[Dixielandjazz] Banjos

[Allan Brown]

I bought a ukulele a few months ago and am really enjoying learning how to play it. It has certainly helped to open up my understanding of the top four strings of the guitar. I'm considering investing in a banjo and I thought there may be a few on this list who could help me out with a couple of questions I have.

I'm interested in a tenor banjo as it seems to works so well with Dixieland style music. However, there appear to be all manner of lengths and tuning systems and I'm a little confused. Is there a standard tuning that banjo players use for playing jazz and does the tuning system depend on the length/ number of frets the banjo has? 

I note there is a "Chicago Tuning" which is like the top four strings of the guitar (or ukulele), which is immediately appealing to me as I could draw on my existing knowledge of guitar/ ukulele chords, but I'm unsure as to whether any tenor banjo would support this tuning or not, as my cursory research suggests that only the long necked tenor banjos do. But perhaps I'm getting unnecessarily hung up on the "Chicago Tuning" and would be better served by rolling my sleeves up and learning a different tuning system altogether? What do you banjo players out there use?

I'm based in the UK and there appear to be a plethora of banjo shops - do any of you have any suggestions as to what is a reasonable make of banjo for a beginner. That said, I'd probably prefer to invest in something that'll serve me in the longer term and has the potential of sounding half way decent should I ever get any good on it.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Allan Brown

(P.S. I'm a lefty.)