If the guitar has a first cousin, it’s the banjo. In standard tuning, 3/5ths of the 5-string banjo’s strings are tuned the same as the guitar. Way back in the dawn of history, I started out on guitar, and found that adding the banjo to my musical arsenal wasn’t all that difficult. Which is not to say that playing the banjo is a piece of cake, it isn’t. But certainly any guitar player (especially one who can play a little fingerstyle) will find a quick friend in the banjo.
While the guitar didn’t originate in Spain (there exist references to strummed stringed instruments in ancient Egypt), it was Spain nonetheless which embraced the instrument and claimed it as their own. In similar fashion, the banjo originated in Africa, but came into its own in America, evolving from a crude wooden drum with strings into a highly refined amalgam of bell-brass, fine hardwoods and exotic pearl and abalone inlay. Today’s banjo rivals any instrument in terms of the painstaking attention to detail in its construction, and when it comes to ornamentation, high-end banjos outpace virtually all other instruments in luxurious inlay, carving, engraving and ‘pimp-factor’, some models costing well in excess of $50,000.
Maybe it’s the lack of respect banjos have gotten over the years that makes players crave the (what some might call) ostentatious trimmings, or maybe it’s because banjos are the hot-rods of strings (unlike other stringed instruments, they can be reduced to a pile of parts and reassembled into a working instrument in a matter of hours). In any event, banjos, like Americans themselves, run the gamut from simple, utilitarian instruments to downright whores of opulence.
John Hartford was known to joke that he had spent the better part of his life “trying to learn to play two of the most despised instruments [banjo and fiddle] and one of the world’s most universally unpopular styles of music, polkas being the other”. An old boy stood up one night and said, “don’t forget about bagpipes”. Some would say the accordion should rank in there somewhere, but we won’t split that particular hair at the moment. I suppose it’s fair to say that banjos are an acquired taste. They don’t sensuously insinuate themselves into your ear the way a guitar does, they don’t sing with the gorgeous sustain and glissando of a violin, nor do they possess the stylistic versatility of many other instruments (though in the hands of Béla Fleck, one could certainly argue the last point). But they do make a joyous sound. I personally find it next to impossible to play a song on the ‘jo that doesn’t sound ‘happy’, never mind the subject matter.
One thing is certain: every nation should have a national instrument, should lay claim to a means of making music that is distinctly their own. As a relatively young nation still, America has been preceded by most of the instruments of the world… they existed long before we invaded this land. But if we look to our brief, tumultuous history in search of an instrument deeply interwoven with the American story, an instrument that intimately connects the primary continents from which this nation was borne, one instrument quickly rises to the surface… an instrument as staccato as the abrasive American temperament itself; an instrument round as the map of routes folks the world over have taken to reach our shores; an instrument brought to us by the poorest of the poor that today can cost the price of a small home; an instrument that bombards the ear with a flurry of notes rolling along as quickly, intricately and powerfully as the great river flowing through the core of our country. Without question or possible debate, I should think, America’s instrument is indeed the banjo.
So as a long-time American ‘banjer picker’ and lover of the instrument, I look forward with considerable anticipation to a new documentary slated for release later this year.
The Banjo Project
The Banjo Project: The Story of America’s Instrument is a trans-media cultural odyssey: a major television documentary (now in production), a comprehensive DVD package with 5+ hours of programming, a live stage/multi-media performance and a resource website that will chronicle the journey of America’s quintessential instrument—the banjo—from its African roots to the 21st century.
Narrated by Steve Martin, The Banjo Project television documentary brings together contemporary players in all styles—Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, Ralph Stanley, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Mike Seeger, Buddy Wachter, Don Vappie and Cynthia Sayer, among many others—with folklorists, historians, instrument makers and passionate amateurs to tell the story of America’s instrument in all its richness and diversity.
An excellent choice tapping Steve Martin to narrate this documentary. Besides being a world-class comic and movie star, Martin has been picking the ‘jo for decades, and is well-respected by other top pickers for his skill on (and devotion to) the banjo.
But enough of my palaver. Let’s watch the trailer, shall we?
