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Banjo sound. For those who decide to buy a banjo

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 On modern instruments, it has been replaced by two steel rods with nuts that allow you to adjust the angle of the neck.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 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), archtop sounds much brighter and long time was 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 influenced by violin stands, I have heard a lot about them positive feedback, but he did not come across. 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 the archtop with his not too deep sound- there may be a completely different situation, 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 him in Irish music it's very sad that even fairly reputable companies like 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.
Clifford Essex - English-made banjo, for a long time is 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" ...

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. Because it got a place in jazz groups New Orleans, where she 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.

African slaves South America gave the earliest banjos the shape of African instruments 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.

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org - material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia;

EOMI is an encyclopedia of musical instruments.

Additional to the site:

What is a mandolin?

What is a guitar?

What is percussion?

What is the history of drums?

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...

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 I bought modern form. Varieties of the banjo are used in jazz. Banjo musician... Illustrated encyclopedic Dictionary

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 blacks ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

- [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. Dictionary 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 folk instrument 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. 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" ...
Banjo. Deliverance, Jack Curtis, James Dickey. This edition includes two action-packed novels by masters of psychological detective Jack Curtis and James Dickey - Banjo and Deliverance. ISBN:5-85434-071-2…

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 its predecessors were some arabic instruments. 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 Stringed 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) 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

Books

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" ...

The 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. A kind of guitar with a resonator (the extended part of the instrument is covered with leather, like a drum). Thomas Jefferson mentions the banjo in 1784 - probably 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 began to be used by minstrels and thus entered the 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. The banjo is played with a plectrum.

The banjo is a relative of the well-known European mandolin, similar in shape to it. But between them there is a sharp difference in sound - the banjo has a more ringing and sharp sound. In some African countries, the banjo is considered a sacred instrument, which can only be touched by high priests or rulers.

Origin
The African slaves of South America shaped the earliest banjos in the form of African instruments 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 gained popularity thanks to the minstrel Joel Sweeney in the 1830s. The banjo was brought to Britain in the 1840s by Sweeney's group of American minstrels and very soon became quite popular.

Modern views banjo
The modern banjo comes in a wide variety of styles, including five and six strings. The six-string version, tuned like a guitar, also became very popular. Almost all types of banjo are played with a characteristic tremolo or arpeggiate with the right hand, although there are many different playing styles.

Application
Today, the banjo is commonly associated with country and bluegrass music. However, from a historical perspective, the banjo is central to the African-American traditional music, as well as 19th-century minstrel performances. In fact, African Americans had a strong influence on the early development of country and bluegrass music, through the introduction of the banjo as well as through the musical technician playing the banjo and the violin. IN Lately banjo began to be used in a variety of musical genres, including pop music and Celtic punk. More recently, hardcore musicians have begun to show interest in the banjo.

History of the banjo

Thomas Jefferson in the 18th century described a similar homemade instrument called bonjar, made from a dried gourd cut in half, mutton skin as the top soundboard, mutton sinew strings, and a fingerboard. And many sources mentioned that such instruments were known on the island of Jamaica as early as the 17th century. Many scholars of the history of American folk music believe that the banjo is a Negro folk instrument either smuggled out of Africa or reproduced after an African model in America. Therefore, it is much older than Russian (Tatar origin) balalaikas and Russians ( German descent) harmonicas (but not psaltery, horns and some types of folk stringed, almost forgotten now). Initially, the strings were from 5 to 9, there were no nut on the fretboard. This is due to the peculiarities of the musical scale of blacks. There is no precise intonation in African Negro music. Deviations from the main tone reach 1.5 tones. And this has been preserved in the American stage so far (jazz, blues, soul).

Not everyone knows the following fact: North American blacks were not very fond of showing the pearls of their culture to whites. The gospels, the spirituals, were brought to the white public from the Negro environment literally by force of tongs. The banjo from the Negro environment was pulled out by the white minstrel-show. What is this phenomenon? Imagine cultural life in Europe and America sometime in the 1830s. Europe is operas, symphonies, theater. America is nothing but home singing old grandfather's (English, Irish, Scottish) songs. And I want culture ordinary American drive a simple culture. And so, in the 1840s, a simple provincial white American received mobile, roaming musical theaters throughout the country with a troupe of 6-12 people, showing common man simple repertoire (skits, sketches, dances, etc.). Such a performance usually took place to the accompaniment of an ensemble consisting of 1-2 violins, 1-2 banjos, tambourine, bones, later an accordion began to join them. The composition of the ensemble is borrowed from slave household ensembles.

The dance on the minstrel stage was inseparable from the sound of the banjo. Starting from the 40s and until the end of the “minstrel era”, two artistic figures inextricably linked to each other dominated the stage - a soloist-dancer and a soloist-banjo performer. IN in a certain sense combined in his face both functions, for, anticipating the game and singing, as well as in the process of making music itself, he trampled, danced, swayed, exposing and exaggerating (for example, with the help of additional sounds extracted from a wooden stand in circuses) the complex rhythms of Negro dances. It is characteristic that the minstrel piece for the banjo even had a name that was associated with any dance on the pseudo-Negro stage - “jig” (jig). Of all the variety and diversity of instruments of European and African origin, rooted on American soil, the minstrels chose the sounds of the banjo as the most in harmony with their dominant system of images. Not only as a solo instrument, but also as a member of the future minstrel ensemble (band), the banjo retained its leading role…”

The sound of the banjo supported not only rhythm, but harmony and melody. performed music. Moreover, later the melody began to be replaced by a virtuoso instrumental texture. This required an outstanding performing skill from the performer. The instrument itself came to a 4 or 5-string version, frets appeared on the fingerboard.

However, black Americans suddenly lost interest in the banjo and categorically expelled it from their midst, replacing it with a guitar. This is due to the "shameful" traditions of depicting blacks in the performances of white minstrels. Negroes were portrayed in 2 forms: either a lazy half-wit-loafer from a plantation in rags, or a sort of dandy copying the manners and clothes of whites, but also a half-wit. Black women were portrayed as full of erotic lust, extremely promiscuous...

Later, since 1890, the era of ragtime, jazz, blues came. Minstrel-shows are gone. The banjo was picked up by white, a little later black brass bands playing syncopated polkas and marches, later ragtimes. Drums alone did not provide the required level of rhythmic pulsation (swing), a movable rhythmic instrument syncopating the sound of the orchestra was required. White orchestras immediately began to use the four-string tenor banjo (scale c, g, d1, a1), black orchestras first used the guitar banjo (six-string guitar scale E, A, d, g, h, e1), later retrained to the tenor banjo.

During the first recording of jazz in 1917 by the white orchestra "Original Dixieland Jazz Band" it turned out that all the drums except the snare on the record are poorly heard, and the banjo rhythm is even very good. Jazz developed, the “Chicago” style arose, sound recording techniques developed, better electromechanical sound recording appeared, the sound of jazz bands became softer, the rhythm sections lacked a more harmonically flexible guitar and the banjo disappeared from jazz, having migrated to a real boom since the 20s last century country music. After all, not all white people wanted to listen to jazz.

Based on the melodies of English, Irish, Scottish songs and ballads, country music has also formed its own instrumentation: guitar, mandolin, fiddle, resonator guitar, invented by the Domani brothers, ukulele, harmonica, banjo. The tenor banjo acquired a peg at the 5th fret, the 5th string as thick as the first one and changed the tuning to (g1,c,g,h,d1). The technique of playing has changed, instead of playing chords with a mediator, arpeggiated playing with the so-called “claws” - Fingerpicking has appeared. And a new child was named - an American or bluegrass banjo.

Meanwhile, Europe recognized the tenor banjo. Great composers mostly died out, Europe was suddenly drawn to the medieval-Renaissance song roots. The war slowed this process down, but after the war skiffles music appeared in England.

Then came the famous Chieftains and Dubliners and Celtic music. The Dubliners, for example, have both tenor and American banjo in composition. After the war, some jazz musicians wanted to return to the roots, the Dixieland movement arose in America and Europe, led by trumpeter Max Kaminsky, and the tenor banjo again sounded in jazz. And it sounds now even in our Dixielands.