadorned and practical instruments were common on the minstrel stage and set a high standard for professional instruments. Ashborn is also credited with producing some of the first banjos featuring fretted necks.

Jazz

Between 1890 to 1920 the popularity of the minstrel music was eclipsed by early jazz forms, such as ragtime. The popularity of the banjo as a parlor instrument fell into decline. The features which made the banjo ideal for minstrel music became liabilities when attempting the complex chord structures of jazz. These include a reliance on “open” tunings (strings tuned to a major chord) and the drone string which plays at a constant pitch.

New configurations of the banjo were invented to meet this new musical challenge. Popularity of the mandolin was concurrent with the banjo’s popularity in the latter 19th century. The mandolin’s tuning arrangement (in fifths as in a violin) is inherently more versatile. Banjo-mandolin hybrids emerged, resulting ultimately in banjos suitable to jazz playing. The availability of metal strings also gave the banjo more volume and facilitated this transformation. Ultimately two types of four string banjos emerged in the jazz period, plectrum and tenor banjos. Plectrum banjos are similar to five-string banjos of the late minstrel period, but without the short-scale drone string. Tenor banjos are an outgrowth of the mandolin banjo, featuring scale length somewhat shorter than the plectrum banjo and strings tuned in intervals of fifths.

The decline of popularity of the five string banjo is evident from the history of the Gibson Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Gibson was the preeminent mandolin manufacturing company of its day and began marketing banjos for the jazz market in 1918. Gibson sold four string banjos and every other sort of banjo hybrid instrument but did not produce five string banjos for the first several years of production. The Gibson company introduced the "Mastertone" which by the 1930s incorporated it's most notable innovation, a heavy cast-bronze tone ring. This, in combination with a tone chamber backed by an improved resonator, created an instrument of impressive volume and tonal clarity. The Gibson company is also responsible for the invention of the truss rod which, when embedded in a banjo neck, counteracts string tension and allows for necks of thinner construction. Thus, by the mid 1930s the modern banjo reached a state of development which has remained essentially unchanged.

Styles of Play

There is no detailed record of how early banjos were played. The first banjo tutors published in response to the popularity of minstrelsy. One such tutor is Briggs Banjo Instructor published in 1855. The method for the right hand described in Briggs’ tutor likely represents an unbroken tradition from the early banjo of the plantation to his day. It requires the player to strike the strings with the fingernails using downward movement. This basic right hand movement has had various names according to region and time period. Modern players use the terms “clawhammer” and “frailing” among others.

The Parlor

By the late 19th century the banjo had become a popular parlor instrument. A new class of banjo players emerged, including middle- and upper-middle-class ladies. Banjo manufacturers, eager to supply this market began to produce ornate instruments of more delicate proportions that included ebony fingerboards with engraved mother of pearl and necks with carved floral patterns. Buckley's New Banjo Method published in 1860 offered the players instruction in “classical” banjo. The classical style featured right hand technique similar to classical guitar in which the fingertips pluck the strings upward.

Dixieland

Four string banjos were developed to respond to the popularity of jazz music in the early 1900s. Tenor banjos and plectrum banjos became standard instruments in jazz ensembles and remained popular until they were supplanted by the electric guitar. Jazz banjos are played with a plectrum, like the modern “flat pick.” The use of banjos in jazz was curtailed by the advent of electric guitars and relegated to early jazz forms, such as Dixieland. Virtuoso plectrum and tenor players were frequently seen on the Vaudeville stage.

Rural String Band

While 19th century northern urbanites played their dandified pearl-inlayed banjos, and unbroken tradition of finger styles and frailing styles continued on in rural areas of the South and elsewhere. These traditions probably go back as far as the colonial period and it can be argued that in these areas, the transfer of banjo playing from black musicians to white musicians was direct and that isolation kept the playing styles relatively free of interpretation. In rural communities, fiddle and banjo, and sometimes banjo alone, were the mainstay of were the mainstays rural dance.

From the end of the minstrel period to the advent of the recording industry, five string banjo traditions were kept alive by rural banjo players. Rural string bands recorded in the 20S and 30S played a mix of Traditional fiddle tunes, ballads, country blues, and ragtime-influenced compositions. This new admixture proved a popular and created a new genre of “hillbilly” offerings. The predominant style of banjo playing in these recordings was essentially the minstrel “knock down” style, though early three-finger picking styles also were recorded.

Bluegrass

By the 1930s record labels, such as Brunswick sought out rural talent recording string bands and individual talent. What emerges form these early recordings is a mosaic of regional styles. Notable among these was banjoist Doc Boggs who employed eccentric banjo tunings and a blues influenced fingerstyle. This contrasts sharply with the straight-ahead frailing style of artists such as Hobart Smith and Clarence Ashley.

File:Bluegrass banjo.jpg
A Bluegrass Banjo

Among the successful recording artists of the 1930s was a young man named Bill Monroe who recorded as a duet with his brother Charlie. In the 1940s Bill Monroe remade the rural string band format into the driving sound later called Bluegrass in honor of his native Kentucky. Monroe was a master mandolin player and surrounded himself with the best talent of his day. Early incarnations of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys included Dave "Stringbean" Akeman who played in the frailing style. Monroe favored having a banjo in the ensemble, but even the talented Akeman could not keep pace with Monroe's pyrotechnic mandolin playing. Akeman was eventually sacked. One of Monroe’s sidemen happened to hear the playing of a young and shy North Carolinian, Earl Scruggs, and encouraged Monroe to audition him. Monroe was skeptical but agreed to the audition. Scruggs skill and style impressed Monroe and he was quickly hired. Earl Scruggs’ style is based on rapid picking if the thumb, index finger and middle finger of the right hand and employs metal picks for the fingers and a plastic thumb pick. Scruggs had predecessors in the tree-finger style and may have inherited some concepts from artists such as “Snuffy” Jenkins but Scruggs’ sublime mastery of the style set him apart and completed the Bluegrass formula.

Melodic Style

Variations on Earl's pioneering work soon followed. The next two decades saw a new generation of bluegrass players, some of them born and bred in the suburbs and the city. Bill Keith was one such player who pioneered the "melodic" style of play. Melodic style differs from scruggs style in that it is less dependent on roll patterns and seeks the melody more directly, particularly on melody intensive numbers such as fiddle tunes. Keith played with Monroe's bluegrass boys and Monroe noted with satisfaction that Keith had accomplished what he suspected that the banjo was capable of.

A survey of modern banjo playing would not be complete without mention of the influence of Bela Fleck. At an early age Fleck was a master of Scruggs and melodic styles. He later pioneered jazz styles for five string banjo.

Folk

The folk boom of the 50s and 60s brought old time players to the attention of young players. Almost in a parallel course to before the rural instrument was once again adopted by urban players. This time recordings and performances such as Newport Folk Festival featured diverse banjo styles including bluegrass, clawhammer, and the styles of Pete Seeger and George Grove of the Kingston Trio.

Further reading

  • Gura, Philip F. and James F. Bollman, America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century, The University of North Carolina Press, 1999 (ISBN 0807824844). The definitive history of the banjo, focusing on the instrument's development in the 1800's.
  • Seeger, Pete, How to Play the 5-String Banjo, Music Sales Corporation, 3rd edition, 1969 (ISBN 0825600243). The seminal instruction book, still in print decades later. Seeger has since recorded an instruction video, available on DVD.
  • Tsumura, Akira, Banjos: The Tsumura Collection, Kodansha International Ltd., 1984 (ISBN 0870116053). An illustrated history of the banjo featuring the world's premier collection.
  • Webb, Robert Lloyd, Ring the Banjar!, Centerstream Publishing, 2nd edition, 1996 (ISBN 1574240161). A short history of the banjo, with pictures from an exhibition at the MIT Museum.

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