Banjo

A 20th-Century Turkish instrument very similar to the banjo is called Cümbüs. Saree and blouse remains the most popular garment for the Indian women. Instruments using the five-string banjo neck on a wooden body (for example, that of a bouzouki or resonator guitar) have also been made, though these are not so common. While the blouse is used to cover the breasts, the saree is draped around covering the whole body including the blouse, in a particular fashion. These were especially popular in the early decades of the twentieth century, and were probably a result of a desire either to allow players of other instruments to jump on the banjo bandwagon at the height of its popularity, or to get the natural amplification benefits of the banjo resonator in an age before electric amplification. In India, the traditional ladies' attire consists of two pieces of dresses called saree and blouse. Examples include the guitar banjo, 'banjitar' or guitjo, the banjo mandolin and the banjo ukulele or banjolele. Tiring of attempting to button the buttons backwards, they started reversing the direction of the buttons.

Most of these use the body of a banjo, often with a resonator, and the neck of the other instrument. Female servants were in charge of buttonning their mistresse's gowns (since the buttons were usually in the back). A number of hybrid instruments exist, crossing the banjo with other stringed instruments. Another theory purports that the tradition arose in the middle ages when one manner of manifesting wealth was by the number of buttons one wore. Eddie Peabody (plectrum) and Harry Reser (tenor and plectrum) are regarded as two of the best four-string banjo players of all times. Some suggest this custom was introduced by launderers so they could distinguish between women's and men's shirts. It has a shorter neck of 19 frets is usually tuned CGDA, like a viola, or GDAE, like a violin (but a fifth lower), and has become quite a standard instrument for Irish traditional music where is mainly used in its shorter 17 frets variant. The reasons for this are unclear, however.

A further development is the tenor banjo, which also has four strings and is typically played with a plectrum too. That is, the buttons are normally on the wearer's left-hand and the buttonholes are on the right. The plectrum banjo evolved out of the five-string banjo to cater for styles of music involving strummed chords. Blouses have buttons reversed from that of a men's shirts. As the name suggests, it is usually played with a guitar-style pick (that is, a single one held between thumb and forefinger), unlike the five-string banjo, which is almost always played with a thumbpick and two fingerpicks, or occasionally with bare fingers. They are generally more tailored than simple knit tops, and may contain "feminine" details such as ruffles or embroidered decorations. The plectrum banjo has four strings, lacking the shorter fifth string, and 22 frets; it is usually tuned CGBD. Blouses are often made of cotton or silk cloth and may or may not include a collar and sleeves.

Many banjo players favour the use of model railroad spikes (usually installed at the seventh fret and sometimes at others), under which the string can be hooked to keep it pressed down on the fret. A blouse most commonly refers to a woman's shirt, although the term is also used for some men's military uniform shirts. Otherwise various devices are available to effectively shorten the string. For small changes (going up or down one or two semitones, for example) it is possible to simply retune the fifth string. This presents special problems for using a capo to change the pitch of the instrument.

The fifth (drone) string is the same gauge as the first, but it is five frets shorter, three quarters the length of the rest. These tunings are often taken up a tone, either by tuning up or using a capo. Other tunings common in old-time music include double C (gCGCd), sawmill or mountain minor (gDGCd) also called Modal or Mountain Modal, and open D (f#DF#Ad). In earlier times, the tuning gCGBd was commonly used instead.

Probably the most common, certainly in bluegrass, is the open G tuning: gDGBd. Many tunings are used for the five-string banjo. Pete Seeger popularised a folk style by combining clawhammer with "up picking" without the use of finger picks. Frailing techniques use the thumb to catch the fifth string for a drone after each strum, or to pick out additional melody notes in what is known as 'drop-thumb'.

It is played in a number of different styles, the most common of which are called clawhammer (or "claw-hammer") and frailing, characterised by the use of a downward rather than upward motion when striking the strings with the fingers. American Old-time music typically uses the five-string open back banjo. In these styles the emphasis is on arpeggiated figures played in a continuous eighth-note rhythm. In bluegrass music, which uses the five-string resonator banjo extensively, it is often played in Scruggs style, named after Earl Scruggs, melodic or Keith style, or two-finger style, also called Reno style after Don Reno, legendary father of Don Wayne Reno.

The banjo can be played in several styles and is used in various forms of music. This new banjo came to be tuned gCGBD; somewhat higher than the eAEG#B tuning of the banjar. However, a painting done long before Sweeny's suposed invention of the 5th string, shows African American slaves playing a banjo with what looks to be a short, fith string. He worked with a New York drum maker to replace the banjar's skin-covered gourd with the modern open-backed drum-like pot, and added another string to give the instrument more range or a drone.

He wanted an instrument similar to the banjar played by African-Americans in the American south, but at the same time, he wanted to implement some new ideas. The origins of the five-string banjo can be traced back to Joel Walker Sweeney, an American minstrel performer. . A metal footed bridge ensures that pickups draw sound from both the strings and the head.

There are also solid body electric banjos; one such banjo, the Crossfire (manufactured by Deering), has two powerful magnetic pickups under the drumhead. The two most common modern day acoustic banjos are the resonator banjo which has a detachable chamber, or resonator, on the back of the rim and the open back banjo which does not have a resonator. Banjo strings are most commonly metal, although nylon and gut can be used on some banjos, especially those played in the classical style. The earliest banjos were unfretted, like the African and Asian instruments that inspired them, but most banjos today are fretted.

In the five-string banjo, the fifth peg is normally on the side of the neck, although some English versions (the Zither banjo) mount the fifth string tuner on the tuning head with the others, and route the string through a tube in the neck where it exits near the fifth fret. The woods used in construction vary, but are often combinations of maple, walnut, and ebony for fingerboards, pegheads, and the tops of bridges. The banjo consists of a wooden or metal rim with a plastic (Mylar) or calf or goat skin drumhead stretched across it, a neck mounted on the side of the rim, a tailpiece mounted opposite the neck, four or five strings, and a bridge. In almost all of its forms the banjo's playing is characterised by a fast strumming or arpeggiated right hand, although there are many different playing styles.

A six-string version, tuned and played similar to a guitar is gaining popularity. The modern banjo comes in a variety of different forms, including four- (plectrum and tenor banjos) and five-string versions. Some etymologists derive it from a dialectal pronunciation of "bandore", though recent research suggests that it may come from a Senegambian term for the bamboo stick used for the instrument's neck. Its name is commonly thought to be derived from the Kimbundu term mbanza.

The banjo is a stringed instrument of African-American origin, early or original examples sometimes being called the "gourd banjo".