About to get my first Irish Tenor banjo!

Trad Strings
1

I have been playing the 5-string banjo (bluegrass) for a number of years now. But have recently become very entranced with the Irish/Celtic music scene after starting to learn and play the Great Highland Bagpipes. So much so that have been taking penny whistle lessons and just purchased my first Rudall style flute from the Windward Flute Co. That is another story, but let me just say that you can’t go wrong with Forbes and Yola Christie’s fine instruments. My new African Olivewood D flute is spectacular and so is my instructor’s new Mopane Windward D flute.

Anyway, I was curious if there was a dedicated forum to the Irish Tenor Banjo, as I have not been able to find one, as such. I recently bought Enda Scahill’s books on the Irish tenor and missed his retreat last weekend in Dallas. I also was curious if there were any Irish tenor banjo teachers in the Houston area as well?

Thanks for taking the time to read my thread and any comments you might have. The incredible luthier, Ronnie Bales, of east Tennessee, i.e., Bales Banjos, has converted my mahogany Bales 5-string banjo into a 4 string, 23" scale, 19 fret tenor and it sounds AWESOME! :thumbsup: I’ll go into that more in another thread.

Regards,

Harold Bissonnet :confused:

2

There is a forum on banjohangout.org for
playing 4-string banjos. It’s not strictly
Irish (or even strictly Tenor), but many
Irish players post there, including Enda
himself.

http://www.banjohangout.org/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=29

3

I’m not sure how far Lubbock is from Dallas, but Dr. Chris Smith, Associate Professor and Chair of Musicology/Ethnomusicology and director of the Vernacular Music Center at the Texas Tech University, would be an awesome person to have a few lessons with. http://www.depts.ttu.edu/music/SOM/ChristopherSmith.asp


-Brett

4

Hi Harold,
If you are still there, you might be pleased to learn that there is now!

[u]The Irish Tenor Banjo[/u]

It’s only been up for One Week but already it has over 100 Members, around 100 Videos plus loads of Photos to drool over, MP3s & a whole bunch of interesting Tenor Banjo discussions going on.

Worth a look, at least. :wink:

Cheers
Dick