Differences between banjo playing and guitar playing?

[bluetele54]

Originally Posted by Tele295

+1

and the number of people waiting to inflict bodily harm on you (although that could arise from certain guitar players, too)

...where's St "Have a Good Journey" CA???...

[barkley]

Originally Posted by The Teleist
Hi all, I was thinking- are there many differences between geetar playing and banjo playing?

About 50 IQ points!



Sorry, couldnt resist!
;)

[keithcc]

Originally Posted by ironweed

On the other hand, if you can locate a 6-string banjo (ie, a guitar neck on a banjo body) you can play Stairway to Heaven with the best of 'em. I shudder to think what might sound like. Gibson did make some of these in the 30's and 40's for jazz musicians -- I've seen several in small combos in New Orleans.

None of the old Gibson GBs exist anymore, most have been renecked as five strings as have most of the old tenors and plectrums. If the original neck was simply set aside, well and fine, except for the insane price. However, like the d****ebags that strip goldtop LPs to make ersatz Bursts and retop archtop Martins to flattops, the other necks were frequently butcherized to transform them into five string necks.

Studio guitarists can benefit from a GB in standard guitar tuning, because the super talented can emulate both 5 string and tenor Dixieland styles on it and double (the union scale makes this really attractive.) Everyone else will be better to tune them to some open tuning, because rolls in standard tuning tend to be very awkward. My favorite thing to do is to tune to open G and replace the lowest string with a unison for the highest, two octaves up. If you put a spike capo on the fifth fret that gives you your standard G tag string, incidentally.

[Warren Pederson]

Originally Posted by The Teleist

Hi all,
I read someon'es thread yesterday about a chap at a bus stop who hit another chap with his banjo. Many banjo jokes insued. But i was thinking- are there many differences between geetar playing and panjo playing, besides a banjo being much smaller? Could I just as easily pick up the banjo in my local music store and play Stairway To Heaven?

If you chaps could let me know the differences, if any of you play 'em (I know Brokenjoe plays one) and so on...

Cheers,
The Teleist

SURE you can. If I was you, I'd just go ahead and order one online so you get a real good deal. By nightfall you'll be rippin'.

[T Prior]

you can walk into any music store in the world and buy a Guitar tuner ..

try buying a Banjo tuner ....

[Ignatius]

I've only held a banjo in my hands once, but I think that still qualifies me to make this statement. It's much harder to "fake" banjo playing, and you've gotta understand the instrument to make it sound like anything. Conversely, there are a million guitar players who learn one pentatonic scale and a nervous little vibrato and call themselves "a guitar player", and people believe them.

[cyclopean]

i play a couple instruments - mostly guitar and mandolin, and i've been playing a lot of old time and other traditional music in the past couple of years.

almost every instrument i play is like thinking in a straight line.

playing 5 string banjo is like thinking in circles, and it's really demanding, but good mental exercise. and learning other string instruments is good for your guitar playing. i've been playing guitar for half my life and i'm only just now starting to feel like i'm a musician and not just a guitar player.

4 string banjo is a lot like mandolin.