Learning the banjo

I play bass in a band, and my bandmates thought it would be neat to incorporate a banjo into some songs, and lucky me, I got stuck with this task. We play just about every genre of music, trying to keep 50% originals and 50% cover songs. I've played bass for about 11 years, but have never messed with a banjo before. We do have a banjo, and I have been messing around with it for about a day now. I think it would be pretty cool to play in some blues songs.
Anyone have any suggestions to help me out? Maybe some song or band suggestions? I have this tuned to DBGDG right now, and it took damn near forever to get this thing tuned, due to the wooden bridge on top of the "drum head". SWMBO is already not enjoying the sound

Check out some flogging Molly or drop kick murpheys riffs that would be badass

My Brother has a banjo, I pick it up from time to time and annoy everyone around me.

It seems kind if obvious, but if you haven't already, then check out Mumford and Sons. I would also suggest listening to some Sufjan Stevens. And if you are into country music at all I would also suggest The Zac Brown Band. I like the Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys suggestions also. Any similar rock bands with Irish/Celtic vibes will give you plenty of ideas.

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys with 8-year-old Johnny Mizzone on banjo. From NJ.



-Joe

I would suggest reading a book on the subject, the same I would for someone learning to brew. I don't understand the problem you are having with tuning though. If the drum head is tight, the wooden bridge shouldn't be an issue with tuning.

nostalgia said:

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys with 8-year-old Johnny Mizzone on banjo. From NJ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3qbB4Kq3Y0

-Joe

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That was CRAZY!

I grew up hearing banjo. Pops was into BlueGrass.

DregAddict said:

It seems kind if obvious, but if you haven't already, then check out Mumford and Sons.

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I like that one song of mumford but I'm not sure why it would be obvious to check out a band from England that kinda uses a banjo. When I think of banjo I thing more Appalachia less England.

I would suggest bluegrass junction on xm/sirrus/satellite tv. They have a play along on sunday I believe.

Sleepy man was on Letterman a little while back. So was Steve Martin, who is hilarious and a great banjo player to boot.

-cheers

brewingmeister said:

I like that one song of mumford but I'm not sure why it would be obvious to check out a band from England that kinda uses a banjo. When I think of banjo I thing more Appalachia less England.

I would suggest bluegrass junction on xm/sirrus/satellite tv. They have a play along on sunday I believe.

Sleepy man was on Letterman a little while back. So was Steve Martin, who is hilarious and a great banjo player to boot.

-cheers

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Mumford and Sons is probably played on almost every Top 40 or alternative rock radio station in the country. The don't kinda use banjo, they use it in every one of their songs, and it is a defining part of their sound(which despite their origins in England is describe quite often as having roots in bluegrass).

The OP said his bandmates are looking to incorporate some banjo into some of their songs. He didn't say he was looking to start a bluegrass band. IMO a band that has been able to incorporate the banjo into their sound and get mainstream radio to play their music is good place to start.

I think your suggestions about bluegrass junction are really good as well, especially if they have a play along, as the OP doesn't have much experience with the instrument. I guess I just threw out Mumford and Sons because I figured they were a contemporary band that the OP had most likely heard of(which is also why I qualified my suggestion as possibly being a little obvious).

If you want the banjo sound but don't have the time to learn to play banjo, look into banjitar.

A lot of groups are using them these days to the Banjo sound. They're fun to plink on and you don't have to learn any new chord shapes or open tuned scales or anything like that.

That's cheating

DregAddict said:

Mumford and Sons is probably played on almost every Top 40 or alternative rock radio station in the country. The don't kinda use banjo, they use it in every one of their songs, and it is a defining part of their sound(which despite their origins in England is describe quite often as having roots in bluegrass).

The OP said his bandmates are looking to incorporate some banjo into some of their songs. He didn't say he was looking to start a bluegrass band. IMO a band that has been able to incorporate the banjo into their sound and get mainstream radio to play their music is good place to start.

I think your suggestions about bluegrass junction are really good as well, especially if they have a play along, as the OP doesn't have much experience with the instrument. I guess I just threw out Mumford and Sons because I figured they were a contemporary band that the OP had most likely heard of(which is also why I qualified my suggestion as possibly being a little obvious).

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OK, I agree anything that adds a banjo and gets air play is a great place to start, and kind of a rarity. Can't speak about actual air play, since moving across the country I am in a radio wasteland. As far as mumford goes I heard a couple of their songs, besides the one that gets play, and just thought meh. Maybe worth a revisit.

gallows pole by zepplin rocks a banjo. Oh and the banjo lesson on bluegrass junction is at 3 on sunday.

So beninan if you get nominated to play banjo, who's gonna be playing the bass?

-cheers

Thanks for all the replies. I like all the suggestions for the more-modern bands. I didn't realize that some of them used had a banjo.

As for the tuning issue, maybe the drum head isn't tight. Like I said, i know next to nothing about the banjo. The problem I had, was every time I would tighten or loosen one string, all the other strings would also come out of tune due to the difference in tension on the drum head. Maybe I'll have to do more research on setting up a banjo I guess.

The issue with the lack of a bassist, we have that covered. One of the guitarist was temporarily on bass until I joined the band, and he said he would play bass in the banjo songs.

Im on the Android app, and have not checked out that link with the 8 year old banjo-ist (banjo-er, banjo playing personel), so as soon as i get to a computer I'll have to check it out.

beninan said:

As for the tuning issue, maybe the drum head isn't tight. Like I said, i know next to nothing about the banjo. The problem I had, was every time I would tighten or loosen one string, all the other strings would also come out of tune due to the difference in tension on the drum head. Maybe I'll have to do more research on setting up a banjo I guess.

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Is this an old banjo? I would check the tightness of the tuning pegs. A lot of times a quick turn of a screw driver will help keep the whole thing in tune.

Good point. Those planetary tuners can get a little slippy once in a while.

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:rockin:

I'll have to take a look at the tuning keys, but I'm not sure if they are much of an issue. It doesn't come out of tune on it's own, just the tension of the strings causes the bridge to be pushed into the "drum head", causing the other strings to loosen in tension a bit. So all the stings have to be tightened little-by-little one at a time until they all reach the correct tuning, once it's there it's fine and it seems to stay there.

This banjo does not have the "standard" style of banjo tuning keys which use a planetary gear set. This one uses tuning keys that are similar to a guitar, where it has a worm gear acting upon another gear, which is connected to the string post. So unless there is something seriously messed up with the tuning keys, I don't think they are much of an issue.

I don't believe it's a high-quality banjo, and although it looks pretty old from not being used, I don't think it's that old. It's an Appalachian banjo, and has no other markings or serial numbers to determine the age. After looking online a bit, it seems this banjo is in the $200 range new. I don't really care too much about the quality of this thing at this time, because as of right now, I still don't even know how to play anything on this thing. It think it would be a pretty good instrument to get some practice on, and maybe if I figure it out and enjoy playing it, I'll get a higher quality one. Like I said earlier too, this isn't even my banjo, but the bandmate that owns it said if I let him stay the night to drink home brew until he passes out, then I could have it. So consider this banjo mine

Ohh ok, it does sound like the problem is in the drum head then. I have never tightened one and assume it should probably be done professionally.