Banjo Bias

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  1. Timbre is important and should be respected. Thank goodness we have different instruments in an array of keys! I agree, respect the instrument and its contribution to the music!

  2. Ron,
    Thanks for writing the above article regarding banjo tuning. I’ve played tenor banjo since 1968 (- OK, I’ve attempted to play tenor banjo), and I feel the same about banjo tuning vs. a guitar tuned banjo. I too can distinguish between the aforementioned tunings most of the time. About 3 years ago I decided to learn to read music and found an ‘alleged’ tenor banjo teacher who was located about 150 miles, or timewise – 3 hours (one way) from my home. Distance and time notwithstanding, I set out to meet with this person with the intent to learn to read music and to further my skills as a banjo player – the skills that only a good banjo player could impart. Following my brief ‘audition’, I was asked, ” Did you know that you can tune your banjo like a guitar?” He then went on to pontificate about the advantages of guitar tuning. The bottom line was that he was not a banjo player, but a guitarist with a guitar tuned 5 string banjo (5th string removed). He ended his sales pitch about a guitar tuned tenor/plectrum banjo with, “Look, no one will ever really know the difference”. I’ve often wondered how many people who were seeking to learn to play banjo – either tenor or plectrum as this person taught both (- provided they were guitar tuned), that were now corrupted by this imposter? Like many others, I feel that playing banjo tuned in anything other than traditional tuning compromises the integrity of the instrument and is tantamount to ‘lip-syncing” a song performed by Luciano Pavarotti. So, thanks for being ‘The Banjo Snob’ and please continue to develop a large population of followers – true banjo purists.

    1. Thank you Dennis! While I believe that “music is music”–and I appreciate good musicians regardless of tuning–I believe there is something to be said for the “traditional” banjo; it must be preserved in it’s original state, or it just becomes yet another guitar-tuned instrument.