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Banjo
Banjo
Author: bobdoleorama | 
The Banjo is an American folk music instrument that developed with the intensification of US slavery, and the influx of African migrants into forced labor positions within land based agricultural systems.
Description:
The Banjo is a string instrument, with a resonator body made of wood or cast metal, a skin, and a fret board, head stock and tuning machines. There are a variety of Banjo styles available for the enthusiastic player, varying in size from half size Banjolele's and Banjlins, through to the three quarter size, four string plectrum jazz banjo and the most common five string, full size banjo.
How to Play:
The banjo has a place synonymous in bluegrass music, associated with folk and hillbilly music. Its slightly comical sound, combined with the extreme speed at which it can be played make for a musical performance that is exceptionally interesting and can be truly exhilarating. The traditional tuning of a five string banjo is in an Open G tuning, which allows the player access to a wide range of good sounds by simply fretting at the third or fifth frets. These frets correspond to the placement of a pentatonic scale, and as any good blues musician knows, the pentatonic scale just sounds good. By experimenting with finger picking and strumming techniques, while sticking to the third and fifth frets, the ability to make the instrument sound good can be acquired very rapidly.
Famous Player:
The banjo lends itself to high speed plucking. Earl Scruggs is the most recognizable banjo player of recent years, being the man that played the theme song to Deliverance, known as Dueling Banjo's and also Foggy Mountain Breakdown, one of the most difficult songs to master on the banjo, but also a very useful strum. Banjo players the world over will understand what is meant by the term 'Foggy Mountain Roll' which is a description of a Banjo strumthatleads with the index finger, rolling back and forth across the strings to produce a hypnotizing rhythm.
Why Played:
One of the most important things to keep in mind when playing the banjo is that it was developed by peoples that were largely illiterate and uneducated as to the norms of western music. Though it has a place within modern music, as when played by Bela Fleck with his group the Fleck Tones, and has also been applied to the Classical repertoire, the banjo was not originally engineered for this sort of playing. Rather it was used as a recreational instrument, to provide relief from the life of agricultural slavery that the Negroes had been sold into. The musical instruments were prized, and provided the owner and surrounding community a momentary respite for the harsh conditions of the plantation.
Poor Man’s Music:
Even with its growth, the instrument was synonymous with the music of the poor man, being crafted from scavenged pieces by children in the bayous and back mountains of the Southern United States through the 19th and 20th century. It is this most humble of roots that has helped cement the banjo's place within folk music, making it an instrument with a memorable sound famous for bootleg whiskey and homegrown tobacco.