Greetings everyone! I have been working, for a few years, with Classic Style banjo which is played on a 5 string banjo with gCGBD tuning. There is a world of fantastic music from this era, which covers a time frame from the late 1800s through the early 20th century. Some well know composers include Joe Morley, Emile Grimshaw, and Herbert J. Ellis, to name just a few. I was just wondering if there are any folks here who also partake in this great style of banjo playing.
I am really fascinated with this. Not just figuring out classical on a 5 string, but the real thing, like what they played on Fairbanks banjos. Where do you get music like this? And what technique do you use, is it like frailing?
"Classic" banjo is not the same as "classical" banjo. It is typically played with 3 finger style and no picks. Nylon strings are used instead of steel strings, and gives that old time sound. Also, the music is usually available free of charge because it is so old that it is in the public domain. If you can read music notation, this is to your advantage, as it allows you to connect, more closely, to the music and the banjo neck itself. I have found a lot of music on http://Classicbanjo.com and http://classic-banjo.ning.com. I took one of my openback banjos and put Aquila nylon banjo strings on it. I ended up sending my banjo to Ome to do a proper setup with these strings and it plays great. You can play this music on any 5 string banjo with either kind of strings.
can I ask,what did Ome do exactly to change the set up for nylon strings?
After I put the nylon strings on my banjo, it caused the action to be way too high. After talking with Tanya at Ome, I sent it to them for setup. They did several things to the banjo, as it was used when I bought it 14 years ago. They replaced the bridge with a Snuffy Smith bridge, they adjusted the rim, which they said was a bit off, and adjusted the neck. They also changed out the fifth string tuner, which was a friction peg to a geared tuner. I use only nylon strings on this particular banjo since it was setup for them. And, I tune it to gCGBD, as well. If I come across a piece of music that suggests tuning the forth string to D, I simply play a different banjo. It is a very stable instrument and plays great. This old banjo is about 43 years old and is probably my favorite. Also, Chuck Ogsbury signed the head for me.
Hi are you a member of the American Banjo Fraternity as am I. The classic name for the banjo style is a recent development since the 1970s or e3ven 80s. I do a lot of banjo history research including about this style of banjo playing in the late 19th century when it was most popular. Even in the SS Stewart material, or in the publications of banjo clubs in this style, it is impossible to find the term "classic" ever used. It is usually called guitar banjo style, because it basically applied the methods of mid 19th century popular music guitar to the five string banjo, or else Parlor banjo, because the classic movement as represented by the ABF follows the rituals of the Parlor banjo movement essentially created by banjo manufacturers and teachers to create an upscale audience for their products, where it became polite elite behavior to learn certain tunes and perform them on the banjo in a middle class palror Karren Linn's Barbaric Twang is pretty good about this,. But many other banjoists played banjo in the guitar banjo style besides the polite middle class figures that the ABF seeks to emulate. For example one of the styles Gus Cannon used and which all but 2 of his 34 recordings in the 1920s and 1930 did was 3 and 4 finger banjo playing using the techniques involved to play ragtime and blues, not on a nylon string banjo, but on a Van Epps Recording banjo about as loud as a howitzer!
This style is rather important to the history of the instrument insofar as the Scruggs style is to some degree influenced by this style. Scruggs came from an area on the border of North and S Carolina where a number of local banjoists used this style to play old time music and ragtime. Several of the banjoists most known for this style lived in his area and knew and visited his family. Listen to Mack Woolbrights 1920 recording of the Man who wrote the Home Sweet Home Never was a married man, and you can hear rolls much like Earl's but also a rendition pretty much like the various 1890s classic banjo versions of The Home Sweet Home. Woolbright lived in Earl's community and Earl says he heard Woolbright playing this song when Earl was 6. Earl did also have more of an influence of 2 finger southern style banjo as well and always said he was a 2 finger guy who used 3 finger, and thumb lead.
But guitar banjo style is the missing link of banjo history. I do belong to the ABF though dont play much of that style
A new site devoted to this style of playing has been put up by Rob MacKillop: http://rmbanjo.com. It's an excellent source, as is BMG Magazine from England: http://www.bmgmagazine.net.
Tony Trishka has a section of his program at Artist Works that deals with Classic banjo as well.
Great Stuff,
Ryk
Cheers, Ryk. I've just registered here. More to follow.
I've recently discovered this style of banjo, thanks to Rob's "Recital" recording, and just love it. I have a question about gear. Currently I have a couple of four-string banjos (tenor and plectrum); if I want to get a five string for learning this style, should I avoid banjos with scooped fretboards? Or do these pieces not take you so far up the neck that the scoop will make a difference?
I don't know the answer to your question but I just stopped by to tell you that your post is worthy of its own thread. Might get more responses.Originally Posted by Eric Selinger
Eric,
I'd suggest you stay away from scooped fretboards unless you want the banjo to double as a clawhammer instrument. Why limit your upper range? Some of the classic pieces i've seen take you up to the dusty end.
Have fun,
Ryk
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