Banjo: Dominica musical instrument

The banjo is a four, five or six stringed musical instrument that has a thin membrane stretched over a frame as the resonator if the musical instrument. 

source: get-tuned.com

The membrane of the musical instrument is typically a piece of animal skin or a plastic and the frame of the instrument is circular. Simpler versions of the musical instrument were fashioned by Africans in the colonial America, adapted from many African musical instruments of analogous design. 

The banjo instrument is frequently linked with the country music, the folk music, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. Historically, the musical instrument occupied a central place in the African American traditional music, before becoming well-known in the minstrel shows of the 19^th century.

There are many theories concerning the origin of the musical instrument. It may be derived from the Kinbundu term ‘mbanza’. Some etymologists believe that it comes from the dialectal pronunciation of the Portuguese ‘bandore’ or from the early Anglicization of the Spanish word ‘bandurria’, but other researchers proposes that it may come from a West African term for a bamboo stick that is formerly used for the neck of the musical instrument.

Various musical instruments in Africa, chief among them the kora, displays a skin head and a gourd body. The African musical instruments varies from the African American banjos in that the neck of the instrument do not have a western-style fingerboard and tuning pegs, rather having stick necks, with strings fixed to the neck of the instrument with loops for tuning it. The versions of this musical instrument that has fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17^th century. Late 18^th century and the early part of the 19^th century writers transcribed the name of these musical instruments differently as bangie, banza, banjar and banjer. Analogous musical instruments to the banjo have been performed in many countries of the world. Another musical instrument that is said to be the ancestor of the banjo is the ‘akonting’, which is a spike folk lute instrument performed by the Jola tribe of the Senegambia and the ubaw-akwala of the Igbo people of Nigeria. Analogous musical instrument include the xalam of Senegal and the ngoni of the Wassoulou region including parts of Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali and a larger version of the ngoni developed in Morocco by sub-Saharan Africans that is known as the Gimbri.

Early, African-influenced versions of the musical instruments were built around a gourd body and a wooden stick neck. These musical instruments had differing numbers of strings, but often including some form of drone. The five stringed version of the musical instrument was made popular by Joel Walker Sweeney, an American minstrel player from Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Sweeney became the first white man to perform the musical instrument on a stage. His version of the musical instrument replaced the gourd with sound box like drum and included four full-length strings together with a short fifth-string. This new version of the musical instrument was at first tuned d’Gdf#a, but by the 1980s, this had been reserved up to g’cgbd’. The banjos were brought into Britain by Sweeney’s group of musicians; the American Virginia minstrels became very popular in the music halls in the 1840s.

The styles that are closely linked with the banjo are the rolls and the drones. The rolls are right hand accompanimental fingering style that is made up of eight notes, which subdivide each measure. The drones are quick little notes that are always performed on the fifth string to fill in around the melody notes. These styles are both idiomatic to banjo in all technique and their sound is typical of bluegrass.

The modern version of the banjo comes in many forms, including four-string version and five-string version of the musical instrument. A six-string version of the banjo that is tuned and performed analogously to a guitar, has gained popularity. In almost all of its forms, the playing of the musical instrument is characterized by a fast arpeggiated plucking, but there are many various playing patterns.

The body of the modern version of the banjo is typically made up of a circular rim and a tension head, analogous to the head of a drum. Traditionally, the head o0f the banjo was produced from the skin of an animal, but in the modern day, the musical instrument is made of different synthetic materials. Most modern version of the musical instrument also have a metal tone ring assembly, which helps further make clear and project the sound.

Modern versions of the banjo are typically strung with the metal strings. Often, the fourth string of the musical instrument is wound with steel or bronze-phosphor alloy. Some players of the musical instrument may string their instruments with gut or nylon strings to achieve a mellower, old-time tone.

Some versions of the banjo possess a separate resonator plate on the back of the pot, fashioned to project the sound forward and give the musical instrument more volume. This version of the musical instrument is often used in bluegrass music, but resonator versions of the banjo are performed by players of all techniques and are also used in the ancient time as a substitute for electric amplification when performing in large venues.

The modern five-string version of the banjo is a variation on Sweeney’s original fashion. The fifth string on the musical instrument is usually the same gauge as the first, but starts from the fifth fret, three quarters the length of the other strings on the musical instrument. This allows the strings of the musical instrument to be tuned to a higher open pitch than possible for the full length strings of the instrument. The short fifth string on the banjo means that, unlike many other string musical instrument, strings pitches on a five string version of the banjo do not go in order from the lowest to the highest across the fingerboard of the musical instrument. Rather from the low to the high, they go fourth, third, second, first and fifth. This is a kind of reentrant tuning on the musical instrument.

Many tunings are used on the five-string version of the musical instrument. Probably the most common tuning especially in the bluegrass is the open-G tuning which is g’dgbd’. In the early times, this tuning, g’cgbd’ was generally used rather. The double C is another tuning that was found in the old-time music; g’cgc’d.

The size of the five stringed version of the musical instrument is standardized laregely, while the smaller and the larger sizes of the musical instrument are available in cluding the long-neckled version of the instrument built by Pete Seeger. Petite versions of the five-stringed banjo have been in use since the 1880s.

The plectrum banjo is a standard version of the musical instrument without short drone string. It often has 22 frets on the neck and a scale of 26 inches to 28 inches as the length, and was traditionally tuned cgbd’. It can also be tuned like the top four strings of a guitar instrument that is known as the ‘Chicago tuning’. As the name implies, it is often performed with a guitar-style pick, unlike the five-string version of the banjo that is performed with the use if a thumb pick and two fingerpicks or with the use of bare fingers by the player. The plectrum banjo came out of the five-stringed version of the musical instrument, to cater to style of music involving strummed chords. The musical instrument is also used in many early jazz recordings and arrangements.

The tenor banjo, which is also the shorter-necked version of the instrument, is also typically performed with the use of a plectrum. The musical instrument became very popular at around the year 1910. The early model of the musical instrument used for meldic picking had 17 frets typically on the neck and a scale length of 19 to 21 inches. By the mid-1920s, the musical instrument was used mainly for strummed chordal accompaniment, 19 frets necks with a scale length of about 21 inches to 23 inches became the standard instrument. The often tuning is the all-fifth tuning cgd’a’, in which there are exactly seven semitones between the open notes of successive strings; all fifths tuning is accepted for a mandola or a viola. This version of the musical instrument was a common rhythm-musical instrument in the early part of the 20^th century dance-bands. The volume of the tenor banjo and the tone quality suited the early jazz and could both battle with other musical instruments and be heard clearly on any acoustic recordings. 

Scarcer than either the tenor banjo or the plectrum banjo is the cello banjo. The musical instrument is normally tuned CGda, one octave below the tenor banjo such as the cello and the mandocello. The musical instrument played an important role in the banjo orchestras in the later part of the 19^th century and the early part of the 20^th century. Bass banjos have been produced in both upright bass arrangements and also with standard and horizontally-carried banjo bodies.

The six-stringed version of the musical instrument started as a british innovation by William Temlet, one of the England’s earliest makers of the musical instrument.

A good number of hybrid musical instruments exist, crossing the banjo with other stringed musical instrument. Most of these instrument use the body of a banjo, usually with a resonator and the neck of the other musical instrument. Examples are the banjo mandolin and the banjo ukulele that was most popularly performed by the English comedian that is known as George Formby. Musical instruments that are using the five-string banjo neck on a wooden body have also been produced, like the banjola; a 20^th century Turkish musical instrument that is very analogous to the banjo is called cumbus that has been manufactured into eight different hybrid musical instrument, including the guitar, ukulele, mandolin and the oud. At the end of the 20^th century, a development of the 5-stringed version of the banjo was the BanSitar. This features a bridge that is made of bone, giving the musical instrument a resonator that is like the sitar.