Lehigh Valley Folk Music Society
Instruments
Bluegrass, Open-back and Tenor Banjos

The banjo is the "grandfather" of all early original American folk instruments. It was introduced into the United States from the west coast of Africa during the era of slave trade. For example, Thomas Jefferson mentions in his notes in 1782 that "the BANJAR" as being the chief instrument of the American negroes". In the early to mid-19th Century, the banjo became a staple of hundreds of thousands of American music performers and the instrument nearly dominated all of Southern mountain music. The first banjos consisted of three strings with maybe just a possum hide stretched across a gourd for the drum. Then in 1831, a Virginian named Joe Sweeney invented the five-string banjo and it was this version that became fantastically popular and was picked up by folk musicians all across America. It traveled West in the covered wagons and a 5-string banjo could be found hanging on any farmhouse wall or mining shack. With the advent of ragtime and jazz around the turn of the 20th century, the 5-string banjo was gradually abandoned in favor of the shorter neck 4-string tenor banjo which was tuned differently and used much heavier strings to compete with the louder brass instruments. For many years, the 5-string banjo was almost forgotten. But it continued to be played by back-country folk, especially in the South, to accompany ballads or play for square dances and emerged as one of the staples of modern bluegrass bands. There is no question that the 5-string banjo style is brilliant and an original contribution to all of American folk music. That is why you will hear the 5-string banjo played in many of the traditional folk tunes performed by the Society.

Return to LVFMS