have a tenor, and a mandolin banjo or 2, 1, 8, 1, 4, + a ukejo (modified with a spruce disc 'head')
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have a tenor, and a mandolin banjo or 2, 1, 8, 1, 4, + a ukejo (modified with a spruce disc 'head')
I would play the banjo except for the horse thing...they don't make them wild enough to drag me to go get one...
I try to play anything with strings that you don't play with a bow. So: mandolin family (piccolo mandolin through mando-bass), guitar (six and 12-string), 5-string and tenor banjos, resonator guitar (both steel and slide), ukulele, Appalachian dulcimer, Autoharp, bass fiddle, and all kinds of weirdo hybrids like "banjola," uke-banjo, mandolin-banjo, cello banjo, tiple, tenor guitar, baritone uke, octave guitar, and whatever else washes up on the beach. Took a very brief fling at hammered dulcimer, and own a zither that I think I once played Greensleeves on at a Ren Faire.
Do I play them all well? Heck no. Do I own them all? Heck yes. What's the point?
Does there have to be a point?
Just started learning mandolin but been playing guitar for years. Have been curious about banjo in the past.
I have always thought for banjo you either have it or you don't. I don't.
Banjo Mandolin.
I actually won a first place "Banjo Other" category in a contest playing a choro piece.
The neck was warped like a cereal bowl ;) Its now detached so I'm not tempted to play it.
I dabble with clawhammer. Really is fun.
Well …. I would say I flirt with playing the banjo. With judicious use of a capo. It is a fun instrument to mess with a bit. R/
I'm afraid that I play more banjo than mandolin nowadays, despite having started with the mandolin and considering myself a mandolin player... But due to my quite active jazz band my plectrum banjo gets a lot attention. Also, I play clawhammer a lot.
Unfortunately, I have no band I could use the mandolin in, and playing the mandolin alone is less fun than playing the banjo alone. Playing chord-melody is soo much easier on plectrum and 5-string, and when playing the mandolin I miss the harmonies the banjos give me.
I own a banjo and can play a few songs on it, but I don’t say that I PLAY the banjo. Mostly play 3 finger styles and have dabbled in clawhammer. I still pull it out now and then, but mandolin gets the bulk of my attention these days...
I tried the banjo back in the mid-1980's, but failed miserably at it; (much like attempts to learn lap-steel, accordion, violin, harmonica, pedal-steel and trombone). Obviously I have a strong love for playing music, but am seriously lacking in talent.
I play tenor banjo, handy fighting the guitar wall in the community band.
My main instrument is GDAE tuned tenor guitar. I could play tenor banjo too with the same tuning, it’s an easy switch, but I’d only do it if I needed the volume. I love how my tenor guitars sound, both are Herb Taylor archtops. I’ve been playing fiddle for a couple of years now, but I’m a lot better on TG. I play a little mandolin but need to be careful as it causes left hand pain if I play it often. I also play a little low whistle and mess around with a shakuhachi.
I learned a few banjo tunes 35 years ago, Scruggs style. Wisely gave it up after I noticed that the banjo weighs about a ton.
I still have one in the closet.:)
Now that I'm (very close to being) retired I decided to try and learn clawhammer, which has interested me for a long, long time. I started with a Deering, and recently got a Rickard.
D.H.
My first instrument was a Harmony 5 string with a plastic body (1972?). Learned from the Pete Seeger book. I could never get used to the metal finger picks, so I still play quieter than most. Never got very advanced, but I still enjoy the open tuning explorations it prompts me to explore when I pick it up (Epiphone Mastertone RB-250 these days). The instrument I least play with others (Mandolin, Bass, and Guitar all play well with others), because very few of my crowd have interest in BG.
I play banjolin, an easy step from mandolin, and is good for really old blues and ragtime.
Attachment 179133
Not necessarily my favorites, but these seem to follow me around more than my others.
Similar to my story! I’m hoping to retire in four years if not sooner and I just added an open back banjo to my collection with hopes of being able to enjoy clawhammer style for a reasonable number of years. I’ve long wanted to try clawhammer. Six days of practice - not as difficult as I had expected. :)
The following is just my perspective from what I've seen in earlier years. Might or might not be relevant today...
In the circles I grew up in, the term "frailing" was generally considered to apply to players who used a lot of strong rhythmic brush strokes. Whereas "clawhammer" players preferred more single-note stuff, sometimes more intricate, often (but not necessarily) with more drop-thumb especially in less-common places. There were other terms as well for banjo styles, but I don't recall the other terms which probably aren't in use much anymore.
In any case, there's a lot of overlap - a person's playing style doesn't have to be 'only' brush strokes or 'only' single-note stuff, often a mix of both, judiciously applied where it's most suitable for a particular tune and group of instruments.
If you're playing with a top-notch dance fiddler who's got the rhythm covered pretty much all by themselves, :grin: that frees up the banjo to do more single-note stuff to complement the fiddle.
Also, for groups who have guitar (we seldom did, it wasn't regarded as particularly necessary because a good fiddler and good banjo player can carry the music just fine without a guitar and sometimes a guitar even gets in the way if it's played too crudely or ineptly), anyway if there's a guitar it's likely also acting to establish a basic rhythm... so to also have the banjo doing the same thing with a bunch of non-stop brush strokes all the way through the tune, could sound somewhat redundant. In a duo or group setting, it's all about what makes the best total sound, nevermind what a single instrument sounds like without the other(s), it's the combined sound that matters. Complementing the other instrument(s).
If the banjo is playing solo without any other instruments (I don't know how much of that is done anymore), the banjo player sort of has to do it *all* - at least a few "frailing"-style brush strokes here and there to establish the basic rhythm, and nice to also have a little more intricate drop-thumb and single-note stuff in places to keep it interesting and provide some variety and a little syncopation here and there.
Anyway, I don't know if that's how the rest of the world defines such things, and my info might be outdated and/or too regional-specific, but that's what I've seen. YMMV. :)
I came across two versions: Either, clawhammer and frailing are exchangeable - or, as mentioned above, one (I believe clawhammer) uses drop-thumb and less brush strokes than the other. In the end, there's something like "melodic clawhammer" (fiddle tunes played note-for-note) , but no melodic frailing (?). Also, frailing is associated with a rougher, more "violent" style, I understand.