My first 6-string banjo was a “pop-top” banjo (with an aluminum pot that had points sticking out). In fact one version, the low pitched Irish Tenor banjo, became a staple of Irish Folk music. The 4-string banjo did make an occasional appearance. So many guitar players, in fact, that guitar displaced banjo as North America’s most popular instrument sometime around 1960. And it was further popularized by guitar players.
But, of course that movement was largely sparked by Pete Seeger, a 5-string banjo player who helped bring that instrument into the mainstream in the mid-20th Century. Like the 4-string Jazz banjo and its mate the Tenor Guitar, 6-string banjo seems to have been almost entirely overlooked by the Folk Revival movement, which might have made good use of it. Most of them seem to have been used for Jazz-related music, though at least one German-built 6-string was apparently used in a Polka band that had Ragtime numbers in its repertoire. As far as I can tell from the hardware in the photos, the vast majority of these were built by companies whose main product was banjos. Cyr often used his 6-string to provide bass lines, something you can't do on a 4 or 5 string. Since I first published this article, I’ve received photos and questions about pre-WWII 6-string banjos from many parts of the world. Cyr's custom-made, droneless 6-string banjo appears on early jazz recordings of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (which at that time also included Louis Armstrong.) Some sources claim that the influential Jazz guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt started out on a “droneless” six-string banjo (though he might be holding a Zither banjo in the photo people use most often for “proof.”Īccording to Diana Hergert, of California's Sweet Tidings Gospel Jam Band, Johnny St. In fact, when Jazz guitar started becoming popular, Tenor banjo players flocked to the 4-string Tenor guitar because it allowed them to get guitar sounds without having to learn an entirely new instrument. They were invented to give Tenor banjo players access to lower notes. There was never any hint that 6-string banjos were invented to make life easier for the relatively small number of guitar players in those days. 6-string banjos were invented at a time when banjo was a far more popular instrument than guitar. Consequently, it can produce a range that is compelling and unique, while still providing an overall tonality that is all banjo. Depending on how it is tuned, a 6-string banjo can go nearly an octave below most other banjos. Jazz players who wanted more range investigated 6-string banjos that had also abandoned the drone string. The Tenor banjo could only play relatively high notes, however. These banjos abandoned the drone string because Jazz songs often used complex harmonization that a single note ringing on and on did not suit. The most common banjo of the Jazz age was the four string Tenor banjo. By 1920 the banjo was as integral to popular music as the guitar is to rock & roll. This includes what we might call traditional New Orleans Jazz or “Dixieland” today.
While zither banjos (mostly 5 string) were becoming popular in Europe, early Jazz and Jazz-inspired banjo playing was breaking all records in the United States. As a 5-string banjo player who can also play all three kinds of 4-string banjo, and both kinds of 6-string banjos, I don't consider myself a faker on any of those instruments, and I don't automatically assume that anyone else is either. I think they're trying to establish who the real 6-string banjo players are and who are the fakers. That allowed them to hit notes as low as G, depending on the tuning, giving them almost the range of a guitar. That is they kept the drone string but added a bass string between it and the fourth string (the lowest-pitched string on a 5-string). Some of the first 6-string banjos were based on a traditional 5 string banjo design. The guitar was barely "in the picture."Īctually, two kinds of 6-string banjo were invented, although only one is still being commercially manufactured today. was the mandolin, and the Jazz banjo was on the verge of replacing it. If there is one kind of banjo that gets no respect, even from banjo players, it is the 6-string banjo.īut the truth is that the 6-string banjo was invented over a century ago, when the most popular fretted instrument in the U.S. One question I hear a lot is "what is a banjitar?" While I have dedicated years pointing out that in fact it is called a 6 string banjo, many folks dismiss the 6-string as some kind of marketing gimmick, born out of a demand from lazy guitar players who want to get a banjo sound without bothering to learn “real” banjo (by which they always mean 5-string, never 4-string).
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