Interesting discussion, I am always concerned about being able to hear every member of the group/jam and if I can't hear them, I back off until I can. It's just courteous.
Just an FYI:
My banjo when playing at a SOLID volume registers at well over 90+ db, similar to a motorcycle or subway train. So remember most of the sound is directed away from your ears.
Learn the importance of balance;instrumentally and vocally.
This probably doesn’t apply to your situation, but sometimes when a picker asks another picker to play quieter, it is their (mostly) polite way of saying play quieter because I don’t like what you’re playing regardless of the volume.
And there really are some people who simply don’t like the sound of a banjo whether it’s great playing or not or whether it’s loud or quiet.
Which leads me to wonder if anybody ever told Earl Scruggs to play quieter.
Even though I play old time banjo and just guitar in Bluegrass. I consider Earl scruggs a model in music, I have been listening to Earl Scruggs on recordings and media since around 1964 and two different times got to listen to him with just my own ears through the air. I spend a good amount of time listening to him and watching him in the many videos on YouTube, and some DVDs I bought of his Martha White Show I bought when they were on sale
In band situations of all kinds, I cannot think of one moment, no matter what combination he was playing in that anyone could say he was playing too loud. He seems to play with a control and delicacy, and touch that only a master who has been working on his banjo hard since he was 6 or 8 years old can have. He is a model for all musicians no matter what instrument they play.,
That does not mean another musician who wants to play loud should not as her or his own style.
However, this dialog really is about playing in jams of the kind that make up too much of the experience of many banjoists who are not members of bands. My local bluegrass jam I once attended here in West Palm Beach was divided between a core of seniors who had been in local bands in Florida for decades playing together, leavened by the occasional snow bird retire down for the winter with similar experience and even some in both groups with recording credits. On the other side there were people who had just learned the banjo in retirement and never ever played in a band, or a smaller group gathered to play bluegrass.
It did work out that whoever called a tune would indicate who they wanted to take solos, not just on banjo. For some of the newer people, it took getting used to this. Since Covid ended they have had a new influx including a lot more folks new to bluegrass or playing, and they have split up between a jam in the evening at the library for newer people learning, and streamlined the regular jam which meets at lunch time week-days (many retirees so this is convenient) at a restaurant.
To me both old time and bluegrass need to encourage more situations closer to how one plays in a band of 4 or 5 or 6 people, rather than forcing people coming to the music learning what to do in a group of `10 to 20 people, learn what you do when you are the banjoist in a group, not in a mob.
Famous guitarist Dan Crary once said "It is possible to enjoy more banjo than you can stand."
Banjos are very directional. My wife has told me in no uncertain terms to "Aim thing thing some place else."
When we play we are on the wrong side of the banjo to enjoy all of its twangy, bangy, goodness. Those facing the business end of a banjo may not enjoy it as much as you do.
Remember, no one loves your banjo as much as you do.
Hard to believe, huh?
It is not hard to believe. The natural playing situation of a banjo is one instrument in a band playing a very particular role in the rhythmic and tonal mix of the band, with solo that are designated for it by arrangement. and thoughtful arrangement of when it comes in and goes out and how it backs up. Jams as they are normally constituted, except a few I have seen where most are either professional or very experience musicians, tend to impell a new banjoist or one without much experience not to get this.
You have a jam which I have seen have as many as 20 musicians in them, and 4 banjoists, especially if a number of the musicians are new to bluegrass, and people do not know how to fit in.
From what I know banjo lessons for bluegrass banjo are similar to banjo lessons for old time,where a teacher teaches the learner to play a solo by great player or melody lead version of a tune, rather than the rhythm or vocal support function of the instrument in a band situation. People who have never done otherwise show up at a jam and do the thing they were taught. They do not get taught how to back up a vocalist, how to back up a fiddler, how to work with the bassist and guitar to provide rhythm and how to keep the banjo out of the way when a mandolin or guitar is taking a solo.
Again I would advise anyone who plays any instrument, bluegrass or not to go onto YouTube and look at the about 10 videos of the Martha White TV show Lester and Earl had, and watch what Earl Scruggs does, not just when he is doing a solo or special, but what he does when singers are singing or other musicians are taking solos.
Any instrument can be guilty of playing too loudly or of over-shadowing someone else's turn.
This can happen in conversations,too.
An interesting little factoid for those of you not familiar with pipes. In addition to open back, I play various kinds of bagpipes, both mouth-blown and bellows-blown. Stated simply, with pipes there is simply no way of controlling dynamics. You can use a few little tricks to give the illusion of volume control, but it's just an illusion. If it's too loud for the setting, you just don't play. Period.
quote:
Originally posted by chuckv97the highly energetic Little Roy picking loud & hard….
share.icloud.com/photos/0b6_Qd...IlIpChy_A
I never understood why Little Roy beats his banjo half to death. He must be somewhat hard of hearing because he talks loudly as well. He is a great banjo player, nonetheless. I wore out his Gospel Banjo album from the 1970s, but even then, I noticed he was excessively heavy on the right hand.
e:Thanks paul. That was the kind of post here I copy down and in a folder on my computer labeled learn folks who know!
That hearing loss issue is a real one. Myself, about 7 years ago was playing guitar in our local Bluegrass jam and was sitting next to one of the better professional level players, a master of guitar and mandolin who also crafts nice guitars now. Sitting next to me he started telling me I was not hearing the high notes of the fiddle and mando players. This led me to getting my hearing checked, and finding I had hearing loss.
My own experience is that someone can have hearing loss and not really realize it. If I wear my hearing aid, I can realize a lot more that I am playing too loud on the banjo especially, and not get down on another player for not playing loud enough. I have already been through that both ways.
I am not the lone ranger, especially here in the Palm Beach area where many other retirement aged people are and many jams or music get togethers are scheduled during week days during the day because we oldsters come out. At one point at our old time jam, I included remember to bring your hearing aid in the announcement.
Curious if anyone takes an openback to jams to help with volume (and leaves the tone ring / resonator banjo at home)?
Edited by - dtgolder on 04/26/2025 07:09:08
I occasionally take my open back to jams. All of my banjos have wood tone rings and two of them have tone hoops. I usually take one of those to jams and they are quite mellow and not loud. My Fender Artist still has its original brass (or whatever it is) tone ring but I rarely take it to a jam.
are you talking about an old time or bluegrass jam. When I did attend the bluegrass jam in Palm Beach, I took my Tubaphone to show other banjoists who were interested, and played a few old time tunes by request a couple times. I do think depending on setup several of my open backs are loud enough to play in a bluegrass jam.
Neither. The jams I attend are not music genre specific. They are open to just about any acoustic music types; though the songs played are usually folk and/or country, some old and some modern (even an occasional rock tune comes up). Rarely are there any clawhammer banjo players, though the occasional old time song is played.
before covid we used to have a nice little jam like that at the local library in the small village of Palm Springs collecting both folk players, old time players,and even a fellow who in his teenage years who had played on the same bill on the Louisiana Hayride as Elvis and Hank. It was kind of nice, but covid and the deahs of the some of the main figures in it killed it off.
