Help!!! - The Banjo Riddle ...

[Dave W]

Why would he? Sure, he had his own distinctive style, but he didn't write the music.

[patman]

Well...the actual "tune" is pretty simple...sort of a Yankee Doodle variation...

What is remembered is Don Reno's hard charging interpretation (at least to me)...

[Pilgrim]

He's going to need at least one pair of Bib'alls (overalls) to be authentic.  The last time I looked there was exactly one manufacturer of bib overalls in America - Round House: http://www.round-house.com/collections/round-house-made-in-usa-bib-overalls .  I love mine although the wife and daughter refuse to be seen in public with me when I wear them     I prefer the true style of the Hickory Stripe fabric myself 

Waaaal naow podner, if you wanna be hysterically akkurate, y'all needs Big Macs.  I like them stripes myownself.  They's right nice.

[Dave W]

Well...the actual "tune" is pretty simple...sort of a Yankee Doodle variation...

What is remembered is Don Reno's hard charging interpretation (at least to me)...

Regardless, he didn't write the song. Arthur Smith did. You don't get royalties for your interpretation of a song written by someone else.

[uwe]

He's going to need at least one pair of Bib'alls (overalls) to be authentic.  The last time I looked there was exactly one manufacturer of bib overalls in America - Round House: http://www.round-house.com/collections/round-house-made-in-usa-bib-overalls .  I love mine although the wife and daughter refuse to be seen in public with me when I wear them     I prefer the true style of the Hickory Stripe fabric myself 

He'll wear them too. With no top and nothing underneath of course. Working man's assless chaps.

[Pilgrim]

He'll wear them too. With no top and nothing underneath of course. Working man's assless chaps.

Just the way the hippies did it in the 60's.

[4stringer77]

No overalls here, but hippies exist past the 60's. How bout some Oteil on banjo bass?

[Rob]

https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/d45f811ddf3d

[mc2NY]

Ok, stop laughing, I bought a (Deering) banjo for my son's birthday whose descent into the netherworld of Americana seems to be unstoppable, and now my stupid question is: How do you tune the darn (and heavy!, I had no idea they weighed a ton) thing? I know the standard tuning of these things is G D G B D top-down, but what octaves are we talking about?

The upper string (G), which (unlike all other strings) only starts at the fifth fret, where would that be on a guitar? Empty G string of a guitar?

And the second string (D) is obviously lower than the G on top of it, but where would that D be on a guitar? The empty D string of a guitar?

The G string in the middle, is that the same octave as the upper G-string?

Likewise, the B string is that the same octave as on a guitar?

And finally the D string (same gauge as the upper G string, but with five frets of a lower extension), that would - if fretted in the fifth fret - then have the same note as the upper G string, i.e. an octave higher than the Banjo lower D string (= upper E string of a guitar tuned two half-steps down?)?

This is all very embarrassing to ask, be gentle with me. And I thought I knew a lot about stringed instruments ... 

Uwe

Jeeez.....It seems we could have won WWII By simply dropping planefulls of BANJOS on Germany?

Who would of thought?

....Just rent a copy of "Deliverance" if you need to figure out the banjo.

[uwe]

They are certainly heavy enough to have caused serious damage!

It took me a while to realize that the "lower" four strings of a banjo are nothing but the lower 4 strings of a guitar except that the high E is dropped a note to D. D-uh!

I miss it. Honestly. I really dug the way the drum skin vibrated against your palm when you played notes on it. That was a sensual experience.  My son now says that he finds the tension of guitar strings and the width of guitar necks distracting. 

[mc2NY]

I had a banjo years ago that I was getting OK on. In had bought it in my prog rock days when I played with an electric violin player...for use to try different things with on a side acoustic project.  Appropriately, I lost it in a house fire. Satan apparently wanted his invention back

But I can honestly say that I STILL sometimes use a banjo "claw" picking technique sometimes on certain bass lines that would be harder to play otherwise.

[Dave W]

I hear these guys may be looking for a second banjo player.

[Pilgrim]

Not surprising - they look a little long in the canines.