What Is A Four-String Banjo?

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  1. Fascinating and valuable perspective! And inspiring, even though I’m approaching things quite differently:

    I took up banjo exactly a year ago, after 34 years as a guitar player, using an open back five string with a flatpick. Definitely not idiomatic; but I started playing to satisfy myself that there was more to the banjo than bluegrass – specifically, that I could play post-WWII jazz and jazz influenced instrumentals. This week, I bought a tenor to continue with that journey; I am approaching it as informed by the likes of John Coltrane, Paul Desmond, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Wes Montgomery, John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, Al DiMeola, George Benson, and Pat Martino…with a heavy dose of Harry Reser, the first banjo player I listened closely to when I decided to play the instrument (and Eddie Peabody, Béla Fleck, Don Reno…).

    It won’t be historically authentic, but it’s the sound I’m hearing. This will be fun.

    1. Rudy; I look forward to hearing the results of your eclectic approach! Us stodgy old four stringers could use a jolt of a hipper perspective, especially one informed by tradition.

    1. Cool! You know, plectrum tuning is just like five string with a c bass. . . Many of Reser’s 1920s recordings were actually on the plectrum. Look through my blogs and you’ll find two transcriptions.

  2. Thanks! Yes, I read that in your blog, re Reser and the plectrum. I can hear Lollypops and Frosted Chocolate as tenor (unless it’s a REALLY bright plectrum fooling me), but The Cat and The Dog, for example, sounds like plectrum. Something about the way the chords ring doesn’t have that wide open sound of the tenor stacked 5ths tuning.

    I have found the five string fairly easy to adapt to from guitar. The key for me was realizing that the inner three strings are the same. And, as you can tell from the clip, I love being able to grab that 4-5 “fingertip” octave above the 5th fret.

    I just finished my weekly gig, improvising on tenor. More punch, and the connection to early jazz guitar practice sounds clear to me – granting that plectrum gets you closer to the classic “in the pocket” big band guitar sound, at least to my ear. But I will put that to the test down the line when I finally get a plectrum!

    1. Frosted chocolate is plectrum. That will be my next transcription, soon as I find the time to get back to it.

  3. Wow! I need to listen more closely to that one. I downloaded Don Vappie’s “Banjo A La Creole” a couple of hours ago, however, and I’m grooving on that one. Time to cook up another iTunes banjo playlist…