For me it's the way Irish tunes are picked and also, the intonation(?) of the tunes. If you listen to various types of tunes, you'll begin to hear the differences in picking styles across the strings as well as where the emphasis lands. so after a while it does become somewhat a second nature but i takes a lot of exposure.
I'm learning through IrishBanjoLessons.com

There’s a rhythm to Irish music that is hard to define. As in, it’s hard to firmly outline it in any strict sense. Often why classically trained players find it difficult to swing. It can’t really be written.
It varies from place to place, instrument to instrument. Some folks call it “nyah”, bounce, swing or the new word is “chunk”!
There’s a rhythmic pull and push that happens inside the bars.
Banjo picking action makes this more difficult as the motion can easily become metronomic. It sometimes has to be a conscious decision to bounce more or think in phrases rather than notes

Interesting point about making a conscious decision to bounce more. I don't think I've been doing that! Not consciously at least. Tenor banjo was my first instrument, having never played any other instruments or styles growing up. So in a way there was nothing for me to unlearn. I got a tenor banjo in my 30's with the intention of playing "music" on it, not knowing what that music would be. Shortly thereafter I learned about Irish session culture and started attending the sessions near me with the simple goal of learning the the tunes played there so that I could participate in the craic (any maybe subtly trying to NOT be the stereotypical banjo player). And it's kind of been that way for the last 20 years or so! Since pretty much the entirety of my musical creativity is filtered through what's considered to be within this repertoire, I try to wring as much rhythmic or melodic variety out of it as possible, injecting slides, polkas, mazurkas, barndances, slip-jigs, and marches amongst the jigs, reels, and hornpipes. Maybe it's time to embrace the nuances I've been skipping over along the way.

I think conscious listening is very important and being discerning with what we listen to also.
If you want develop swing then you need to listen to albums that swing. Once a month or so I will play along with the entire album Omos do Joe Cooley by Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock. A masterclass in bounce.
But if all you listen to are new high tempo band albums then it’s very difficult to embed swing in your playing.

There is merit to listening to the old masters in all musical traditions

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

I think conscious listening is very important and being discerning with what we listen to also.
If you want develop swing then you need to listen to albums that swing. Once a month or so I will play along with the entire album Omos do Joe Cooley by Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock. A masterclass in bounce.
But if all you listen to are new high tempo band albums then it’s very difficult to embed swing in your playing.

There is merit to listening to the old masters in all musical traditions

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what this guy says.

Thanks. I definitely don't listen to high tempo band albums, except maybe for The Ceili Bandits Hangin' at the Crossroads CD featuring Kevin Griffin on banjo, which was one of the first Irish trad albums I ever got. More recently I really like the two CDs released by Patrick "Paahto" Cummins and Midleton Rare featuring Daithí Kearney. The Kieran Hanrahan CD from the mid-90's is an eternal favorite. Admittedly I don't listen to the old recordings very much unless it happens to have a tune on it that I am working on. I listen more a la carte, tune by tune or set by set. The sessions(s) I attend have at least 150 to 200 tunes in regular rotation, so I try to find various versions of those tunes specifically and eventually with enough exposure I will hopefully end up playing them in whatever "regional style" happens to be the Pacific Northwest style, which I think still feels the influence of Kevin Burke and to some degree Martin Hayes, John Whelan, Hanneke Cassel and Randal Bays. If Dulahan Ireland has posted a YouTube version of a tune we play at our session, I'll usually use that as the source since I feel like it's a fairly trustworthy version. I also can't help but like contra dance tunes that aren't necessarily Irish, so that's probably having an effect.

quote:

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

If you want develop swing then you need to listen to albums that swing. Once a month or so I will play along with the entire album Omos do Joe Cooley by Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock. A masterclass in bounce.
 

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Amen to that! A great performance form start to finish.

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Originally posted by Dan Gellert

quote:

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

I think conscious listening is very important and being discerning with what we listen to also.
If you want develop swing then you need to listen to albums that swing. Once a month or so I will play along with the entire album Omos do Joe Cooley by Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock. A masterclass in bounce.
But if all you listen to are new high tempo band albums then it’s very difficult to embed swing in your playing.

There is merit to listening to the old masters in all musical traditions

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what this guy says.

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Dan Gellert! Believe it or not you're kind of my impetus for playing banjo! Albeit tenor banjo. Being a non-musician but avid traditional music listener, twenty years ago this month I was buying your CD Waitin' on the Break of Day and the sales clerk said "do you play" and I said "no". She said "it's fun you should". She either meant banjo or old-time, but I took it to mean banjo and immediately researched "what type of banjo to get". I subsequently learned about tenor banjo with help from people like Mike Keyes on this very hangout, and within 24 hours of buying your CD I had ordered a 1920's Bacon and Day tenor banjo. I'm left-handed and a contrarian, so I went on a hunch that the symmetrical nature of the tenor banjo would be good for a lefty. It's also why all of my subsequent banjos have been custom orders of tenors made by old-time banjo luthiers, because being from Virginia I like to honor that thumpy openback old-time sound even though I'm playing with a pick and not clawhammer.

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Originally posted by sixwatergrog

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Originally posted by Dan Gellert

quote:

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

I think conscious listening is very important and being discerning with what we listen to also.
If you want develop swing then you need to listen to albums that swing. Once a month or so I will play along with the entire album Omos do Joe Cooley by Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock. A masterclass in bounce.
But if all you listen to are new high tempo band albums then it’s very difficult to embed swing in your playing.

There is merit to listening to the old masters in all musical traditions

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what this guy says.

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Dan Gellert! Believe it or not you're kind of my impetus for playing banjo! Albeit tenor banjo. Being a non-musician but avid traditional music listener, twenty years ago this month I was buying your CD Waitin' on the Break of Day and the sales clerk said "do you play" and I said "no". She said "it's fun you should". She either meant banjo or old-time, but I took it to mean banjo and immediately researched "what type of banjo to get". I subsequently learned about tenor banjo with help from people like Mike Keyes on this very hangout, and within 24 hours of buying your CD I had ordered a 1920's Bacon and Day tenor banjo. I'm left-handed and a contrarian, so I went on a hunch that the symmetrical nature of the tenor banjo would be good for a lefty. It's also why all of my subsequent banjos have been custom orders of tenors made by old-time banjo luthiers, because being from Virginia I like to honor that thumpy openback old-time sound even though I'm playing with a pick and not clawhammer.

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Ain't this Banjo Hangout something?   What fun!

I used to hang out with some real serious Irish musicians in South Bend and Chicago, when I lived up in N. Indiana 20+ years ago.  Fooled around with Irish banjo a bit, but never got to where those pick triplets didn't put either a stumble in my rhythm or a cramp in my hand.  

To change the subject a bit more...  Re. old-time thump in a tenor banjo, have you ever played a Yosco Colossus?  Look it up! The one time I did, I thought it was the fattest tone I'd ever heard from a GDAE-tuned tenor.