[Dixielandjazz] Banjo Styles

[Mike Woitowicz]

DJML Listmates:

It's interesting the  topic of banjo styles should pop up as a topic today. I am leaving Saturday morning for the LaCrosse (WI) banjorama, and I have been invited to do a workshop for tenor banjoists. The topic I have selected is "banjo styles."

There's more to banjo playing than "whacking on 2 & 4," although you would be hard pressed to find many OKOM band leaders would understand or believe that. It's been my experience that they're so focused on their own instrument, that they believe the others in the band are for background only [Let the flack begin on that comment!].

Anyways, my workshop will focus on some of the techniques that define styles of banjo playing including (but not limited to):

Full Chord Melody Style (such as Eddie Peabody, Don Van Palta, Doug Mattocks, Buddy Wachter, etc).

Full Chord Syncopation (Eddie Peabody, Brad Roth, Buddy Wachter, George Formby -- O.K., not a real banjo player, but a good syncopater).

Broken Chord Stroke Style or Sub-Style (Masterfully done by Perry Bechtel, Buddy Wachter and others).

Single String Jazz (Elmer Snowden in the past; current proponents such as Jimmy Mazzy, Paul Erickson, Howard Alden and others)

Single String Chord Runs (the late Maurice Bolyer).

Complex chord harmonies, staccato melody lines and complex syncopation (Harry Reser, Howard Alden, and others).

Note that these styles are not necessarily played continuously by the above players, but that they tend to use the listed styles a lot, and this, in my opinion, defines their playing. These are not the only styles, of course, but the ones I could illustrate and find recordings of in my collection. Not all of them are fully compatible with OKOM style. I have tried them all during the course of gigs, and some work better than others in an ensemble setting. Some are better used for solo work.

I will be demonstrating some of these techniques, as well as playing some recordings illustrating them as done by the above players. It should be a fun workshop.


Mike Woitowicz
The Banjo Barons Ragtime Band
The Dixie Barons Dixieland Band
Solo Banjo Shows
www.banjomusic.biz