purplez - Posted - 05/04/2013:  15:05:38

I came across to banjo a little while ago from years of playing guitar, I am actually loving playing it when i can, it really sings to me.

A problem I have is the visual side, after years also of classical guitar the fifth string on the banjo in my music mind looks like the 6th guitar string and when I need to play the 4th string I am hitting the fifth string by accident.

I have developed a sort of classical guitar based 4 finger banjo style so i have some kind of hand confusion, any tips to get over this?

NYCJazz - Posted - 05/04/2013:  18:23:38

Get a plectrum banjo. Or simply remove the 5th string

Tune it DGBE.

Something tells me you'll forget all about that drone string.

banjo bill-e - Posted - 05/04/2013:  18:48:55

Stop looking at your strings-------Problem solved!

Bill

Mike Moss - Posted - 05/05/2013:  02:19:38

I cannot fathom why some people call the 5th string a "drone string" -- almost any string on the banjo, or any other stringed instrument, can be used as a drone, if played as such -- as one has a choice of whether to play it or not, unlike in, say, the highland pipes, where the drones play whether you like it or not.

I would suggest that you give it some time. The fifth string is a surprisingly useful tool for octave shifts and it can be inserted into a large amount of chords and melodies, and, as with any fingerstyle instrument, learning how to hit each string accurately is a part of learning. The 5th string enhances your harmonic palette by providing you with more texture -- it is more sonorous than the 1st string fretted at the 5th fret, it allows you to play some funky grace notes a la Joe Morley, and it provides you with a nifty natural harmonic over the 17th fret.   If you could hit either of the 6 strings on the guitar accurately, you won't have any problems managing 5 strings on the banjo.

Rick McKeon - Posted - 05/06/2013:  12:56:54

From your guitar playing you know accuracy will come with practice. Keep the 5th string. That's what gives the banjo it's unique sound.

Rick

purplez - Posted - 05/06/2013:  13:48:21

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick McKeon

 

From your guitar playing you know accuracy will come with practice. Keep the 5th string. That's what gives the banjo it's unique sound.

Rick

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I don't want to get rid of the 5th string I like it! :D

The 5th string throws my eye because I expect it to go all the way down the neck like a guitar one..its hard for me to explain, but yes perseverance and occasional bum notes are the way I s'pose?

banjo bill-e - Posted - 05/07/2013:  08:38:13

purplez, I know it sounds like I was joking, but I did mean it. Try to break the habit of looking at your strings. You need to look at position markers for when you change positions, but there is no need at all to look at your strings while you play., and it is a bad habit to get in to.  Play by sound and play by feel, not by sight. 

Bill

NYCJazz - Posted - 05/07/2013:  12:51:04

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick McKeon

Keep the 5th string. That's what gives the banjo it's unique sound.

Rick

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As a plectrum banjo player (along with some tenor banjo, banjo-mandolin and banjo uke), I would wholeheartedly disagree with your statement!

purplez - Posted - 05/07/2013:  15:22:40

quote:

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

 

purplez, I know it sounds like I was joking, but I did mean it. Try to break the habit of looking at your strings. You need to look at position markers for when you change positions, but there is no need at all to look at your strings while you play., and it is a bad habit to get in to.  Play by sound and play by feel, not by sight. 

Bill

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I was playing tonight, I analised it and it what it is is the 4th string being the thickest is what is throwing me..!

I don't really look at the strings much, but I am having to look a bit at the 4th -5th ones, but yes position markers is a good idea thx.

Rick McKeon - Posted - 05/08/2013:  16:03:15

Hey NYCJazz,

You are a multi-instrument player so I know where you are coming from. BUT it's like with the uke. You can tune it with a low 4th string or a high 4th string and your choice of tuning really changes the sound and the musical possibilities. The 5-string banjo with a high 5th string has a certain sound. How you use that 5th string can really make a difference.

I don't mean to say that the only "banjo sound" comes from the 5-string banjo, but it's a fun sound. I once owned a 6-string banjo and thought a bunch of my ragtime guitar songs would sound great that way, but I finally decided that if I wanted the "banjo sound" for ragtime songs I'd play them on a banjo.

Rick

marc.dalmasso - Posted - 05/09/2013:  00:13:10

Hey NYCJazz

Beeing French , i have pain to say if you are serious or joking.?..............

Mike Moss - Posted - 05/09/2013:  01:41:58

Plectrum and other 4-string players are fortunate enough to have their own sub-board on the Hangout, whereas we who play "other" styles than CH or BG have to stick to this jumbled rag bag of a sub-forum. Presumably, if purplez had been talking about plectrum playing (which is a style I also enjoy and admire very much) he would have posted in the plectrum board?

purplez - Posted - 05/10/2013:  11:27:23

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike Moss

 

Plectrum and other 4-string players are fortunate enough to have their own sub-board on the Hangout, whereas we who play "other" styles than CH or BG have to stick to this jumbled rag bag of a sub-forum. Presumably, if purplez had been talking about plectrum playing (which is a style I also enjoy and admire very much) he would have posted in the plectrum board?

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I just can't get on with a plectrum, even on guitar its fingers all the way for me.

Plectrum just always felt strange to me, I struggle to use one but with fingers I feel more in control..most of the time!

GrahamHawker - Posted - 05/10/2013:  12:27:37

quote:

---

Originally posted by purplez

 

I came across to banjo a little while ago from years of playing guitar, I am actually loving playing it when i can, it really sings to me.

A problem I have is the visual side, after years also of classical guitar the fifth string on the banjo in my music mind looks like the 6th guitar string and when I need to play the 4th string I am hitting the fifth string by accident.

I have developed a sort of classical guitar based 4 finger banjo style so i have some kind of hand confusion, any tips to get over this?

 

---

Practice. I had a lot of trouble with the fourth string and the missing fifth string when I started playing banjo but after a while it gets much easier.

On the plectrum thing I agree that it has to be fingers for me. Feeling and control only comes to me if I'm touch the strings. Even if I'm playing heavy rock with my electric guitar. I can't cope with a plastic interface between finger and string.

NYCJazz - Posted - 05/11/2013:  10:33:32

You guys are missing an important point.

The physical form (5-string, tenor, uke) doesn't dictate the style.

As a friend of mine said. "You can play anything on anything".

You can play 4-string banjos with 3 fingerpicks and no non-banjoist will know the difference.



I can pick up a 5-string banjo and play it with a pick

BrittDLD1 - Posted - 05/11/2013:  12:27:12

And I can pick up a long-scale open-back tenor; tune it like the 4 long strings of an Old Time 5-string (into "G Modal" or "Double C" tunings, etc.) -- and play it with a flatpick so that it SOUNDS like I'm playing it Clawhammer style.

I'm a 3-time winner of the Old Time category, at the Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest (the main Boston-area contest). I didn't have much more to 'prove' after winning 3 times... so a few years later, I entered the "Banjo Other" category -- playing my tenor with a flatpick.

Below is a photo of me at The Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest - c1998. I'm flat-picking an 'Oldtime' tune on a rare 19-fret Vega X-9 openback Tenor. ... I sounded so much like I was playing a 5-string clawhammer-style -- that the judges wrongly disqualified me, for entering the wrong category... They told me I "could have placed 1st or 2nd IF I had entered the 'Oldtime Banjo' category." They never even realized that I was flat-picking a 4-string Tenor! (Photo by Jon Gersh)

Best- Ed Britt

Edited by - BrittDLD1 on 05/11/2013 12:29:14

Flat-picking 'Oldtime' on Tenor @ Lowell Contest

NYCJazz - Posted - 05/11/2013:  13:05:35

Ed

How did you have that Vega tuned?