gypsy jazz banjo

jayjay

Not sure if this is the place to post this but I will give it a shot. My brother and myself wanted to play some Django tunes together and originally planned on using two guitars. My brother, being that he is primarily a banjo player decided to try the lead part for "Honysuckle Rose" on banjo, which he did and with great results. I understand that Django was originally a banjo player and I am now wondering, just out of curiosity, how much that has influenced his guitar playing. My brother claims that "Honysuckle Rose" translated really well onto the banjo and it sounds great. This makes sense to me considering Django's history as a banjo player but oddly enough I have not found any discussion of this. Does any one else play gypsy jazz on the banjo or know of anyone who does?

JohnVB

From what I gather, the banjo which D'jango played was actually a six string, tuned like guitar...so other than sounding different, I don't know that playing technique would be so different.
The four string tenor banjo is used quite frequently in trad. jazz...

klaatu

That's correct - Django started on a "guitar banjo," just as described. The tenor banjo was very common in early jazz but was largely replaced by the acoustic archtop guitar as ensembles became bigger and louder.

Standard tuning for the tenor is CGDA, like a viola or mandola. There is also a less commonly used instrument called the "plectrum" banjo, which has a longer scale than the tenor. From www.irish-banjo.com:
The most common plectrum banjo tuning seems to be CGBD, although DGBD (like a five-string banjo without the fifth string) and "Chicago" tuning (DGBE - like the highest four strings on a guitar) are quite common too.

Chicago tuning is handy for the guitarist who wants to play four-string banjo but doesn't want to have to learn all new chords. I happen to own a c. 1928 Epiphone plectrum and use the Chicago tuning, being basically lazy.

JohnVB

Somebody gave me an old tenor a while ago. I have it in standard
C-G-D-A tuning. I picked up a method book for the banjo, and in it they instruct you to pick in the same manner we refer to as 'gypsy picking'...
One of the pieces in the book is Danube Waves, which it says is very popular at anniversaries: Anniversary Waltz (or 'Song' if you do it in 4). It's a pretty old book.