BG Banjo - Posted - 03/31/2026:  06:47:32

My daughter gave me a shirt that had a screen print of a banjo on the front of it and printed along side it said, "In a world full of guitars, be the banjo." I thought it was fitting to my journey. I was a long time country and bluegrass guitar player. I jammed and played with other people every chance I got. But when our one and only banjo player quit coming, it struck me that I was sitting there with three or four, sometimes five, other guitar players all flatpicking the same songs the same way in unison. So I was out in California several years ago for the winter and got to thinking that I would like to get a banjo and play my own music, get out of the herd of guitar players and do my own thing. I bought a banjo and became the banjo player. I've not looked back. I still play guitar sometimes, but in my heart I'm the banjo player. And that tee shirt just said it all.



I guess the point of posting is to see if anyone else came to the banjo with a similar story.

Edited by - BG Banjo on 03/31/2026 06:49:45

1935tb-11 - Posted - 03/31/2026:  07:21:17

around these parts it usually the other way around ..plenty of banjos and only 2 are in tune and the rest don't have timing.. but its only a jam so no harm done LOL . that is why its always a good idea to bring  your guitar with you also ...........

Edited by - 1935tb-11 on 03/31/2026 07:22:22

BG Banjo - Posted - 03/31/2026:  08:28:56

quote:

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Originally posted by 1935tb-11

around these parts it usually the other way around ..plenty of banjos and only 2 are in tune and the rest don't have timing.. but its only a jam so no harm done LOL . that is why its always a good idea to bring  your guitar with you also ...........

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I often bring a guitar and it is like my security blanket. Most of the time I don't even play it, but it is there in the case. There is another fellow who plays banjo, a young guy, who shows up occasionally. I noticed Sunday that we were playing in different voices. When he was up the neck I was playing down close to the nut, and the other way around. When he played melody notes I played chords. It was interesting what you can do with a banjo in a group. 

banjo bill-e - Posted - 03/31/2026:  08:42:11

My wife bought me one of those shirts. Always a conversation starter.

mrbook - Posted - 03/31/2026:  12:52:03

I started out wanting to play the banjo in 1964, but my parents got me a guitar first, which was actually a good thing as it was probably better to learn and play music. The banjo didn't come for another three years, but I mostly just fooled with it for the next 25 years, mainly because my Harmony didn't look like a real banjo even if it sounded and played okay. Then our band needed a banjo player, and when there weren't any around I decided it was time to get serious. I got a better banjo and got to work. Thirty-some years later I hardly play anything but the banjo in my own bands, sitting in with other bands, or jam sessions. I still play several other instruments at home. I'm lucky to be in an area with lots of guitar and mandolin players, but very few banjo players.

Dean T - Posted - 03/31/2026:  15:38:18

I have that shirt!

Similar story here. Jammed with friends… all guitars. I was into Keith and the Stones forever, and my Tele was tuned open G. It was actually someone else in my jam group who got a banjo, but he didn’t have a clue how to play it. Before that, I had never even seen one in real life. Knowing the tuning, and a decent blues finger picker, I asked to try it. It was love at first note, only took a few minutes to be jamming with it, and I played it several hours that day. I ordered my own banjo that evening, and played my first gig with it 6 weeks later. That was 23 years ago, and I’ve never looked back.

Edited by - Dean T on 03/31/2026 15:46:38

 

steve davis - Posted - 04/01/2026:  14:04:11

I played banjo with a flatpick to country and western music at home.
When I went into the Army I met a guy from West Virginia who showed me a couple of rolls and what he called "Earl's "Shave and a Haircut" up the neck".

A couple years after my discharge I went to college on the GI Bill and found a band to pick with.Dropped out of school but stayed with that band for nearly 50 years.

BG Banjo - Posted - 04/02/2026:  09:27:25

I've played the guitar off and on for probably close to fifty years. Granted, up until fifteen years ago, more off than on. Around 2005 I picked up a ukulele while visiting Chicago and got to playing it a lot. I saw a flyer in a coffee shop advertising a ukulele jam and being one that likes playing with others I went to it. Over a period of four or five years I found that a lot of ukulele jams are structured alike. There's the Daily Ukulele song books, at that time the Yellow and the Blue, and people either played out of one of them or they brought a stack of tab sheets to hand out. Then everyone just strummed along and sang the songs together.



I call it a strum-a-long. And they had a ball doing it. More power to them. But it isn't my thing. So then I went back to the guitar, found some people to jam with, and while it wasn't a bunch of people in a circle playing out of the yellow book or the blue book, or anything at all, it was often times a fiddle player maybe, a mandolin player maybe, a bass player maybe, a harmonica player maybe, and a half dozen guitar players sitting around watching each other's hands and pretty much playing the same thing. I just got a little bored with the guitar.



But that's what some people want. I know a fellow who would be perfectly happy if it were just guitars that showed up and the riff raff would just stay home, but I find it exciting to play something that stands out from the rest, and that's what draws me to the banjo. And there are guitar players that I play with who really appreciate the banjo. We have a guitar player who always tells me, "stand by me, where I can hear that banjo." I especially like playing with the mandolin player, and sometimes we take a break together and just see how we can blend the two. I mean, there is just so much fun stuff and interesting things you can do with a banjo.



Okay, enough of my banjo love for today.

Edited by - BG Banjo on 04/02/2026 09:29:35