Banjo

What it means

The banjo is a plucked instrument whose round body is covered not with a wooden top but with a stretched skin or, today, usually a plastic head, much like a drum. A long fretted neck crosses this head, typically carrying four or five strings. The sound is percussive, bright, and quick to decay, quite unlike a guitar with its wooden resonating body.

The instrument descends from West African lute-type instruments with gourd bodies that enslaved people brought to America and further developed there.

Musical use

In the 19th century the banjo became popular in American minstrel entertainment, from where it entered old-time music, bluegrass, Dixieland jazz, and folk. In bluegrass, the five-string banjo with its characteristic rolling fingerpicking technique is especially defining, while Dixieland favors the four-string tenor or plectrum banjo with rhythmically strummed chords.

The banjo should be distinguished from the mandolin and the guitar: all three are plucked instruments, but only the banjo has the skin-covered, drum-like resonating body.

Performance practice

When you play banjo, pay attention to head tension, since it strongly shapes the tone: a tightly stretched head sounds brighter and drier. In bluegrass, practice roll patterns with fingerpicks; in old-time style, work on the clawhammer technique with downward-striking fingers.