First, you need to know about the five-string banjo.

Banjo strings are numbered like guitar strings...number one is the string that is physically on the bottom when you hold it in playing position. On the guitar, this would be the high sounding E string, string number one. So ebgdae would be 123456. On the banjo, in standard G tuning, you would have dbgdg 12345 one through four are set up normally like a guitar would be. String five, however, is attached to a tuner half way up the neck of the banjo so it can be tuned to a very high sounding note. 123 and 4 get progressively lower in tone, like a guitar, but 5 is a high tone, matching the fifth fret of the first string.

It was Joe Sweeney who stuck the fifth peg on the banjo well over a hundred years ago. The fifth string is rarely fretted, except by very accomplished banjoists. The fifth string is used as a "drone" note, similar to the drone pipes on a bagpipe or the drone strings on a sitar. Think of the sound of a banjo playing bluegrass, then think of the sound of bagpipes and you'll find a similarity.

If you're intersted in the banjo, I'd recommend listening to Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Keith, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (outrageous jazz), and, if you can find it, the album Evermore by Vince Farsetta.

For deadheads, Jerry Garcia was a fine banjo player, you can hear his banjo work on the album Old and In The Way.

All the Best,
Mike

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Mike Dunbar Music

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music