What The Four String Banjo Taught Me

The banjo in jazz. These days, its almost an oxymoron. Outside of a very few examples, the banjo is nonexistent in modern jazz. Its connection with its close cousin, the guitar, has also become distant in the genre. In swing music and classic jazz, however, that connection remains very strong. Many of the most celebrated swing guitarists previously played plectrum or tenor banjo before it went out of fashion around 1930. Carmen Mastren, Carl Kress, George Van Eps, Freddie Green, and many others first played banjo before switching over to guitar.

A couple of years ago, I decided to discover this connection for myself. In the process I learned a bit of tenor banjo and an enormous amount about techniques that came from the banjo to the guitar. While I didn't play banjo for very long, the discoveries I made changed my guitar playing forever, and opened up doors I never even knew existed. There were four major things that I gained from the time spent learning banjo: Right hand picking technique, tremolo and duo style playing, chord melody improvisation, as well as vast potential for solo playing on plectrum instruments.

A large portion of the things I learned came from Buddy Wachter's old VHS video "Beginning Plectrum Banjo." Yes, I ended up playing tenor, but the material in this video is mainly right hand technique anyway, and that stays the same on both four string banjos. Buddy Wachter is one of the finest four string banjo players who ever played the instrument, and thankfully is also a superb teacher. There is an in depth section of the video where Wachter describes the correct way to hold the arm and pick for maximum play-ability. The way I had been holding the pick was very limiting, and now I saw why I had hit such a wall in right hand development. Let me just say that anchoring in any way is no good for pick playing! I knew Wachter's way had to be the way the swing guitar guys played as well.

My suspicions were confirmed several times over. I searched for videos of 30's players on YouTube and found they all played this way. Nobody played with their hand resting on the bridge like I did. What was even more eye opening was a section in George Van Eps' "Method for Guitar" where he describes the correct way to hold the pick EXACTLY like Wachter does, right down to the angle of the pick against the index finger. It took me a while to adapt, but when I did, I never looked back. There's nothing you cant do playing this way.

Not only did studying tenor banjo change the way I approached the right hand, it also changed my mind about what is possible playing with a pick. In that same Wachter video he goes into detail about the tremolo, a common technique of rapid picking used to sustain a note or notes on the four string banjo. You rarely hear it done on guitar nowadays, but it was more common in the 20s and 30s. Django Reinhardt is probably the best known guitarist for using tremolo, and he, not surprisingly, started on banjo too (albeit a 6 string). Another related and really fascinating banjo technique is called duo style. With this technique, a tremolo is played on the first or melody string and the notes of the underlying chord are played either all at once or arpeggiated to give the illusion of a melody with accompaniment. I use this technique a bit for intros and endings. Check out the Wachter video I've included below to see it in action. Its another one of those musical devices that is nearly impossible to describe in words.

Another very common four string banjo technique that was popular with guitar players during the swing era was chord melody playing and improvisation. This style of playing was probably inspired by Eddie Peabody, who was well known for it on plectrum banjo. From what I can gather, Carl Kress was one of the first to bring the style over to the guitar. George Van Eps was probably the biggest proponent of this style; he taught it to Allan Reuss who in turn taught and inspired many others during the era. This banjo style chord melody is the foundation of the style I play in as well. It allows a guitarist to perform solo pieces, harmonized melodies or improvisation in a manner that is not unlike that of a piano player providing his own harmony.

In a related way, learning and playing tenor banjo opened my eyes to what was possible for a seemingly simple instrument in regards to solo playing. Though the plectrum banjo is more well known for players who do a large solo repertoire, the tenor too has a smaller but still respectable library of composed pieces and classical adaptations. It has also been influenced heavily by plectrum banjo chord melody solo virtuosos, and chord melody is done just as often on tenor banjo nowadays. I think about it like this: If that kind of solo repertoire can be played on only four strings, the plectrum style guitar is even more capable!

Learning and playing tenor banjo was a fantastic experience for me as a guitar player. I didn't spend too much time with it, but I learned a wealth of new technical devices and playing styles that fundamentally changed my guitar playing forever. I really think all swing oriented guitarists could learn a thing or two from studying four string banjo. It can truly offer a different approach to what is possible with plectrum style playing!

Check out the videos below for more information!