have a tenor, and a mandolin banjo or 2, 1, 8, 1, 4, + a ukejo (modified with a spruce disc 'head')
have a tenor, and a mandolin banjo or 2, 1, 8, 1, 4, + a ukejo (modified with a spruce disc 'head')
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
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?
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
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.
2007 Indiana Scout
2018 Indiana Madison Quilt Elite
2018 Takamine GJ72CE 12 String
2018 Takamine GD93
1963 Gibson SG
2016 Kala Uke
Dean A Style Mandolin (year unknown)
Plus a few lower end I have had for years
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.
No matter where I go, there I am...Unless I'm running a little late.
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 love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...
Mandolin: Kentucky KM150
Other instruments: way too many, and yet, not nearly enough.
My blog: https://theoffgridmusician.music.blog/
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChF...yWuaTrtB4YORAg
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africanbanjogunnar/
Free backing tracks:
https://backingtrackers.wordpress.com/
Mandolin: Kentucky KM150
Other instruments: way too many, and yet, not nearly enough.
My blog: https://theoffgridmusician.music.blog/
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChF...yWuaTrtB4YORAg
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africanbanjogunnar/
Free backing tracks:
https://backingtrackers.wordpress.com/
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.
Mandolins: 1920s (?) Meinel & Herold Bowlback, 2006 Furch "Redwood MA-1" A5
Octaves: 2004 Fender FMO-66 Flat-Top, 2015 A. Karperien 5 String Electric
Banjos: 2007 Gold Tone IT-250F Irish Tenor, 1963 Vega Vox No. 1 Plectrum, 2016 Recording King RK-OT25 Clawhammer
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...
Chuck
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.
- Jeremy
Wot no catchphrase?
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.
Phil
“Sharps/Flats” ≠ “Accidentals”
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.
Steve Lavelle
'93 Flatiron Performer F
Customized Eastwood Mandocaster (8str)
I play banjolin, an easy step from mandolin, and is good for really old blues and ragtime.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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.
Doug Brock
2018 Kimble 2 point (#259), Eastman MD315, Eastman MDA315, some guitars, banjos, and fiddles
JBovier ELS; Epiphone MM-50 VN; Epiphone MM-40L; Gretsch New Yorker G9310; Washburn M1SDLB;
Fender Nashville Deluxe Telecaster; Squier Modified Vintage Cabronita Telecaster; Gretsch 5420T; Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat: Washburn Banjo B9; Ibanez RB 5string; Ibanez RB 4 string bass
Pedalboard for ELS: Morley Cry baby Miniwah - Tuner - EHX Soul Food Overdrive - EHX Memory Toy analog Delay
Fender Blues Jr Tweed; Fender Greta;
Mandolin: Kentucky KM150
Other instruments: way too many, and yet, not nearly enough.
My blog: https://theoffgridmusician.music.blog/
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChF...yWuaTrtB4YORAg
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africanbanjogunnar/
Free backing tracks:
https://backingtrackers.wordpress.com/
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, 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.
Mandolins: 1920s (?) Meinel & Herold Bowlback, 2006 Furch "Redwood MA-1" A5
Octaves: 2004 Fender FMO-66 Flat-Top, 2015 A. Karperien 5 String Electric
Banjos: 2007 Gold Tone IT-250F Irish Tenor, 1963 Vega Vox No. 1 Plectrum, 2016 Recording King RK-OT25 Clawhammer
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