The Banjo

 Origins
 Early History
 Old Time Music
 Bluegrass
 New Styles
 Banjo comes to China
 An American Instrument
 4 or 5 strings
 5th string drone
 Wooden ring
 Drum head resonator
 Plucked or strummed

William Sidney Mount [American, 1807-1868], The Banjo Player, 1856, oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 28 3/4 inches. The Long Island
Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, Stony Brook, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ward Melville, 1955)
 African Origins:
Akonting of Senegambia

 Egypt, Mali, Guinea

 Early “gourd banjos”

Modern form in
1830's
Minstrelsy

 Blackface
 Vaudeville
 G'CGBD'
tuning
Old Time Music
 Combines European
and African folk
traditions
 Appalachia
 Clawhammer or
frailing style
 Stringed
instrumentation
 fiddle, guitar, banjo
 fiddle lead
 dance music
 Bluegrass

Acoustic

Technical
 solos
 seated audiences
 banjo, guitar, mandolin, bass
 Singing and 4-part vocal
harmonies
 “high lonesome”
 Invented in 1920's
 Monroe and Scruggs
 Modern Bluegrass
 Solos and technical
ability
 New instrumentation
 dobro, accordian,
harmonica, drums,
electrification, etc
 Country music
New Styles
 Further departure
from tradition
 Incorporates Jazz,
Rock, Country, Punk
 Bela Fleck and the
Flecktones
 Avett Brothers
 Video
 http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/T1vImEA
 6AX8/
Tony Furtado – Hartford
 http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDM0ODg1Nj
Q=.html
 Earl Scruggs: little girl of mine in Tennessee
 http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTIzMjc3OTY
=.html
 Doc watson and earl scruggs
http://6.cn/w/BgNeCE4bTIgqRO1Jt_RBFA
 More Banjo Video
 Tony Furtado – Hartford
 http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDM0ODg1NjQ
=.html
 Earl Scruggs: little girl of mine in Tennessee
 http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTIzMjc3OTY=.
html
 Doc watson and earl scruggs
http://6.cn/w/BgNeCE4bTIgqRO1Jt_RBFA
 Banjo comes to China

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/-LvIOyjWJz
g/