#five string banjo

[yourcoffeeguru]

Vintage Play Blue Grass on Five-String Banjo by Roger Siminoff 1976 Professional || AUtradingpost - ebay

[pinkrose787]

I tried tuning my banjo for the first time in a while, but the B string broke :O

When I tried tuning it after putting a new string, it broke again D:

I wasn't even tightening it! I was actually loosening it!

[murderballadeer]

i need to stop browsing folk-related stickers online there are so many i want and yet i must resist

[passengerpigeons]

start taking ketamine. operate an elaborate new age grift with your critical knowledge of new age movements via adorno and your exposure to zen Buddhism via gritty action comics and FromSoft games. take nude Scandinavian ice baths on lake Michigan off the most respectable north side beach imaginable. Start another grift involving goat yoga. When you get audited kill the goats and use the skin to make vellum for gourd banjos. Start a gourd banjo band. Run off with all the money earned from busking and get a BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift). Get a sugar daddy with that fat thing. Use all that money to buy the five string cello banjo you've been coveting. Then move to Marquette and sever all connections and earthly desires, extinguish the ego flame of ambition.

[ecruvianfancontent]

FIDDLEFORD PSA!!!!!!

OKAY, THIS HAS BEEN DRIVING ME ABSOLUTELY BONKERS FOR A WHILE NOW.

Dear Fiddleford McGucket fanartists:

First of all: draw how you want. The following is not intended to be judgmental, just educational. <3

On to business:

Here is how you fingerpick a banjo.

This is three-finger. There are more styles, but this is how I play. (I did not include fingerpicks because Fidds doesn't use them in the show and they're a pain to draw; you can also play just fine without them, although they are useful.)

Fingerpicking is usually done on a five-string banjo. Old Man McGucket's theme sounds like it's fingerpicked to me. Please note that your pinky and ring finger are planted on the banjo itself, next to the strings.

The first two images are to show posture, the third image is what it would look like to draw:

When I'm just holding my banjo and not playing it, my pinky and ring finger just naturally rest this way because it's comfy.

Here is how you play clawhammer style.

This is just an approximation; I almost never play clawhammer. The big thing is that your fingers curl in in a "claw" and you pick with your thumb.

Here are the tuning pegs on a five-string banjo.

In the show, Fiddleford has a four-string banjo, not five-string. (We see two banjos; they are both four-string.) Honestly, that surprised me. I'm not sure what the folk scene looked like in the 80s, but most players you see today have five-strings, so I think they were just streamlining the design.

EDIT: I was wrong! His banjo has a disappearing and reappearing fifth nut!

A four-string banjo has four tuning pegs at the top, like any other instrument. The fifth tuning peg is about a third of the way down the neck.

BONUS: Nobody gets into this much detail, but clever eyes will notice that the string widths look funny. If you have played a bass or guitar, you're used to the top string being lowest and thickest, the bottom string - which is the "first" string - being highest and thinnest. A four string banjo is tuned like this, but with a five-string banjo, the fifth string is the same diameter as the first.

Anyway, there are plenty of great banjo video and image tutorials on the internet if you want to get into the weeds, but I got the impression that a lot of you have literally never seen a banjo being played often enough to even realize how different it is from a guitar. Some people absolutely do strum banjos like guitars - in fact, I think that's more common with four-strings - but the McGucket music we hear is very obviously not being strummed.

There! Now you may freely choose to draw his hand however you want to, and it won't be from a place of ignorance. <3

(Oh, one last thing: that round thing that comprises the body of the banjo is literally just a drum. Drumming it is fun. You can and should draw Fiddleford tapping his banjo with the tips of his fingers like I do.)

[thislovintime]

"Cuckoo" live at the Lewisville Lawn Party in 1997. Footage courtesy of LAAC and torkwenches.

“[When I was about 14] I asked for a banjo, and they went out, my folks went out and bought me a little tiny, dinky five-string banjo. And Pete Seeger’s book, How To Play the Five-String Banjo, I think I bought that myself, and learned how to play from that. Nobody said, ‘Here, take a banjo,’ or, ‘Gee, you’d be good at it,’ or anything like that. I just wanted to play it.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, 1989 “I’m a great admirer of Pete Seeger.“ - Peter Tork, Disc and Music Echo, January 13, 1968 “‘When I was a kid, before the Monkees, I was not primarily a rock and roller,’ said Tork during a 1998 interview. ‘I was primarily an acoustic folkie. For us, as acoustic folkies, the politics were very clear. We were strongly liberal, in the Pete Seeger mold. We certainly had a strong sense of right and wrong, and we certainly believed a lot that was wrong with society was the fault of the moneyed class. I think all of us to some extent believed ourselves to be socialists.’” - We all want to change the world: Rock and politics from Elvis to Eminem (2003)

[kingofthewilderwest]

So if I took up private music lessons again (budget pending), which would you vote for?

Banjo: The original private lessons plan. Bluegrass and its history have become a deep soul-fulfilling passion for me since I got into it in 2019. I've run into technique issues (ex: hand adjustments) that I don't know how to correct and are bottlenecking progress. If the teacher here is good, lessons would un-bottleneck me so I could work up tunes full speed and participate informally in local jam groups, which, if they're sorta good, would be stimulating and allow me to live my passion for a moment.

Cons: bluegrass lessons risk not being as bang-for-buck, with more casual and less intensive information and progress. There are many free resources I could tap into - and while they don't replace in-person feedback, might get me just as far in other respects. Many bluegrass greats didn't learn through lessons, and my prior musical training means I have a good sense of what I should be fixing. I also live in an area where there's rather limited bluegrass.

Level: late beginner Progress stakes: low Rewards: casual Local opportunities: casual

Flute: The instrument I've invested the most into already (besides piano). At my musical "height" in 2011, I was good enough on flute to be first chair all-state orchestra but not polished enough to audition into a good music school's spots. I'm craving returning to classical music and there is no thrill as extraordinary as performing flute like a diva in orchestra. This is when I feel at my best. Truly polishing flute would be working up my first, most driven, and cared-about investment, and could light a deep fire in me like nothing else.

However, I live in a small area with few resources and few ensembles - even fewer good ones. Most interesting ensembles I'm locked out of because I'm not a college student. The other interesting ensembles I'd had difficulties doing because flute is omnipresent and competitive. I'm already in one of the only bands I can access (it's "meh" and doesn't 100% fill my itch). I'm good enough to do the chamber groups at a classically-oriented church. There is a "semi-professional" orchestra and a local chamber group here, but the likelihood of there being a flute opening in the next five years is slim. I'm trained enough I can polish and grow myself. It would be an honor to study under a master flautist, but what is the chance that in this small area, there's someone advanced enough to push me to a new level? (the level I would need to get into the orchestra if an opening did happen)

Level: early advanced Progress stakes: high and ambition-oriented Rewards: best, but rare and high risk Local opportunities: rare for what I want

Viola: The instrument I've historically used to get into ensembles I shouldn't've. I had a grand one year of viola lessons with a high school classmate I was dating in 2011. I've used the viola to get into lower non-auditioning collegiate orchestras and church special events. There is a non-auditioning orchestra here I could participate in. There are always open viola spots in the "semi-pro" orchestra and they're far less competitive to get into than flute. The orchestra will accept advanced high school students, so I only have to be as good as an advanced high school student to squeak in. I suck at viola now, but I'm not starting from scratch. I think that a year or two of viola with a good teacher will get me good enough to be a participating fish in this small pond. I would not be able to work up my viola skills to get into the orchestra without a teacher. There are good string teachers here and I've received a recommendation for a viola teacher. Getting into orchestra would get me into the ensemble I've been most passionate about. This could also unlock me playing string trios at a local church. This is a very strategic choice.

Level: late beginner Progress stakes: medium Rewards: medium Local opportunities: multiple

--------------

I've been thinking I should switch my plan of doing banjo to viola. I could pound out the hardest two years of viola in my life, then switch to banjo lessons. In an ideal world, I'd take multiple instrument lessons at a time (would be nice to find a good piano teacher, too....), but I'm frugal, want to save for housing and retirement, don't have high-paying jobs, and have medical payment obligations that rein me in. So. If I allocate carefully, I can squeak in one instrument at a time properly. (Improperly, I could do two instruments at a time where lessons are every-other-week - ergo cycling lessons between the two instruments.)

[sayhowdycountrycritters]

My husband, @sayhelloanimalfriends , got me this beautiful late 70’s , maple, anniversary edition five string banjo!

[transbot-brian]

not to be incredibly nitpicky but the banjo that brian uses is a five string the fifth string is cut off at the neck

[hypnoneghoul]

I have a funny thought about the humble banjo.

What what what do you think might happen if someone secretly replaced Dewdrop’s Stratocaster with a BANJO? You know, all five stringed wackiness with one weird short string? (I used to try and play Appalachian style bluegrass ((badly😂)) on one that has been sitting in my office untouched for years in a dust and cat scratch covered case and it has got me thinking.) I wonder if he would be good at it? I wonder if he’d try and play it off like “nothing new here” at practice and just smirk and ignore the practical joke that Swiss most definitely DID NOT pull on him. Would he try to get through practice improvising Ghost songs but on a banjo Appalachian style ? And would he frail or use the clawhammer technique? Inquiring minds want to know about BLUEGRASS GHOULS LOL.

🪕

I read it first at 7 in the morning and I was so fucking confused dude I was laughing my ass off

anyway, that'd be fucking hilarious but honestly I don't know what to add this is chaos and it would be chaos. I think it'd certainly depend on his mood cause one day he'd freak and his ears would start letting out smoke or something but another day he'd play along and THAT would be true gold. it'd depend on the banjo but he'd most definitely try to play like he usually would just on a different instrument. maybe he'd switch it up style wise too and the rest of the ghouls would join and it would end up being the stupidest practice ever

[ifelllikeastar]

Keith Whitley attended Sandy Hook High School in Kentucky and when he was a teenager he and his friends would pass the time drinking bootleg bourbon and racing their cars down mountain roads at dangerous speeds. Whitley was once in a car whose driver attempted to round a curve at 120 miles per hour. The car wrecked, killing his friend and almost breaking Whitley's neck. In another incident, he drove his car off a 120-foot cliff into a frozen river, escaping with only a broken collar bone.

In 1969, he performed in a musical contest in Ezel, Kentucky, with his brother Dwight on five-string banjo. Ricky Skaggs was also in the contest. Skaggs and Whitley instantly bonded and became close friends.

Whitley and Skaggs, both sixteen years old, were discovered in Ft. Gay, West Virginia, by Ralph Stanley, who was 45 minutes late for a gig due to a flat tire. Stanley opened the door of the club and heard what he thought was the Stanley Brothers playing on a jukebox. However, it was Whitley and Skaggs. The two soon joined Stanley's band. Whitley became lead singer for Stanley in 1974.

Born Jackie Keith Whitley on July 1, 1954 in Ashland, Kentucky and died on May 9, 1989 in Goodlettsville, Tennessee at the age of 34.

[harrisonarchive]

From Peter Tork’s banjo contribution to the Wonderwall Music soundtrack (featured only in the movie, not on the album). The photo in this video is from that session.

The creation of Wonderwall Music, a series marking the 55th anniversary of the recording sessions - part 5:

“George was working on the musical score he wrote for the movie, “Wonder Wall.” When Peter arrived at the studio George asked him if he would play five-string banjo on one of the cuts. Peter was more than delighted and after a time they put down some beautiful sounds. Peter mentioned to George that he’d like to see the ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film so George made arrangements for Peter to have a private screening at the hotel. Peter really flipped for the Beatles’ fantasy film and watched it through several times. One time he even took color slides while it was being projected on the screen.” - Monkee Spectacular, May 1968

“I remember [Peter Tork] from The Monkees played banjo on a session. Peter was so nervous that his hands were shaking.” - Colin Manley, Beatles Gear (2001)

“I remember George asking me, ‘Why don’t you come back and play banjo on this session [for ‘Wonderwall Music’] I’m producing in December?’” - Peter Tork, Medium, August 3, 2010

Peter Tork: “George invited me to play banjo on Wonderwall. He was working on the soundtrack for Wonderwall, and he invited me to come and play, and I did. You can’t hear it on the album, you can’t hear it on the album, but apparently — and I never have seen the movie.” Q: “But it’s in the film.” PT: “It’s in the film.” Q: “Yeah.” PT: “I think it was Paul’s banjo. Paul had a five-string banjo, which he had strung backwards of course, being left-handed. But it was alright with him if I restrung it. So… and British five-string banjos are different from American. The fifth string, instead of having a tuning peg right in the middle of the neck, it hits a tunnel and the string goes through a tunnel to a fifth string peg at the regular peg head. Very interesting, very weird. But it was okay. Got some music in, that’s all that mattered.” - Breakfast With The Beatles, June 16, 2013

“‘[George] invited me to his house. He played the sitar and said: ‘I’m working on a soundtrack album, I’d love to have you play a little banjo.’” Tork had traveled without his instrument, so Harrison borrowed McCartney’s five-string banjo for the session — ‘which Paul couldn’t play — at least conventionally, because the folk five-string banjo can’t be restrung in reverse order for left-handers, it must be custom made. I played for 45 minutes, George said, “Thanks very much,” and we went our separate ways.’ 
Tork’s breezy contribution didn’t make the record, but it can be heard 15 minutes into the film, after Collins is chided by his mother for spying through the wall. ‘And I did not get paid,’ he laughs. ‘George said: “We’ll figure that out later.” He knew that the honor itself was payment enough!’” - The Guardian, March 23, 2017

“[George] was as kind and as gentle a man as you could imagine.” - Peter Tork, Liverpool Echo, November 28, 2011 (x)

More on two July 1967 meetings between George and Peter here and here.

[chiropteracupola]

tagged by @graveyardrabbit to share five songs I've been listening to repeatedly! thank you - here they are!

unfinished business - mumford & sons (this is a cover, but I've found I enjoy it much more than the original. I really do feel like the story of a ghost returning to the lover that killed them does call for some Strong Banjo.)

updraft - hawktail (twangle twangle twangle String Instruments! it's a good song for a rising late spring.)

bringin' home the rain - the builders and the butchers (my dad recommended me this one. night-journeying kind of music, although I don't do much of that these days.)

hundred days - the bengsons (music to wake up to. music to wash dishes to. music to randomly spin around in circles to while walking outside.)

lonely boy - the black keys (a rare Nostalgia Favorite that's exactly as good as it was when I first heard it!)

and I shall tag... @anotherscrappile, @dxppercxdxver, @sailorpants, @natdrinkstea, @cadmusfly, and anyone else who feels like sharing.

[krispyweiss]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day No. 2, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Sept. 30, 2023

Leyla McCalla controls the weather.

An overcast day in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park suddenly turned sun-soaked when the former Carolina Chocolate Drop sang: My face to the sun as she performed Our Native Daughters’ “I Knew I Could Fly” during her Sept. 30 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass set on the Towers of Gold Stage.

“That’s awesome,” she said mid-verse as the Earth’s star emerged from the afternoon clouds.

Following the electric and steel guitar instrumentals of Hermanos Gutiérrez on the adjacent Swan stage and playing cello, banjo and electric guitar, backed with rhythm section and electric guitar, McCalla covered Kendrick Lamar’s “Crown” and offered a gumbo of New Orleanian, Haitian and American music delivered in English and Haitian Creole while showcasing her the Capitalist Blues and Breaking the Thermometer LPs.

The Sound Biteses’ day had begun in the pre-noon fog with the down-in-the-holler, old-time string music of Dry Branch Fire Squad playing the songs of Gillian Welch, Doc Watson and Bill Monroe on the Banjo stage. Later, it was gospel from the McCrary Sisters, who sung Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” “Amazing Grace” and other numbers backed by a full band during short, five- to 15-minute sets on the Rooster stage, where Brennan Leigh offered a lunchtime menu of traditional country music.

It was also on the Rooster that Emmylou Harris previewed her Sunday appearance by guesting with Shawn Camp and Verlon Thompson and closing their Doc Watson tribute set with Guy Clark’s “Old Friends.”

Shortly afterward, Bettye LaVette sauntered onstage to deliver her grinding version of Bob Dylan’s “Things Have Changed.” From here, it was an impassioned reading of songs from the Randall Bramblett-written LaVette! album as the singer prowled the stage and proved her 77 years have cost her nothing in vocal prowess and stage presence.

“If I could write, this is what I would have said,” LaVette said in introducing the new songs, which worked better on stage than on wax.

Rickie Lee Jones attracted a ginormous crowd to Banjo - “I haven’t seen so many people in front of me for so long,” she said, soaking it in - and their enthusiasm rubbed off. Jones, whose band included Vilray on guitar and vocals, plus accordion and bass, was animated as she danced around the stage and crooned like a lounge singer when she wasn’t playing guitar, banjo or piano.

Opening with a radically rearranged “Danny’s All-Star Joint” more suited for the streets of New Orleans than the fields of Golden Gate, Jones went on to perform “I Won’t Grow Up” - for the first time, she said - “Last Chance Texaco,” “We Belong Together” and a sinewy rendition of Steely Dan’s “Show Biz Kids” that found Jones lifting her orange sweater to sing of the Rickie Lee T-shirt beneath.

Give RLJ the MVP for turning in HSB No. 2’s No. 1 gig.

Faced with the quintessential festivalgoers’ dilemma, Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites split the last hour between Steve Earle’s uncharacteristically sleepy solo-acoustic set on the Banjo and Irma Thomas’ barnburner R&B/soul revival at the Rooster.

At 82, Thomas played the day’s most rambunctious set, ripping into “Time is on My Side” and getting the audience bouncing and waving their handkerchiefs on her mashup of “I Done Got Over It” -> “Iko Iko” -> “Hey Pocky Way” -> “I Done Got Over It.” That one might be ringing through Golden Gate’s trees along with the birdsong for some time to come.

Read Sound Bites’ coverage of HSB Day One here.

10/1/23

[fallow-grove]

anyone know a good place to get five-string banjo tabs specifically? i keep gettin all excited finding the banjo parts of songs i like on ultimate guitar but then its either four or six string =( (or five but the transposer is broken)