[Dixielandjazz] Eddie Peabody, banjos

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Hi Bud,
The tenor is tuned to same notes as viola, or each tone a fifth lower than  
the violin.  (Mandolin is tuned same as violin except two strings per  
note.)  This open-fifth tuning makes flying finger single stringing  easier.  
Some do like the open chords, some don't.
Probably the most common tuning of all these days is to tune either a tenor 
 or plectrum identical to the highest four strings on the guitar (giving up 
the  bass).  Players differ on whether they prefer the tenor or the  
plectrum neck tuned this way.
And yes, banjitars are relatively easy to find, banjo head on a guitar  
neck.
A few months ago one of our list band leaders posted on how much he liked  
this banjitar sound in his band.
 
This banjo-guitar is what Johnny St. Cyr played.  Another early jazz  
banjoists, Elmer Snowden, also used a lower that standard tuning.  Irish  tenor 
is tuned a fifth lower for Irish jig music.
 
The reason I stick with only teaching tenor or plectrum tuning to youth is  
that all jazz banjoists of greatest rep and fame have played standard 
turning --  and no I don't know why this is.  There are really fine banjoists on 
other  turnings.  Eddy Peabody tuned his lowest note to D instead of C, as 
does  current jazz banjoists, Sean Moyses, from Great Britain, but living in  
Germany.
 
I just read a very positive CD review written by Eddy Davis on Tom  Stuip's 
CD.  Tom has his own individual tuning of a plectrum.
 
Now I've said far more about tuning than most of you ever want to  know.  
There's all kinds out there -- like a soprano uke, etc.
 
Ginny

 
 
In a message dated 2/25/2011 9:40:57 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
budtuba at gmail.com writes:

This  discussion on banjos got me to thinking.  A young man plays guitar  
for
our church services.  He just graduated with a degree in music  from a local
college with strong arts programs.  I asked him if he had  considered 
playing
a tenor banjo and he said he had not.  Part of the  problem may be to learn
the new fingering associated with tenor banjo  tuning *that is the same as
violin).  An advantage of this tuning is  the wide range of the notes in the
chords compared with guitar.  Would  it be possible to tune a banjo as if it
were a guitar but with the second  and fourth string missing?  This would
give a similar range of notes,  and may make the transition from guitar to
banjo easier.

This ought  to get some lively dialogue going/

Incidentally, just to rain some  equal scorn on my instrument, I was
wondering if anybody ever considered  making a slide tuba??


-- 
Roy (Bud) Taylor
Smugtown Stompers  Jazz Band
Rochester, New York
Traditional Jazz since 1958
"we ain't  just whistling dixie!"