The Banjo

[TommyK]

I've noticed something about mando players, they tend to disparage Banjos and their players? I've heard them being called 'stupid' and some deign to type the word banjo in it's entirety, vis b**j* or something similar.
What have you guys got agains minner dippers?, clawhammers and the like?
Is it because it enjoys the lime light sometimes, taking it away from the mandoes / mandos (there goes that spelling thing again).
Is it that most musical groups have to have someone to pick on and bluegrass bands don't have drummers?
Speaking of Drummers, I read this on in a university Music building:
There was an orchestra where the percussion section just wasn't getting it right. The conductor spouted,"When a musician can't hack it as a musician, they give him two sticks and make him a drummer."
From the back could be heard, "Yep, and when he can't hack it as a drummer, they take one stick away and make him a conductor>
(sorry about the ADHD tendency... where was I?)
Oh yeah, what's the tiff between mandos / mandoes and Banjo / banjoes? (will someone give me the correct spelling?)

[mandodebbie]

An evil banjo player way back in high school was very mean to me. He excluded me from just listening to the student's jam session after drama class. I was never allowed join to in. (I played acoustic guitar then.) It seems that I had "cramped his style" ie: I wasn't tall and good looking enough.) I have have carried this indignation in heart for many, many, many... years. I have just recently taken up mando. I'm not pushing my luck in attempting to join any bands taken my unfortunate history. That's my story.:O

[John Flynn]

My two cents, based on having played in a band and jammed with a lot of banjo players:

They are not all bad. I love playing with a really good banjo player and I have known a few. Also, let me caveat and say I am only talking 5-string players here. Tenor banjos are a different instrument and my comments don't apply to them. With those caveats, I have the following problems with banjo players:

1) At least in old time music, the ratio of good banjo players to bad seems to be much worse than with other instruments. It seems many people take up banjo because they are not good musicians and they think the banjo will be the easiest choice. It's not true: playing the banjo well takes as much time and talent as any other instrument.

2) Banjos seem to be out of tune even more than mandolins and in addition, unlike mandolins, they have to re-tune each time the group changes keys and it seems to take forever.

3) Banjo players have that cultural connotation that has been illustrated by the movies "Deliverance" (where the banjo playing kid was obviously short of a few DNA strands) and "Cold Mountain" (where Strobrod's banjo playing sidekick was basically a villiage idiot). This cultural image is also supported by a rich tradition of banjo jokes that is a proud part of our American heritage and cannot be ignored.

Plus everybody needs someone to look down on. For mando players, it's banjo players. I didn't make that rule, I just live by it. #When we broke up my last band, which had two banjo players in it, and started a new band, one of our "by-laws" was no banjo players - ever, for all the reasons above.

[Philip Halcomb]

I think they bitch too much personally, everytime we want to play a song in a key other than G, they complain that they have to capo their instrument and retune. Also, many banjo players do not know how to tone it down when others are taking a break. One of my pet-peeves is not being able to hear myself while performing...

[TommyK]

"It seems many people take up banjo because they are not good musicians and they think the banjo will be the easiest choice."

Well, It seems one of your sentences sums it up.
And by my reckoning, they are the drum section of the BG world. Must have something to do with the REMO head.

[Emmiemando]

Okay, Dude...I, being a mando player, think that there is nothing wrong with banjos. I mean, when I think of one, I tend to think of the Beverly HillBillies. But there are a few banjo players who've caught my ear. I think the perspective of the banjo depends on the listener.

[TommyK]

I think they bitch too much personally, everytime we want to play a song in a key other than G, they complain that they have to capo their instrument and retune. Also, many banjo players do not know how to tone it down when others are taking a break. One of my pet-peeves is not being able to hear myself while performing...

Yet another drummer attribute. #TO finish the joke I iterated above.

When a musician can't hack it as a conductor (one stick) they take that away and give tell him to get a clawhammer and go build something. #It appears some couldn't find their way to the hardware store and ended up at the music shop.
NOW I'M DOING IT! # #

Earl Skruggs, not included

[solerydr]

We had a banjo player who never showed up for practice but always played well at shows, if he showed up for them. Last saturday we looked all over Denton Tx. to see if he was going to play with us that night. His neighbor informed us that he moved to Missouri on friday. Are all banjo players this odd?

i think it might have something to do with the banjo being used by commedians and entertainers in the past......... maybe? i love the banjo and play it ! but nothin comes close to playin mando

[billydunn]

A couple Tim O'Brien jokes from Grey Fox:

Why are there no banjos on Star Trek?
Because it's the future.

What do you call a beautiful blonde on the arm of a banjo player?
A tattoo.

[TeleMark]

Oooh, I love these...

What's the difference between a banjo and a chain saw?
The chain saw has greater dynamic range.

What's the least-used sentence in the English language?
"Isn't that the banjo player's Porsche?"

There's nothing I like better than the sound of a banjo, unless of course it's the sound of a chicken caught in a vacuum cleaner.



TeleMark

[Bill Snyder]

This may be a stupid question, but why do banjo players have to retune or use a cappo when the key changes? Is it just so they don't have to learn to play in different keys and can use the same fingerings all the time?

[bnjrpkr]

Why do mando players gripe about banjo pickers?? Sour Grapes,that's what.
Curious,you can get a good bluegrass roll going in G,next you learn C,then D then E and F,but you generally learn G patterns first then C,so you capo up.
I play many songs in the key of F because I like to sing them there.I find very few mando players who like F.It's just a matter of doing it until you're comfortable with it,in my opinion.
As for the banjo being out of tune all the time,it's the banjo and the picker.I don't have to tune much myself,but I don't do a lot of string bending,either.I know mando pickers who are constantly tuning.

[JGWoods]

Banjo player tune a lot because they know they are going to be heard. Mandolin players have no such problem, they can't even hear themselves when the banjo is playing, so what does it matter if they are in tune?

Banjo players bad musicians? I've seen a lot worse among guitar players, and fiddlers too, and I never met a good kazoo player.

I can play in 6 or 7 different tunings. It's easy for me. Most mando and guitar player are stuck in one tuning and one set of fingerings, boring, limited, robs all the potenial for interesting harmonics etc.

All that, and for $1000 I can buy a banjo and drown out 10 $7000 mandolins.




Awwww who cares, judging others on their musicianship is a sign you need to get a life. I gotta go put together more banjo mando duets now,
best
gw

[John Flynn]

All that, and for $1000 I can buy a banjo and drown out 10 $7000 mandolins.

I used to operate a jackhammer that could drown out 10 banjos. It also sounded better than 10 banjos!

[recklessmando]

I love banjos. I love banjo pickers. I would never stoop so low as to tell jokes about them. But a picture...

[bnjrpkr]

I used to operate a jackhammer that could drown out 10 banjos. It also sounded better than 10 banjos!

Hey MandoJohnny,that's not a fair comparison.The jack hammer is a pneumatic instrument.It's a member of the bagpipe family.

[JimD]

Just a thought:

Those of us who don't play Bluegrass don't have any complaints about banjo players.

[solerydr]

Last week, after a show, a guy from another band asked me if our new banjo player worships the devil. Personally I didnt think he seemed all that evil, but I guess he has his moments.

[J. Mark Lane]

A banjo player visited New York City not long ago. Being sorta dumb, he didn't think, and left his banjo on the back seat of his car parked on the street. When he came back, someone had broken into the car and ... put another banjo next to his.

M

[onlyagibsonisgoodenuff]

Apparently, you have to be careful about picking on banjo players here on the Cafe. They seem to be a part of the scene here! Oh, yeah I play banjo, too! I also tell banjo jokes on stage, but I'm careful to explain to the audience that I, too play banjo so it's alright if I make fun of banjos. Seems to head off a lot of the "Why do you make fun of the banjo?" comments.

I have played with banjo pickers who sound like jackhammers, and I've played with banjos I couldn't get enough of. Whenever I play the banjo, I try to be one of the latter.

I also can play in G, D, F C, and Bb without capoing. I only capo so it takes more time, and we don't use up all of our material!

[mandoJeremy]

So what's wrong with banjo?.....the real question is what is actually right with it?

[mandoJeremy]

Unless it's Bela, Vestal, or Allison Brown I don't like it as much except in just bluegrass. Those three know how to compliment any instrument. Oops, left out Tony Furtado when he was playing b&*^@o.

[onlyagibsonisgoodenuff]

Unless it's Bela, Vestal, or Allison Brown I don't like it as much except in just bluegrass. #Those three know how to compliment any instrument. #Oops, left out Tony Furtado when he was playing b&*^@o.

I've heard a lot of mandolin players I didn't care for, in fact, I've heard bad bass players, fiddlers, resophonic players, well you get the message. There's good and not so good players all over. If you don't care for the pickers around you, go to a different jam. Or band. Or town.

[Fretbear]

In addition to telling great banjo jokes, Tim O'Brien also plays one (along with anything else that has strings on it)