So, you think you know the banjo...

There are many different kinds of banjos and styles of playing. My banjo playing falls largely into these categories:

Tenor Banjo (4 string tuned CGDA, played with a pick) -- The style used in classic Jazz. I use this banjo in orchestras -- playing the works of George Gershwin, Ferde Grofe and others.

Irish-style Tenor (tuned GDAE, played with a pick) This tuning is an octave lower than mandolin tuning and is mostly used for playing the jigs, reels, hornpipes etc. of Irish dance music.

Minstrel (5 string fretless, gut strung -- variety of tunings, played with a "frailing" type of technique) The repertoire for this instrument comes from the mid-19th century and is strongly influenced by the African styles that were played on the instruments that the early banjos were modeled after.

Classical (5string, gut or nylon strung, tuned to gCGDB or gDGDB or a minor 3rd lower than each of these, played with the fingers like a guitarist) Repertoire for this style is drawn from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and includes popular and light classical pieces and ragtime.

Frailing or Clawhammer (5 string, gut or metal strings, fretted or fretless, wide variety of tunings, played by striking the strings with the back of the index or middle fingernail and plucking with the thumb.)
This is a style that evolved from the early minstrel style and was kept alive in various rural areas in the south. Though I do play some of this repertoire, I also have written a number of pieces for this style of playing.

I also own and perform on hybrid instruments:

Mandolin Banjo -- a mandolin neck on a banjo body -- tuned and played like a mandolin

Uke Banjo -- a ukulele neck on a banjo body --tuned and played like a uke (though I do frail on this one as well).

Some lessons and other resources:

--an annotated list of the tunings used in 19th century banjo repertoire

--Introduction to picking technique for Irish jigs

--Introduction to basic minstrel banjo technique

--music and tablature for Juba perhaps the most ubiquitous piece in the minstrel banjo repertoire

--An article that I co-wrote with my wife, Maggi [link] that introduces Louisa Dewhurst, [link article] an important late-19th century banjoist.

--music and tablature for Louisa Dewhurst Polka [link]

--music and tablature for Squirrels in the Firs [link] a clawhammer banjo piece that I wrote as part of a forthcoming collaborative Northern Banjo Tune Project. (More about that later.)

Follow these links to some free lessons, publications and other information about some of the instruments that I play.

If you are interested in private lessons on plucked string instruments, music theory, ear training, improvisation and/or composition, please contact me.