[Dixielandjazz] Pete Seeger Banjo Style

[Bill Gunter]

Hi boys and girls,

Scott Anthony writeth:

>One slight correction to what you wrote . . . is that plectrum tuning is 
>called "C" tuning on the 5-string. "Standard" 5-string tuning is with the 
>4th string tuned up to "D" so that the open strings play a G chord.

What Scott said is totally true.

However, I got complicated enough talking about retuning the 5th string down 
a half step for each fret down on the capo.  I didn't want to muddy it up by 
getting too complicated.

The 5th string is often called the "thumb string" because that's the finger 
that does most of the picking on that particular string. It's sometimes 
called the "drone string" because it is generally not stopped by the fingers 
while playing a tune . . . it just keeps honking away on "G"!

I learned to play 5 string using the Seeger method book and tape I bought 
back around 1958. At that time I didn't realize that the C tuning on the 
banjo was the tuning on the plectrum.  To me, the C tuning and the G tuning 
were easily interchangable by simply retuning the 4th string up or down a 
whole step.

I'm still not sure that the G tuning (fourth string tuned to D) is a 
"standard" tuning for the 5 string banjo.  I tend to think of the C tuning 
(fourth string tuned to C) is the more common key although I find myself 
constantly retuning that 4th string depending on the song I'm singing.

I tend to use the 5 string banjo mainly to accompany singing so it's 
important to select the proper tuning to put it in the easier key for 
vocalizing.  I wish I had the long neck Seeger model which would give me a 
wider range of singable keys to choose from.

But, as I said, I didn't want to get overly complicated in my description of 
the long neck banjo. After all, l was simply trying to respond to Mad Dawg's 
question about the availability of the long neck banjo.

There's a whole 'nother bunch of 5 string stuff which has capo's placed all 
over the fretboard for various playing effects, plus a feature of many 5 
string banjos which is a little hook placed under the 5th string two frets 
up from the peg so that the 5th string can simply be slipped under it thus 
raising the pitch of the 5th string up a whole step.

Along that line there is a contraption called the "Sliding Thumb String 
Capo" which provides a wide range of fret settings for the 5th string up and 
down the fretboard.

I'm going to stop now lest the "thread police" climb my frame for overly 
dwelling on this theme.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "Yo-dle-a-dee-hoo" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com