I play mandolin (and bouzouki, and a little whistle) at Irish sessions, and I’m looking for advice on trying tenor banjo. Feel free to point me to a FAQ if there is an appropriate one…
For me, mandolin isn’t quite satisfactory for ITM. Partly because it isn’t all that loud. Also, my hand cramps a lot when playing ITM on mando.
So, I wonder if tenor banjo might suit me better. It’s probably louder than my mando. Also, having single strings might reduce the workload on my fretting hand, which might reduce my hand cramps.
Now, I have a typical 5-string Gibson banjo, which is just gathering dust, now that I’m not playing bluegrass any more. Could I restring that with a 4-string set of tenor banjo strings? Would that work? or is it the wrong scale for TB?
Can anyone advise me on what type of strings to get to try playing TB on my Gibson? Is there a standard set of, say, D’Addario TB strings I could use on a standard-issue Gibson Mastertone 5-string?
And if so, then would that be appropriate for GDAE tuning, or CGDA tuning or what? I guess I’m hoping I can tune the banjo like I tune the mando now, GDAE, just to minimize the learning curve.
I’ve tried to learn to play the mandolin for a year
but it was terrible, I’ve realized that I can’t do that with my sausage fingers, scale is to short. but when I grabed the banjo for a first time it was amazing.
if you play mandolin you shouldn’t have problem with the banjo. for ITM common tuning is GDAE.
and the banjo will be a lot louder then mandolin.
5 stringer have longer scale than tenor banjos
22 frets - it’s like a plectrum banjo
and even though my teacher plays one like that
I wouldn’t recomended. it will be difficult for you to play the melody.
if you don’t play the gibson sale it
and get your self one of the nice old banjos
I personaly really like all those made by Wm. Lange - all of those Orpheums(17 frets), and Paramounts and such. lately I’ve found really nice B&D Silver Bell - sort of a clasic here for ITM.
there are few nice Vega’s on the ebay at the moment. good banjos.
there are D’Addario sets for tenor banjo
but be careful with them
some are for CGDA tuning, and some are for short scale - 17 frets banjo
these are way lot thicker than those that can be used for 19 frets banjo.
find yourself recordings of good banjo players
Gerry O’Connor - even though he plays in C(D)GDA tuning
Kieran Hanrahan
Brian Kelly
Kevin Griffin
Eamon Coyne
and few others.
and have fun
Hm, in the very short run, maybe I’ll string up my Gibson 5-string with TB strings, tune it low, then compensate with a capo, just to approximate the scale of a real TB.
Sure, you can do that. You won’t have a banjo that’s optimized for anything in particular, but it will give you the idea and let you experiment before spending the bux.
Should the time come however, a proper tenor strung GDAE will get you a lot farther. While you’ll hear lots of recommendations as to the brand of banjo, I personally take the pragmatic approach. Since, like the mandolin, the TB doesn’t have an ancient history in ITM (as do the harp and fiddle for instance), there really isn’t an ‘official’ Irish banjo. Lots of guys play five-bangers, sometimes in Chicago tuning. Others use 17 frets to full-scale plectrums. Irish musicians of the 70’s tended to use what they had, which is why the flat top mandolin is now the ‘Irish’ mandolin. And when you consider that darn few instruments are as adaptable and easy to modify as a banjo, you can do a LOT to change the tone and playing characteristics of just about any banjo.
Yep, getting a set of tenor strings and putting it on your current 5-string will give you a good idea whether or not it’s worth trying.
You can tune it C#F#DG and capo at the 3rd fret to get a feel for a 19 fret tenor, and you can tune BEAD and capo at the 5th to see what the 17 fret tenor is like.
If you decide to stick with it, a 5-string Gibson should sell easily at Banjo Hangout, or you could even just sell your 5-string neck and buy a tenor neck. There’s got to be a ton of tenor necks sitting around out there, considering all the bluegrass players that have converted tenors to 5-stringers over the years.
