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This particular page was created 30/11/2003 and last updated 17/05/2005
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| | Barney McKenna plays the mandolin. Gerry O'Connor plays the fiddle. Seamus Egan is a master of the Irish flute (and apparently any other instrument he lays his hands on)... It seems almost all the great Irish solo banjoists double on some other instrument. There are some very good reasons for this. They're all great musicians eager to experiment with new sounds for a start. And one of the nice things about the tenor banjo is that it's easy to transfer the technique to a lot of other instruments. But perhaps most important: nobody but nobody wants to listen to a full night of solo banjo. Great as the instrument is, there simply are things you can't do on it, and tunes you'd want to play where it just doesn't work.
You can do the doubling game too if you like. If you play another instrument, bring it along on your gigs, sessions and rehearsals! I'm sure you'll find some uses for it. If you don't - here are a few ideas:
The octave mandolaThe octave mandola is by far the most obvious secondary instrument for an Irish tenor banjo player. It's a big mandolin tuned and played exactly like the Irish tenor banjo. Well, actually you'll probably end up adjusting your playing technique slightly according to the instrument, but you don't have to, and the differences are very minor in any case.
The difference in sound is huge though. Double strings and a mandolin type body gives the octave mandola a much smoother and softer sound than the tenor banjo. As a secondary instrument for the aspiring tenor banjoist it's perfect - lots of result with very little extra effort. |
The mandolaIf you play a standard tuned tenor banjo, the mandola is tuned and played exactly the same way. There are two different breeds of mandolas, the traditional short scaled version is only slightly bigger than a mandolin, so you may have problems adjusting to a different scale. The modern long-scale mandola on the other hand, much closer to a tenor banjo in size. |
The tenor guitarThe tenor guitar and the tenor banjo grew up together. To be honest I'm not sure which of them came first, but the two are specially designed to be as similar to each other as possible and still produce very different sounds.The tenor guitar isn't used much in Irish music though. By the time Irish musicians began seriously experimenting with large solo stringed instruments, it had been out of fashion for long and finding a tenor guitar to play was almost impossible. (This is even more the case today. Apparently nobody builds tenor guitars anymore, except for a few high quality luthiers who's instruments are a bit beyond the reach of ordinary poor musicians.)
According to those who play or have heard somebody play Irish music on the tenor guitar, it sounds really great - somewhat like an octave mandolin but even lighter and gentler. |
The mandolinThe mandolin is probably the stringed instrument most commonly used for Irish solo playing today. If you play an Irish tuned tenor, you can pick up a mandolin and play the same tunes the same way. You'll have to adjust to the much shorter scale though, and chromatic fingering doesn't work too well on it. |
The mandolin-banjoMaybe the the mandolin-banjo shouldn't be on a list of alternatives. After all it is a banjo. But it is a very interesting and usually forgotten secondary instrument Irish tenor banjoists (and madolin players too). You play it like a mandolin (that is almost like an Irish tenor banjo), but the sound is rather unique. |
The guitarNo matter what you do, you definitely should learn some basic rhythm guitar playing too. If you've gone through the accompaniment banjo section here you already know how to play the rhythm. All that's left is to learn a few simple chords and off you go.
Mastering the Irish/Celtic guitar is a completely different matter of course, but that's not what we're talking about here.If you need to buy a guitar, I'd recommend the Washburn D10S. There's a reason why it's the world's most sold guitar.
If you need a guitar with a built-in transducer (microphone), you should have a look at the Wechter Pathfinder. |
The tin whistleThe tin whistle is cheap, it's fun to play, it definitely belong to the Irish music tradition and it's easy to learn a simple tune or two on it. The only possible reason you wouldn't want to pick it up and use it for a tune or two is if your band already have a tin whistle player. |
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