Learning the Plectrum Banjo . . . (updated May 2021)
If you're ever going to make real progress on the plectrum, a good method book that explains how ALL chords are formed according to shape and the specific string (with the root note that names the chord) is absolutely essential. The old method that used to be the gold standard was Charles McNeil Chord System for Plectrum (Long Neck) Banjo. It was published back in the early Twenties and is now difficult to find. FREE download for McNeil System!!! The good news is, you can still see a copy of it as a FREE download on the Internet Archive. BHO member, Joel Hooks did some research and found it available here:
https://archive.org/details/ChordSystemForPlectrumBanjo1/mode/2up Just sign in and register to gain access to this great book. Study the section that explains the entire neck with regards to how all the chords are formed and named by the specific string that is responsible for naming that chord form (pages 21 & 22.)
Here's the link to those pages:
https://archive.org/details/ChordSystemForPlectrumBanjo1/page/n21/mode/2up
For example, you'll see forms for major, minor and seventh forms that are all named from the root on the first string, another set for the root on the second string and another set for the root on the third string. There's a set of arrows pointing in opposite directions on the control panel just below the image of the book. This will let you leaf through the pages. There's also a magnifying glass icon on the lower right to bring out the details on each page.
Another great plectrum method is Alfred Greathouse's book: The Banjo Player's Bible Four String Plectrum Style (which incorporates the McNeil System) is often times available on either Ebay or Amazon. For a while, it was available from Elderly Music in Lansing, MI. But as of January 2018, they tell me they can no longer get copies of it. I hope that changes in the future. ((elderly.com/the-banjo-player-s...style.htm)) . Meanwhile, check out Ebay or Amazon and do buy it at any cost if you can.
Alfred Greathouse's plectrum method is faithful to McNeil's system, which is great news for the plectrum student. The Greathouse book has been republished since the first edition and incorporates the McNeil system in it's "MOVEABLE CHORDS" section. Here Greathouse explains the key that Charles McNeil gave everyone. This section explains the entire neck with regards to how all the chords are formed and named by the specific string that is responsible for naming that chord form. So, you'll see a group of major, minor and seventh forms that are all named from the FIRST string. Another set of major, minor and seventh forms for the SECOND string and another set for the THIRD string. That's the key! That's the law of gravity and the immutable truth all in one. Once you learn that, you'll know where you're at on the fret board and how to go anywhere you want.
Buddy Wachter has his Pathway Courses for tenor or plectrum. You can contact Buddy thru his website: http://buddysbanjos.com/. You can also contact Buddy thru the Banjo Hangout. The fine plectrum artist, Scott Anthony now has his own website dedicated to the plectrum banjo with some excellent teaching content. Here's the link: http://santhony.com/banjo/
Cynthia Sayer has both plectrum and tenor banjo lessons on her website plus a lot of other great stuff to get you well on your way. Check out Cynthia at: http://www.cynthiasayer.com/
The late David Frey had a large two volume plectrum method that was widely praised. From what I've read, Vol. I is the one to get. Again, look for it on Ebay or Amazon (this one is expensive.) But in any case, that essential McNeil System is the foundation for every great plectrum player. ((When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to learn both the tenor and plectrum banjos with the McNeil System books. McNeil made all other methods look like just so much "marketing."))
Another great plectrum resource are the lessons that Eddie Peabody produced. Jim Borrtoff has posted then on YouTube. You'll definitely want to check out all of them. Jim also has some very nice diagrammed chord melody tunes for plectrum. Here's that link to Jim's website: http://www.jbott.com/chord_melody_charts.html Also check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10i-aT194wE
There used to be a source for beautifully diagramed solos. It was Don Van Palta's website. Don not only had a complete plectrum course, but he's created several DVDs with around 700 solos nicely illustrated for immediate use. Don also has a nice batch of YouTube videos featuring his plectrum solos that many of you will find very instructive. Hopefully you can still find a copy of Don's great plectrum arrangements at: https://www.banjohangout.org/my/jerryh927 Jerryh927 had a complete listing of available Van Palta diagrammed arrangements. Worth checking out. Just click on jerryh927's "classifieds" tab.
Another stop on your way should be this welcome PLECTRUM website:
https://www.banjosnob.com by plectrum banjoist/instructor Ron Hinkle. Lots of good instruction here for the serious plectrum student._________________________________________________
BTW, if you're a tenor banjo student, you can still get McNeil's System for Tenor Banjo at this website:https://www.djangobooks.com/index.php?sid=eh6c33t2r16g8331711110l6l62g59g3&app=ecom&ns=prodsearchp&ecom--prodsearch--string=McNeil&SUBMIT=Go .
The McNeil System for Tenor Banjo is also accessible as a FREE download on the web from the University of Rochester. Pages 16 and 17 are what you need to see right away. That's the "key" to the system. Here's the link: https://urresearch.rochester.edu/institutionalPublicationPublicView.action?institutionalItemId=31900&versionNumber=1
Although the plectrum is known primarily for chord melody playing, someone was asking about playing tunes in single note on the plectrum. I mentioned that often tunes and licks can be played "out of position" from chord shapes on the plectrum fret board. To better illustrate this, I have provided some diagramed charts for the TV western theme, Maverick, as a single note solo played in C and F. If you're exploring the plectrum fret board, you can find these charts under "Photos" on this page of mine. There's also a simple exercise for running a scale anywhere on the fret board.
Before finalizing this blog, I wanted to provide you with two great plectrum banjo opportunities. One is the album done by the immortal Perry Bechtel and............... the other is a beautiful compilation CD by Buddy Wachter. Here are the links:
The Perry Bechtel album as a complete itunes purchase:
Some times you can find a copy of Perry's album on some of the used vinyl websites as well as Ebay. If you can find a copy, don't hesitate to get it. It's long been a collectors' item and Perry's style was incomparable to any other plectrum artist.
Here's Buddy's compilation CD:
As I write this blurb in 2017, the plectrum has a very faint presence on the BHO. If someone had told me there was no real interest in the plectrum on this website four years ago, I would have never believed them. This is a very negative and very depressing trend. It is especially depressing when you can appreciate the fact that many individuals will never know what they are missing by exploring the plectrum and all its charm and capabilities in the standard CGBD tuning. Of course the website is primarily a five string banjo website, but it has accommodated a four string interest. For plectrum fans, the four string section is primarily dominated by tenor students. For them, it's obviously an ideal website. That's fine. Tenor students should have such a market-place for exchange. But for a plectrum player, it's pretty limiting and down right discouraging. (At least in the USA, there's always been a fierce loyalty; and consequently, a stiff-necked prejudice between tenor and plectrum players....and that's a real shame.) Many a good plectrum player has come and gone here. Perhaps some day that will begin to change: I'll be long gone by then. I tried to generate some plectrum interest, but the indifference is almost insurmountable. People who haven't tried the plectrum (or have never listened to Perry Bechtel, Buddy Wachter, Lee Floyd and a list of other great plectrum artists) have no idea what musical feast they're missing out on. So it goes. A daisy can't grow in a desert and right now, the BHO is an arid, desolate place for the plectrum. There's no "fix" for apathy.
But for the serious plectrum student, the materials discussed above are great starting points. I've also added a few exercises and charts under the Photo section of this webpage. I wish you all the best with the learning the plectrum.
See "Mastering Duo-Style" on my other blog post at this link:.
https://www.banjohangout.org/blog/35200
Plectrum and Tenor banjo history:
A fascinating chapter in banjo history from the excellent work of late musicologist and musician, Shlomo Pestcoe (banjo artist and banjo historian):
(The early 1900s saw the emergence of two major occurrences in American music: the advent of traditional jazz and the modern 4-string banjos-- the plectrum and the tenor.) Unlike the 5-string banjo, these new instruments were designed to be played plectrum-style with a flat-pick rather than plucked with the fingers. The plectrum banjo was born at the turn of the last century as the change in popular musical tastes forced banjo players to come up with new innovations and techniques for playing their favorite instrument. Many 5-string banjo players who performed with pop dance bands switched over to the plectrum-style in order to get more volume out of their instruments and better facilitate single-line melody work and chordal "comping." As the short thumb string was pretty much useless and a hindrance when it came to playing with a flat-pick, plectrum-style players simply removed the offending 5th string from their standard banjos. To capitalize on the new trend, banjo manufacturers developed a version of the standard banjo without the 5th string and marketed it as the plectrum banjo. The new banjo was tuned CGBD-- the same as the four long melody strings of the 5-string banjo in standard "C" tuning-- and its neck featured the same scale length as found on the regular 5-string banjo. This enabled 5-string banjo players to transition over to the plectrum without having to learn a whole new fingering system.
Conversely, the tenor banjo was an entirely different animal altogether. Like the plectrum banjo, the tenor banjo is a 4-string banjo specifically designed to played with a flat-pick. Where it parts company with its plectrum sibling is in its tuning: the tenor is tuned in fifths, like mandolin family and violin family instruments. The actual tuning is CGDA-- the same as the viola and cello in the violin family or the mandola and mando-cello in the mandolin family. To accommodate this tuning, the neck of the tenor is shorter than that of the plectrum. Whereas the plectrum neck has 22 frets, the tenor has 17 frets (the original short scale preferred by Irish-style players) or 19 frets (typically found on the later resonator models, introduced in the 1920s, favored by jazz, swing, and pop players).
The tenor banjo was first manufactured by the Chicago banjo maker J.B. Schall (1878-1907) in the early 1900s, following the designs of Prof. Louis Stepner, "the celebrated mandolin soloist." Schall originally marketed it to mandolin players wishing to crossover to the banjo. ((The shorter neck Tenor banjo was made to appeal to the hundreds of immigrant Americans (Italian, Scottish, Irish and English) who already knew how to play an instrument tuned in fifths--specifically the mandolin and violin.)) When the Argentinean tango hit the United States in 1914, the tenor was dubbed "The Tango Banjo" to reflect the new pop dance craze that was sweeping the world.
With the dawn of The Jazz Age, both the plectrum and tenor banjos were drafted as chordal rhythm instruments in dance bands. On through the 1930s, these two saw service in jazz, swing, and pop big bands, as well as in early country, western swing, blues, and ethnic vernacular string bands the world over. However, both instruments were also favored by soloists. Eventually, the sophisticated chord/melody style of playing emerged in which the melody line is delineated by basically playing a different chord for each melody note.
Of the two, the tenor banjo became especially popular with ethnic vernacular musicians around the globe who played it as a melody instrument using mandolin playing techniques. A case in point is the role of the tenor in traditional Irish music. From the 1920s on through the '50s, the tenor was used primarily as the middle voice in Irish ceili dance bands. In the countryside, it was often the only accompaniment for button accordion soloists playing for dancing. Irish tenor players typically put heavier strings on their instruments for a lower tuning, GDAE -- the standard tuning for the mandolin and violin-- making it sound an octave lower than the fiddle. By doing so, the tenor can play the same lines as the fiddle in a lower register.
The Impact of Deliverance: In contrast to the history of the tenor and plectrum banjos, one of the reasons why the five-string became so dominant in our musical culture was because of media exposure. In 1972, when the film Deliverance was released, the impact of the five-string was about to blast off like an Atlas rocket. Eric Weisberg's soundtrack hit a major nerve with the music loving public and the interest and sales of five-string banjo blasted off overnight at an exponential rate. Suddenly the banjo was "cool" and everybody wanted to play one just like Eric and Earl. And over time, some great players emerged that further reinforced the appreciation for that instrument. The corollary was that the five-string banjo firmly secured a place in the cultural landscape while its four string brothers still struggled against the backdrop of history: specifically the demise of the jazz banjo with the advent of the "Swing Era" (in the Thirties) and the use of the amplified guitar.
(( I only wish that another major film or broad based media event would do the same for the tenor and plectrum what Deliverance did for the five-string. Someday it might happen.))
Adapted from the work of Shlomo Pestcoe (banjo artist and banjo historian)
Also see Thumbnail History of Banjo (Bill Reese)_____________________________________
DEERING ARTICLE written by Lawrence Witt: http://blog.deeringbanjos.com/what-is-a-plectrum-banjo?utm_campaign=Plectrum+Banjo&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--KR7eJl37yzu2jbO1owO-POUQ1O-nk5FSWyXeCobaSiKVd1MCkWZnN19zJOcBbD3EoFDxJlw0I3aZtLco7aJw-Smeo1g&_hsmi=55434946&utm_content=55434946&utm_source=hs_email&hsCtaTracking=e40d5aa8-8dda-41fb-929a-2a4f30f14eb9%7C78fa4e5d-db4f-47d8-b7a1-bd7c64d17c43
Stand a plectrum banjo up against your average five-string banjo and at first glance, you might not spot the difference. Both types of instrument have almost identical construction, from the scale length and fret count all the way down to the size of the head, and the type of strings used. Quickly, however, it will become clear that on the plectrum banjo the shortened fifth string is missing. This may seem like a glaring omission to Scruggs Style and Clawhammer players. To those who know the history of plectrum banjo and specialize in its distinctive style; not so much. It is perhaps the banjo's best-kept secret, that sometimes four strings really are better than five. Played with a flat pick or ‘plectrum', from where they get their name, these instruments lend themselves to lively, rhythmic performance and occupy a unique space in the American musical tradition.
How the Banjo Lost its 5th String
The fork in the history of the banjo - when it diversified into four and five-string models - was a gradual process. It occurred independently at several key points in the decades both before and after the turn of the 20th Century, in reaction to the demands of newly developing styles of music. From vaudeville, to ballroom, to jazz; both established banjoists and converts from other instruments began to see the banjo in a whole new light.
The earliest known reference to a five-string banjo being played without its 5th string, and using a plectrum, can be found in an edition of S. S. Stewart's Guitar and Banjo Journal from the 1890s. This innovation was provided by vaudeville performers who sought greater volume to help their banjos to be heard over loud orchestral instruments. Strumming out of full chord shapes, these banjo players had no need for the shortened, hard-to-fret thumb string which often did little more than make their playing sound discordant. It should be noted that these performers were not representative of the general experience of most banjo players at that time.
Five-string banjoists who played using finger style technique made up the majority of the banjo playing population in the late-1800s. This continued into the first decade of the 1900s with the rise of ragtime. A jaunty style of music first composed on the piano, ragtime places a highly syncopated right-hand pattern (i.e. with accented offbeats) over a rhythmically steady left-hand bass pattern. Its popularity began in earnest with the publication of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag in 1899. Fingerstyle banjo would play an essential role in ragtime's development as it entered bars and music halls across the U.S., spawning a new wave of popular dances.
By the 1910s the ballroom craze was in full swing, fuelled by the success of ragtime music, establishing classic dances such as the Tango and Foxtrot in 1910 and 1914 respectively. Professional banjo players seeking to stay relevant in this dance band era began to reevaluate the design of their five-string instruments. With a greater emphasis being placed on rhythm, and a need to produce a louder, punchier sound, the plectrum style of play started to gain traction. As vaudeville performers had done in the 1890s, dance band banjoists began to leave the fifth string off their instruments altogether. Manufacturers responded to these new trends with some of the first purpose-built, four string plectrum banjos.
Around the same time as some finger style banjoists were starting to transition towards these instruments, mandolin players also angling for work in popular dance bands began eyeing up the banjo as well. Their native instrument was too quiet to be of use in these louder ensembles. Hybrids that combined the mandolin's eight strings and scale length with the banjo's drum head had already been in production since the 1890s. Yet, the additional strings gave these mandolin-banjos too much sustain to be proficient at the staccato, percussive role required of them by dance bands.
Banjolins, which cut the string count back to four, were an improvement, but still not loud enough. By lowering the tuning and increasing the scale length from 14 to 17 inches, mandolin players overcame these issues, and in the process created what we now refer to as the tenor banjo. The first commercially produced tenor banjo appeared around 1908 courtesy of the Vega Company, although ‘homemade' versions of the instrument likely already existed prior to that date. Tenor banjos did not achieve widespread production until around 1915. These instruments were perfect for providing rhythmic accompaniment to the dance bands of the day, and only grew in popularity as musicians adopted them for similar roles in the jazz explosion of the 1920s.
Plectrum banjos, with their 22-inch scale lengths, were primarily of benefit to musicians coming straight from the tradition of five-string banjo. The shorter tenor banjo was tuned in fifths (CDGA) to make up-the-neck chord changes easier. It became the obvious choice for those approaching the instrument from other disciplines with the intention of playing dance music and jazz.
Strumming and Picking
In some ways, plectrum banjo may be considered the most intuitive style of banjo to begin to learn. If you've ever strummed a guitar or ukulele before then you'll already have a basic understanding of the right-hand technique used on plectrum banjos. This is in comparison to finger-picked roll patterns or the down-picking of Scruggs Style and Claw hammer respectively, which often require more thorough introduction for new players.
Having said that, basic strumming out of chord shapes isn't all there is to plectrum banjo. This rhythmic foundation can be built upon by picking out individual notes for melodic emphasis. While down-strumming is typically used to accentuate the strong beats of a song, all manner of licks and embellishments can be used to add depth to the spaces in between. It is in this style of play that the influence of earlier five-string banjo can still be keenly felt.
Advanced techniques include the tremolo, a method of rapidly picking either single or multiple strings up and down to produce a continuous, trembling effect. The level of natural sustain on banjos is quite low, meaning that the sound produced by strumming it will quickly fade to silence. A tremolo allows plectrum banjo players to produce constant sound which links one chord strum to the next.
When it comes to tuning your plectrum banjo there are a couple of options available which have established themselves as firm favorites over the years. Standard plectrum banjo tuning is in CGBD. This is the same as ‘Dropped C' tuning on five-string banjo, except with that shortened fifth string missing. Early plectrum banjo players brought this tuning with them when they made the transition from five-string instruments. It was the most widely used five-string tuning at the time and allowed them to tackle new styles of music without relearning the fretboard.
An alternative is the so called ‘Chicago Tuning' which matches the four strings on the plectrum banjo to the top four strings on a standard guitar: DGBE. For guitar players considering the jump to banjo, this tuning makes it easy to import all your existing scale and chord knowledge and start playing straight out of the box.
A Half-forgotten Art
In their heyday, plectrum and tenor banjos played a vital role in the composition of jazz and dance music. Throughout the 1920s they would feature prominently in clubs and dance halls across the United States. As the 1930s rolled around, guitar amplification became widespread, and these less expensive instruments won out over the banjo for their smoother, softer tone. America's musical tastes were evolving once again, and despite several revivals over the years, ragtime and traditional jazz would never fully regain the ubiquity they had once enjoyed.
As we now know, this did not spell out the end of the banjo altogether. Earl Scruggs went on to pioneer his 3-finger style during the 1940s and with it secured a renaissance period for the five-string banjo. Pete Seeger was also responsible for stretches of renewed interest, releasing his now famous How to Play Five-String Banjo in 1948. In the same year, the American Banjo Fraternity was founded, a still existing organization dedicated to the preservation of "classic", finger style banjo.
Four string instruments, however, were not so lucky, falling into relative obscurity over the proceeding decades. Although in many ways a quirk of American musical history, the plectrum banjo has survived (alongside the tenor) thanks to sporadic revivals in the 1960s and 70s, and a long line of dedicated enthusiasts.
To this day it remains a viable alternative to its five-string sibling. Especially for players seeking to emulate the early jazz sound, make the switch from other strummed instruments, or breathe new life into classic folk and five-string banjo tunes. Much of the banjo music published in the 1920s was done so in versions for both five-string and plectrum models, simplifying the process of converting these tunes from one instrument to the other. ……….. written by Lawrence Witt for Deering Banjos
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