Anyone out there play the banjo?

Question

I've been considering picking up the banjo lately, and I currently play guitar. The first music that I listened to with a lot of banjo was Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise, but there's a lot out there that's folk-y and I'd be pretty excited to play it.

Does anyone play the banjo now, and what do you think? Would it be easy to switch between instruments?

Answer 1

You can start out by tuning the banjo to High G / D / G/ B/ E The high G is the drone and the other strings are the same four strings as the top strings on the guitar. Later on you will want to experiment with the modal tunings that banjo players favor, but there is no one way to tune a banjo. Most players go through at least three tunings every time they play. The most popular on is High G / D/ G/ B/ D which is just an open G chord. There is an online book that will help you get started and a beginners banjo community right here on Yahoo that you can join if you would like to. They have lots of support documents and seem like a pretty friendly bunch. I just joined as a result of looking for online material for another person on this site.

Answer 2

Besides the normal 5 string, you might want to consider a 6 string - it's really a guitar with a banjo head so there's no learning curve. There are also 2 types of 4 strings- one tuned like a uke and the other (sometimes called an Irish Tenor) is tuned like a mandolin.
The chords are easy to pick up - it's the picking on a 5-string that's tough.

Answer 3

Going from guitar to banjo is an easy transition since your calluses are thick and you are accustomed to forming chords.

The chords for a banjo are different, but similar to guitar chords. Learning them is easy in my opinion. I had been playing guitar for about six years before I bought my first banjo--an electric five-string. Having never played one, it took very little time to memorize the chords and begin pickin' n' grinnin'. In fact, I was playing the darned thing before I left the music store--that's how quick it can be.

I'd recommend the five-string banjo for many reasons. That fifth string always adds color and vibrancy to otherwise routine chording.

Answer 4

Mandolin and banjo aren't tuned the same but I'm a mando/guitar player. I didn't have a very hard time picking up the second instrument.

The thing about the banjo is that you pick it fingerstyle - if you don't have fingerstyle guitar experience get some.

FP

Answer 5

if your interested in rock banjo's bands like modest mouse and guster have incorporated it into lots of song.

i find it pretty easy to go from guitar to banjo myself...a little awkward sometimes because the highest string is at the top..it then goes to the lowest string and decends from there sorta like the guitar does...figuring out the chords is awkward because you wanna keep making the guitar shapes with your fingures...but it really is fun to experiment with other stringed instrument ie: mandolin scitar lapsteel dulcimer...it goes on and on.

Answer 6

Do you know the difference between an onion and a banjo?
Nobody cries when you chop up a banjo!

Answer 7

Personally im not much of a bonjo fan. But I have been trying to play it for 2 years. i'm an expert guitarist and play the drums. For me its pretty easy to switch between the 2.