What I Like About (Tenor) Banjo

I've mentioned why I play tenor banjo* several times, but I'm not sure I've covered what I like about banjo. I had to give it some thought. Here's what I like about the (tenor) banjo.

-Stringed instrument played with a flat-pick. At least the tenor banjo is. If I wasn't playing a stringed instrument with a pick my second choice would probably be a chromatically tuned mallet percussion instrument such as a marimba.

-Scale length between mandolin and guitar. Mandolin feels too short and cramped. The guitar neck is too long for me and my shoulder. A short scale tenor banjo is just the right fit.

-Single course strings. I don't like the feel of double course strings on instruments with a similar scale length such as an octave mandolin or Puerto Rican cuatro. 

-Ergonomics. No big guitar-like body to have to reach your arm around and wrestle with. 

-Lots of sound in a relatively small package. My newest banjo has a 10-inch, open back rim and that's still plenty loud. You can't get that same amount of projection or volume with an acoustic tenor guitar.

-5ths tuning. The tenor banjo is tuned in 5ths which makes sense to me. The other tuning I like is all 4ths, but that wouldn't work as well for playing Irish traditional tunes up to speed. So I'll stick with all 5ths. 

-The tenor banjo is generally accepted at Irish music sessions. It may still be looked at askance by a few naysayers, but it's closer to being in the norm than clarinet or saxophone would be.

-Not as common as fiddle or other instruments. At the Irish sessions I go to, I am usually either the only person playing tenor banjo, or one of two. This uniqueness suits my personality.

-Ability to play melodies with no need to re-tune for certain keys. In Irish session music, tenor banjo is one of the melody instruments. No matter what instrument I was playing, I'd be wanting to only play melodies so I like that it can hold its own in that department.

-Something about the sound of it. I do love the sound of a flat-picked guitar or tenor guitar, but if I have to choose one over the other, banjo ultimately wins that competition at least from my own playing perspective. One of the benefits of an open back is if I'm practicing at home and want to muffle the sound I can always stuff a t-shirt or towel into the inside of the banjo pot.

*Why I chose banjo. I had never played any instruments before but back in May 2006, when I was already in my early 30's, I called Elderly Instruments to order CDs by old-time banjo players Riley Baugus and Dan Gellert**. The woman on the other end of the line asked "do you play" and I said no. She said that I should, that's it's fun, so when I got off the phone I researched what type of banjo to get and learned about the tenor banjo, which I had never quite heard of. I chose tenor banjo because I'm left-handed and online forum commenters told me that a vintage right-handed tenor banjo like a Vega Little Wonder or a Bacon and Day can be set up left-handed. I also realized that tenor banjo is the type of banjo used in Irish traditional music and that it's tuned like a mandolin for Irish, so learning how to play GDAE tenor banjo is kind of like secretly learning mandolin. To top it off, I quickly located two local teachers - Josh Bearman and Cleek Schrey - who helped make sure I stuck with it and advanced beyond the awkward beginner stage when so many adult learners give up. There was also a welcoming community of DIY fiddle-tune musicians in the Richmond, VA area that I quickly fell into. 

**Next question: why was I buying a couple of old-time CDs if I didn't play that music? Well, I had already been listening to bluegrass such as Old and in the Way, Hot Rize, New Grass Revival, Tony Rice and Yonder Mountain String Band for several years by that point. Then in 2004 and 2005 I visited Ireland, heard Irish trad for the first time, and brought back CDs by West Clare musicians Yvonne Casey, Eoin O'Neill, Quentin Cooper, and Mary Custy. So when I called Elderly to order those old-time CDs I was probably thinking that old-time Appalachian music was the bridge between the bluegrass I had been listening to and the instrumental Irish trad I recently discovered. It had not yet occurred to me that this was something I should try and play. It took a stranger saying I should play to flip that switch!

Zach Hoyt 5 String Tenor Banjo update

Here's an update on my custom made Zachary Hoyt banjo now that I've had almost two weeks of playing it daily and taking it to Irish sessions.

Build Quality

This banjo played great right out of the box, but soon after getting it I took it in-person to master banjo luthier Brooks Masten's basement shop in Portland, Oregon to get his take on it and to do any additional setup work that might be needed. Brooks was very impressed by the build quality and materials used. He said that ash was a very stable neck wood. He even uses ash in some of his banjos. The only adjustment Brooks made was to slightly lower the action at the nut. 

Sound Quality

I have already played this banjo at four Irish sessions over the last two weeks and have received compliments on its sound. I even got to hear another lefty play it for a moment so I could experience it from that perspective. Someone also happened to make a short recording of an outdoor session I was in at a park and I was shocked at how clearly the banjo stood out amongst tin whistle, concertina and fiddle. I don't hear any compromise in the sound at all by having an open back (no resonator), a very short scale (19.75 inches) and a smaller than usual pot (10" rim as opposed to 11").

Playability

Having this banjo in my hands seems to have bolstered my confidence. The high B-string means that I don't have to make that leap to the 7th fret of the E-string. This has definitely made my playing more fluid. The shorter 19.75" scale is not a problem at all. It's actually part of what makes this banjo easier to play. I was initially worried about the chunky feel of the neck, but I don't think this has hindered me at all. It primarily feels chunkier due to the width of the neck since it has 5 strings at the nut instead of 4. Brooks Masten assured me that a chunky neck is a good thing for a banjo's resonance and for keeping it in tune.

  

Supports Guitar Fingering

I was always a one-finger-per-fret type of 4-string Irish tenor player. I never adapted to the more common and more recommended mandolin type fingering. Irish tenor banjo players are taught to slant their fretting hand at an angle and use mandolin fingering, which means pinky on fret 2, middle finger on frets 3 and 4, ring finger on fret 5 and 6. Saving the pinkie finger for fret 7. Having that angle allows you to do this fingering. I don't do this angle though. I like to keep my fingers almost parallel to the frets like a guitar player would. This banjo allows me to fully embrace my preferred way of holding my fretting hand and fingering the notes one-finger-per-fret.

More Range in First Position

This GDAEB all 5th tuning from low to high gives me more range. That extra string tuned to B has a 5th fret E note. That's the equivalent of a 12th fret E note in standard EADGBE guitar tuning or GDAE mandolin/Irish tenor banjo tuning. This means I can play "up to the 12th fret" without having to leave first position since I have the equivalent note on the 5th fret. I haven't quite figured out what to do with this extra range yet. For some tunes it'll mean that I can play the melody in a higher octave. It could also open up some interesting higher-pitched harmonic opportunities if I make small chords incorporating notes on that high B string. 

Tab and Staff Paper are the same

I realized yesterday that having 5 strings tuned in 5ths means that "mandolin tab" for this instrument could be written on tab representing 5 strings instead of four. It just so happens that traditional sheet music staff paper already has five lines. I do still write out the occasional tune in tab or notation so that I can see it more clearly, and now I can use regular sheet music staff paper for tab or for notation!

With 5 strings this works for both tab and notation!

Inspiration from other instruments

I believe the late jazz tenor banjo player Eddy Davis had a tenor banjo with a 17 inch scale and 10 inch rim custom made by Joel Eckhaus of Earnest Instruments. That helped me feel OK with a sub 20 inch scale tenor banjo mandola. At first glance, my banjo could be mistaken for baritone banjolele, which is not a bad thing. The design also draws characteristics from the old-time banjo world simply because that is the type of banjo Zach Hoyt usually makes. The additional range potentially places this banjo into banjo-mandolin sonic territory, which is cool. If/when I can play a melody an octave up it'll double the fiddle and mandolin octave. Lastly, an inspiration for 5 strings tuned in 5ths with a similar scale length comes from the Puerto Rican Cuatro, which has 5 (double-course) strings tuned in all 4ths BEADG on a 20.5" scale, the exact opposite of my all 5ths GDAEB tuning.

***

My New 5-string Tenor Banjo made by Zach Hoyt

Las month I emailed banjo maker Zachary Hoyt with an idea for a one-of-a-kind banjo, and now that banjo has arrived. That might be a record time for a custom made instrument! My idea was to make a tenor banjo with 5 strings instead of 4 so that it can be tuned in 5ths GDAEB from low to high. Zach has made that dream a reality. In a matter of weeks!

Zachary Hoyt banjo #391

My main inspiration for this banjo was so that I wouldn't have to deal with the 7th fret high B note. About half of all Irish tunes have this high B note in them and that reach or shift up to the 7th fret of the E-string is something I never got comfortable with even after years of playing tenor banjo in the "Irish" GDAE tuning. This banjo has one more string of equal length tuned to B, which is a 5th above the open E string. Problem solved. It turns out that this actually isn't a totally new idea. Michael Kang of the band The String Cheese Incident has been playing a 5 string electric baritone mandolin tuned FCGDA or GDAEB for years now.

Getting an open string to tune up that high B (B4 octave) is a bit of a gamble. Tenor banjos were originally designed to be tuned CGDA with A as the highest note, and that in-and-of-itself is pushing it. This B is a whole step higher than that A. On a regular 19-fret tenor banjo with a 23 inch scale, it would be asking a lot of a string to get up to that pitch without breaking. So what I did was reduce the scale length to 19.75 inches, which is a scale length that Zach already uses on his A-scale 5-string clawhammer style banjos. An .008 or .009 string can be tuned up to B at this 19.75 inch scale length.

For the other four strings - the GDAE strings -  I simply need to use slightly heavier gauges than you would normally use on an Irish tenor banjo. For the low G string, something like a .046w gauge will work. I don't mind a heavier gauge for the low G. Only about 10% of Irish tunes even have a note lower than D, so the main reason you'd ever be playing anything on that G string is to harmonize with a melody note in the D string. I can live with that. It's better than not having that string at all.

The banjo pot is an openback ten inch block wood Ash rim with a walnut rim cap. Featuring brass hardware and 12 total brackets like you might find on an old-time banjo. Zach prefers 10 inch pots for his 19.75 inch scale banjos and I agreed that a 10 inch rim is the proper aesthetic and ergonomic ratio for this scale length. It probably puts the bridge in a better position than a larger rim would have. I think the 10 inch rim gives it a punchier, more direct sound. The use of a Waverly style tailpiece instead of a no knot tailpiece puts more break angle on the strings, which should also help brighten up the sound.

The neck is made of ash with a walnut center stripe. Zach recommended ash even though it may not be as pretty as other wood options because he thinks it has a bit of extra volume and projection over maple or cherry. The width at the nut is about about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). Not bad considering that it's got 5 strings across there. The fretboard wood is jatoba and the headstock showcases a stunning walnut peghead overlay.

The tuning pegs are individual Gotoh Schaller-style knobs that I picked out. These have a 16:1 gear ratio. I happen to like the looks of guitar style tuners over regular banjo tuning pegs. The headstock is a special design I requested inspired by the shape used on Mann mandolins and some five string bass guitars. It has a 10 inch Renaissance head and a wooden arm rest.

As a personality type, I'm pretty individualized and not one to always go along with the conventional thinking. For example, I don't buy into the belief that playing Irish tunes on a tenor banjo requires a 19-fret, 23 inch scale vintage banjo with resonator. I happen to like lighter weight, no frills, openback banjos mainly for the comfort factor, and I've found that the shorter scale length of a 17-fret 21 inch scale tenor banjo is easier to play and doesn't cause any bursitis in my shoulder. At 19.75" this Zach Hoyt banjo is even shorter than that which makes it an absolute joy to play!

I have no concerns about volume with this banjo. Up 'til now I've always stuffed a towel or t-shirt into the back of my banjos to muffle the sound out of a fear of being too loud or abrasive. I'm not planning on doing that with this banjo though!

Specs:

Tuned in 5ths GDAEB from low to high

10 inch openback pot with twelve brackets

19.75 inch scale length

Approx. 4cm (1.6in) width at nut

Ash neck with walnut neck stripe

Ash block wood rim with walnut rim cap

Jatoba fretboard wood

Brass hardware

Two way truss rod

Wood tone ring profile in top of rim

Renaissance head

Gotoh Schaller style knob individual tuners 16:1 gear ratio

Mann style headstock shape with walnut peghead overlay

Waverly style tailpiece

10 inch Renaissance head

Side dots on left-hand side and fretboard dots

Recommended string gauges: .044w or .046w G2, .034w or .036w D3, .022w or .024w A3, .013 E4, and .009 B4

GDAEB - An Irish Banjo High B Workaround

High B

I've been playing 4-string tenor banjo tuned GDAE long enough to know that tunes with that high B note are always going to be an issue (for me). Maid Behind the Bar, Ships Are Sailing, Star of Munster, Mug of Brown Ale, Connaughtman's Rambles...sometimes it seems like every other tune has that 7th-fret high B note in it. Well, now I have a solution: an open B string. I surrender.

One of my tenor banjos is a Gold Tone AC-4 tenor banjo, which is a surprisingly good banjo for the money. Being my 3rd of 3 banjos, I don't play it much so I decided to tune it up DAEB. I used the DAE strings from a regular Deering Irish tenor banjo string set and then used a .008 gauge string for the high B string. The scale length of this banjo is 22.5" so that was really pushing it but it didn't break!

In DAEB tuning I can play an open note B on the highest string instead of having to reach or jump up to 7th fret of the E-string. The fingerings required to play tunes in the same keys that I already know them in can remain the same in DAEB tuning when compared to GDAE tuning. I simply have to move everything down a string since the DAE strings have shifted. The only thing you give up is not having a low G string. The lowest note on a tin whistle is D so it's not that big of a deal.

Nonetheless, I've been working with banjo maker Zach Hoyt to create 5 string tenor banjo that can be tuned GDAEB, low to high. The scale length will be shorter, around 19.75 inches to accommodate the two extremes: a very light gauge like an .009 for the high B string and a quite heavy gauge string like a .046w for the low G string. This will offer the best of both worlds. I think the musician Michael Kang of the band String Cheese Incident uses this tuning for his 5-string electric baritone mandolin.

Even though I've only been playing in DAEB for a week, it has already helped with my ear. On a GDAE tuned tenor banjo, I never quite got the fingers and the ear to sync up on sections involving the high B note. With DAEB tuning I can now effortlessly play through sections that had always tripped me up and can now finally play those sections more by ear since I don't have fingering difficulties to get in the way.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.