Banjo Bias part 2

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  1. Ron, I share your prejudice against guitar tuning, that’s one of the reasons I haven’t really wanted to ‘go there’…

    But I disagree with your premise about the banjo ever somehow magically attaining the status of a ‘real jazz instrument’ if only we all mastered our scales and whatnot… our instrument just sounds archaic… and much like the accordion, all the virtuoso players in the world won’t really change that perception or reputation among jazz musicians or listeners very much!

    I’ve never really studied the tenor banjo but as a teenager I used to play a bit of bluegrass/old time mandolin and found it was really easy to play single-string stuff, mostly fiddle tunes and such… so maybe my next step could be buying a tenor…?

    But thanks for your thoughts!

    1. Well, I agree that that is the standard perception; what about Buddy Wachter? Yes, he is a genius, but he still got there through some kind of work. Tuning to guitar will not change the sound from archaic to jazzy; for that matter, tenor will sound the same. Both tunings have that non-jazz perception; it’s still a banjo. It’s up to us to change the perception! Besides, if you’re playing straight-ahead jazz on the banjo, who cares about common perception? I’ve heard viable jazz played on a garden hose.
      I suppose we should define “jazz”; we are talking about playing modern horn lines, right? All those are are glorified scales and arpeggios! Anybody can learn those; then it’s just a matter of “jazzing them up.” That is the book I’m working on right now; applying all of that boring theory stuff that banjoists somehow seem to avoid learning. Let me ask this; do you know your scales and arpeggios? Do you know them on your guitar? Do they have anything to do with your guitar jazz (I should think yes)?

  2. Oh my god, yes, Django style is all about the arpeggios, scales not so much.

    Oscar Aleman and Eddie Lang are also big on the ’arps’, but not to the same extent as Django!

    Interesting different conceptions of what “jazz” is… as concerns the banjo.

    I think we can all agree that Buddy Wachter is unquestionably the best banjo player of our generation when it comes to playing jazz?

    IMHO, Buddy would be welcomed by any traditional jazz band in the world… however, if he decided to try to play mainstream or modern jazz I think would have a hard time getting anybody to work with him because I think those kind of guys would be about as interested in banjo as they are in accordion…

    Gotta run, will continue tomorrow…

    Will

    1. Well, there are a lot stranger instruments than the banjo being used and accepted in mainstream jazz. I think it comes down to how good the player is; Buddy has gigged with a lot of big-name folks. I would love to hear recordings of it. The more advanced jazz became, the more scale oriented it became. The book I’m writing will have plenty of both, plus patterns that are based on them.

  3. Ron, after a sincere reflection, i think what you are doing is great and i am sure I would learn a lot from it.

    So, please, sign me up!

    Will

    1. I will do you one better; I’d like you to become a “BETA tester.” The book won’t be out for a while, but I could send you chapters as I finish them, then you could advise me on whether I’m out of my mind or not. Do you already know your scales and arpeggios pretty well?