The five-string banjo

Picture from Music123

Data:
• Body shape: Round
• Top: Skin
• Back: Open or resonator
• Bridge: Floating
• Frets: Fixed
• Strings: 5 (5th string a short "thumb string")
• Courses: 5 ( 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1)
• Scale: 650 - 680 mm

1. The five-string banjo is the banjo for Irish music.
2. The five-string banjo can't be used for Irish music at all

The five-stringer is especially suitable as a rhythm instrument. The tuning allows for tighter chord voicings than on a tenor, and with all its d and g strings (or d and a strings if you use D tuning) it's perfect for those rhtyhmical drone accompaniments that suit some British traditional tunes (especially the bagpipe oriented ones) so well.

It's far less suited as a solo instrument though. It simply hasn't got the tonal range of the tenor, and the longer neck can cause some really awkward stretches. But for those tunes that do fit the five-stringer, it'll do just as well as the tenor.

Actually, the main problem with using the five-string banjo for Irish traditional music isn't the instrument, but the player.
  Most five-string banjo players have a style firmly rooted in bluegrass or other American styles and they tend to take their basic techniques with them even when they try to play other kinds of music. Frailing or clawhammering an Irish dance tune might sound great, but it doesn't sound the least Irish!

So: if you want to play Irish on a five-string banjo, go on but remember: Play either the tune pure and clean or just the chords. Nothing else will do.

Content

• Five-string banjo tunings
• Five-string banjo technique and style
• The electric banjo
• The cello banjo
• The pony banjo
• The piccolo banjo
• The A-scale banjo
• The banjeaurine
• The long-scale banjo

	Web www.irish-banjo.com