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Thread: Is Banjo you first language?

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    Registered User QCS's Avatar
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    Default Is Banjo you first language?

    Thought about this today, I wondered if there were others in the same boat as me. I have to admit, I have been a banjo player for over 25 years. A couple of years ago I decided to expand my horizons by taking up the Mandolin. After doing the rolls for so long, the use of a flat pick did not come easy. Serious Woodshedding, hours of scales and arpeggio's and I am now beginning think of myself as a Mandolin picker. For me, it's a win-win situation. Anyone else travel this road? How was it for you? It's been so long since I started out on the banjo, I cannot remember how hard it was in the beginning. Just wondering-

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Started on banjo in 1961, with a "no-name" purchased from a Harvard Crimson classified ad, and the Pete Seeger book. Mandolin didn't come 'til ten years later, when I found a teens A-1 in my grandfather's attic, and wanted to have a bluegrass band. My brother played guitar, my friend Bob banjo, and I (similarly to Bill Monroe) got "the instrument that was left." Been playing both instruments, along with guitar, harmonica, Autoharp, concertina, ukulele, and whatever else, for about 40 years now. Hope to achieve competence someday.
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    Registered User Jill McAuley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Guitar was my first language but tenor banjo was my first proper language when it comes to irish trad music. I strayed away from it for a few years as I was bitten by the mandolin bug but it's now back in the fold and I'm enjoying switching between the two instruments. Problem is that now I have to deal with MAS and BAS!

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    Registered User Chip Booth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I can imagine how difficult the transition must be for the OP, as I experienced a similar thing trying to learn to play banjo after being a guitarist and mandolinist for 20 years. The non-linear approach of a banjo is so different from other instruments that I simply couldn't let go of what I understood and embrace a new way of thinking. Eventually it happened, but it was a hard task.

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    Registered User QCS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Funny thing, back when I was young I tried to pick up the guitar. Perhaps my age or lack of patience kept me from reaching any level of playing skill. However, upon seeing and holding a five string for the first time - I knew I could do this. The mechanics and the rolls seemed logical to me. It was just a matter of finding the right people to pick with and learn from. The Bay Area was booming with Bluegrass in the seventies. Right place at the right time, I guess. Now the Mandolin on the other hand seemed much more difficult. After years of studying Bluegrass and picking and playing in bands, I certainly knew what sound I was going for. It has just taken a while to get there. A re-programming and re-boot of the grey matter for sure. I can see certain similarities between the two, cross picking and rolls, the filler licks, slides ect. But the flat pick, that took a while to get up to speed. " If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right". Q

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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I played guitar and bass for quite a while before I discovered the banjo and mandolin. I actually took up banjo, mandolin, and dobro at the same time and still play each of them (though dobro less often than the others). I would put my mandolin playing quite a bit ahead of my banjo playing and that is because I enjoy playing mandolin more than I do the banjo (but I do enjoy that). I still play guitar and bass quite often and possibly more than I do mandolin. It seems each instrument gets its turn to be the most played for a period of time. Most of my playing the last few years has been bass, but for a few months I have been playing lead guitar and then bass today. I also play mandolin occasionally but at home it is quite often played most. Each instrument helps make you better on the others and they all have such a great feel and tone to them. Even the electric guitar .
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    Registered User Steve Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I have been a banjo player since I was 11, which was a long time ago. Certainly a lot longer than the OP's 25+ years.

    Always wanted to play the mandolin too, and picked up a nice teens A in 2001. Here we are 10 years later and I have moved on to a late teens F4, but I am still a banjo player at heart. While I love the mandolin, my mind and fingers still think "banjo." It comes so easily to me after all these years. Playing mando is hard. So you can guess the default position for the band. With life seriously crimping my time to play, the banjo generally wins out.

    But someday...

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    Mediocre but OK with that Paul Busman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    NO for me... I played guitar for years, learning from copying Paul Simon's chops during the S&G days. Migrated from there to, of all things, classical recorder where I became a respectable amateur. One night I heard The Chieftains on Saturday Night Live and knew I HAD to learn to play Irish music. Pennywhistle was the natural transition from recorder. Still play and make those, but I decided to branch out so I bought an inexpensive mandolin. And here I am. Side branched again to fiddle, playing my uncle's old violin but I'm not very good on that. Briefly I had a tenor banjo, but I decided that I simply didn't have time for everything so I sold that. Sort of wish I still had it now that I'm in an Irish band.
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    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I've played Banjo since 1963.Totally self taught, as there were no tutor books etc.for Bluegrass banjo in the UK at that time.I have to admit that my Banjo which resides in it's case,only 3 feet from where i'm sitting typeing,is sadly neglected since taking up Mandolin 5 1/2 years back. The big problem for me is, that there's no other musicians around to play with. The thought of sitting down & learning yet another bunch of tunes,never to play them anywhere,has long since lost it's appeal. I've done it too many times in the past. The Mandolin on the other hand is ALL NEW,both in terms of playing technique & the tunes to play & it's more musically adaptable than Banjo when it comes to playing at my local Folk Club,where the music is almost all Irish - i ain't no Bela Fleck !. I still get a huge buzz out of 'listening' to Banjo,but the drive to play is somewhat in reverse right now - sad really !,
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Banjo 1st -started in 1976 -Guitar after that, then just started picking up Dobro & mando for the past 20 years or so. Fiddle pretty much only when I'm alone. Always been a good 'by ear' player but always open to pick someones brains if they'll let me !

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    Registered User Hardesty's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

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    No banjos... 5 strings just seems like one to many or one to few. Either way it just aint right.

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    I'll take it! JGWoods's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Guitar since '58, clawhammer banjo ( it was "frailing" back then) since 1970. Banjo took over my music world for a long time and I didn't play guitar much. Somewhere in the 90s the mandolin got hold of me and has taken more of my time than anything else. Fiddle got me for a while but I had to be a realist and decide I was never going to be real good on it.

    Banjo is probably my best instrument, mandolin second, guitar is OK and I use the fiddle to scare people. Actually I decided I would try and have 15 good tunes on the fiddle that I could play reliably and well. I probably have 6-7 that people might dance to, or tap their feet at least.

    The flatpick part of mandolin playing was not hard for me, I got it from guitar pretty much. It was the short scale and narrow fingerboard real estate that challenged me mostly. Now I appreciate that small space and even spend a lot of time on a '42 Martin A bent top with a 1" neck and 13" scale. Works great even with my very big hands.
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    Registered User Jill McAuley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Quote Originally Posted by Hardesty View Post

    No banjos... 5 strings just seems like one to many or one to few. Either way it just aint right.
    That's why you need a tenor banjo!

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    Destroyer of Mandolins
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    While it wasn't my first instrument - that was actually the trombone - I did play banjo before mandolin. A couple of years before I discovered the mandolin I had a plectrum banjo (four strings like a tenor, but with a longer neck like a five-string).

    Does anyone here play the plectrum banjo? I haven't seen one in a long time. Tons of five-bangers of course, and 17 & 19 fret tenors everywhere, but no plectrums.
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    My first language was woodwind. Clarinet and bassoon. The mando-challenge for me was (and sometimes still is) to get away from the single note melody (horizontal) conception of music. I still make the mistake of thinking that music is a melody with chords tacked on. Others with a more vertical conception might think of music as a chord progression with some stuff in there to keep it from getting monotonous. The actual truth is that things are very inter-related, with polyphoney and harmony, the tune dictating the chords and the chord progression forcing the tune, its always bigger than one's conception of it.
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim2723 View Post
    Does anyone here play the plectrum banjo? I haven't seen one in a long time. Tons of five-bangers of course, and 17 & 19 fret tenors everywhere, but no plectrums.
    I do. I started playing it instead of TB last year--for solo stuff. Better resonance than TB for that repertoire..

    In terms of banjo-evolution, it was the last one I picked up in the succession: Scruggs-style; CH/frailing; tenor (both "jazz" and "Irish");...plectrum. (even a smattering of banjo-uke thrown in there)

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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    That's interesting, Cat. I wonder where the plectrum banjo is used most today? I see several builders offer them, so somebody is buying them, but what kind of music is prevalent on them these days? I think the last time I saw them was a New Year's Day Mummers parade.
    Last edited by Tim2723; May-02-2011 at 3:47pm.
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim2723 View Post
    That's interesting, Cat. I wonder where the plectrum banjo is used most today? I see several builders offer them, so somebody is buying them, but what kind of music is prevalent on them these days? I think the last time I saw them was a New Year's Day Mummers parade.
    The "standard" repertoire: everything from Steven Foster, Scott Joplin, Gershwin...Porter, Rogers, Cohn...et al.

    Played banjo some twenty years before I ever picked up a mando...but still not my "first."

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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    That's all pretty old-standard stuff though. I wonder if anyone is using it in more contemporary settings?
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim2723 View Post
    That's all pretty old-standard stuff though. I wonder if anyone is using it in more contemporary settings?
    You mean... in public??
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim2723 View Post
    That's all pretty old-standard stuff though. I wonder if anyone is using it in more contemporary settings?
    If I were going for a contemporary sound in a contemporary setting, I would choose something other than a banjo--which is really good for rendering an "old-time," "Americana" sound.

    Played with a band last week with a banjo player who was vamping along to a kind of trippy, trancey thing. That can be fun--with the banjo laying down a texture...but I'd rather have something more complex: accordian or something exotic. I told them I'd like to add my bass clarinet to the mix.

    Banjo...not so much. I'm much more "Miles Davis" than "Leftover Salmon"... personally, I think strings have more limitations, generally. Especially when you go fixin some cat skin to it!..



    Now, Leftover Lutefisk...maybe.

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    Registered User nickster's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I started playing banjo in '63 and guitar in '66. About six years ago I decided to pick up the mandolin and now enjoy all three.

    Nick

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    Registered User QCS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    Well this certainly has been interesting. Quite a few have weighed in on this, with many different experiences. I guess I was just mulling over the process I have gone through, developing a new muscle memory for this instrument. For me, wearing picks on my fingers and moving them across the strings in roll patterns came easy. Learning to use one pick, constantly changing direction on alternating strings took awhile. Now it's all about building up the speed and using the tools I have to improvise. I love the sound and tone I can get out my Mandolin, but it's still fun to go nuts on the banjo. Festivals are right around the corner!

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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I play mandolin, guitar, and clawhammer banjo. I am by far a much better mandolin picker than any other instrument but at the moment I spend most of my time on banjo. Its a recent addiction and has gotten into my blood. Its amazing how being quite proficient on one instrument makes learning a new instrument a snap. My guitar picking is above average and it gets used mostly for rhythm and singing. I definitely enjoy playing multiple instruments. It keeps it all fresh. If I'm always playing something then it seems that when I can pick up the neglected instrument I can get around on it as if I were playing it everyday
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    Default Re: Is Banjo you first language?

    I played banjo in bluegrass bands for 32 years. about three or so years ago, I developed focal dystonia in my right hand. Two years ago it go so bad I couldn't play anymore. I've since taken up the bass in my current group. But I also spend a lot of time practicing mandolin. I've learned some scales, but most of my practice is spent learning tunes. It is vastly different than finger picking a banjo. To me, banjo is all smoke and mirrors. At least it was never particularly difficult for me to play. I played mostly Scruggs style, stating a basic melody amongst the various rolls. But mandolin is so much more difficult, but it sure is a lot of fun. And it doesn't weigh near as much as a banjo!

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