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The Tenor Banjo Group

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Dedicated to the the tenor banjo and the great people who play them.

114 Members, Created 4/9/2011 -

Administrators: beetlegeist (owner) , raharris

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From Joe Phillips on 6/3/2025 9:01:08 PM

Hi All,

I joined the site about a year ago, and just stumbled into the Groups. I was looking for a way to be notified if anything was posted,at the four-string trad jazz forum, and didn't find anything. The I remembered that there were these groups, after falling into the long neck banjo group by chance, so I searched for a tenor group, and here I am. I'm teaching myself tenor, about a year in, after 60 years in the jazz guitar swamp. I have a Deering Goodtime Two 19-fret tenor , and I'm having great fun with it. I played through the Mel Bay Tenor banjo Method, and the Mel Bay Melody Chord System books to find the notes and chords and get tips on arranging chord melodies on the tenor. I've also sponged up as much as I could from online players, and have bought some arrangements from a couple of gifted online performers/teachers. My interests are trad jazz and blues, virtually all from the 20s and 30s. I'm studying single note melodies, chord melodies, and straight jazz band comping. i'm glad to find this group and I look forward to chatting with you and I hope, learning from you.

Best,

Joe Phillips

7 Comments
	martin francis says: 7/8/2025 11:41:59 AM A more advanced instructional is the McNeil Tenor Banjo method. It's out of copyright protection. You can find it and download it online--and of course then print it. file:///C:/Users/dein_/Downloads/39087034901845score-1.pdf
Joe Phillips says: 8/24/2025 2:57:07 PM Hi Martin, I downloaded the McNeill book and found it very helpful in understanding chord families and voicings. The controversy regarding transposing or not was apparent even 100 years ago. I encountered it in reading early issues of B.M.G. magazine. It seemed at the time to be a Britain vs U.S. thing. Thanks for recommending the McNeill book. It works. I recommend it to others interested in how players/teacher analyzed and presented chord systems on the tenor banjo back in the day. Joe
Joe Phillips says: 9/8/2025 6:50:23 PM Hi Martin, I downloaded the McNeill book and found it very helpful in understanding chord families and voicings. The controversy regarding transposing or not was apparent even 100 years ago. I encountered it in reading early issues of B.M.G. magazine. It seemed at the time to be a Britain vs U.S. thing. Thanks for recommending the McNeill book. It works. I recommend it to others interested in how players/teacher analyzed and presented chord systems on the tenor banjo back in the day. Joe
Joe Phillips says: 1/10/2026 5:58:55 PM Hi Martin, I downloaded the McNeill book and found it very helpful in understanding chord families and voicings. The controversy regarding transposing or not was apparent even 100 years ago. I encountered it in reading early issues of B.M.G. magazine. It seemed at the time to be a Britain vs U.S. thing. Thanks for recommending the McNeill book. It works. I recommend it to others interested in how players/teacher analyzed and presented chord systems on the tenor banjo back in the day. Joe
Joe Phillips says: 1/17/2026 8:08:54 PM Hi Martin, I downloaded the McNeill book and found it very helpful in understanding chord families and voicings. The controversy regarding transposing or not was apparent even 100 years ago. I encountered it in reading early issues of B.M.G. magazine. It seemed at the time to be a Britain vs U.S. thing. Thanks for recommending the McNeill book. It works. I recommend it to others interested in how players/teacher analyzed and presented chord systems on the tenor banjo back in the day. Joe
Joe Phillips says: 2/19/2026 9:38:39 PM Hi Martin, I downloaded the McNeill book and found it very helpful in understanding chord families and voicings. The controversy regarding transposing or not was apparent even 100 years ago. I encountered it in reading early issues of B.M.G. magazine. It seemed at the time to be a Britain vs U.S. thing. Thanks for recommending the McNeill book. It works. I recommend it to others interested in how players/teacher analyzed and presented chord systems on the tenor banjo back in the day. Joe
Joe Phillips says: 4/29/2026 7:53:17 PM Hi Martin, I downloaded the McNeill book and found it very helpful in understanding chord families and voicings. The controversy regarding transposing or not was apparent even 100 years ago. I encountered it in reading early issues of B.M.G. magazine. It seemed at the time to be a Britain vs U.S. thing. Thanks for recommending the McNeill book. It works. I recommend it to others interested in how players/teacher analyzed and presented chord systems on the tenor banjo back in the day. Joe
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