Old Tyme Banjo by Ross May

When playing old time banjo, many players say that to be authentic, that one must have an “old time tone”. I would think that they are talking about the “thunky-de-thunk” sound of an old slick-neck, with a calf-skin head nailed on. I, myself prefer something with a little more resonance, although most of the time I keep my head a little looser than I do on my “bluegrass” banjo.

And is it necessary that one play without a resonator, to get that “authentic” old-time sound? I have one banjo that I use for old-time playing that has a resonator and one that doesn’t. In fact, the one that I won in the recent raffle, the Gold Tone open-back with the vine inlay, a beautiful lady if there ever was one, actually came to me with a genuine skin head. Boy, what a tone that one has. I love it. It doesn’t resonate too much, but it does have a kind of yubby-dubby resonance, that I dearly love. One can even get a pretty good old time stylistic effect with a Bluegrass-tight-head-set-up-for-Scruggs-playing banjo. So what is the “old time sound”?

Actually, there is no “authentic” old-time sound, since there were so many different styles of banjo out there in the land-of-banjo-past, that one could not settle on any one instrument and say that it was the optimum sound. I dearly love the plethora of sounds that I hear played by the many Old Time pickers that abound today. Some of the older banjos were very crude in construction, and others were works of the makers art. Many folks built their own instruments, and others were able to mail-order more sophisticated styles. But one common thread runs through all this and that is the myriad of sounds that beautify old-time playing.

So, is it the tone, or the rhythm of the old-time banjo that makes it so desirable to many? More than likely the rhythm has more to do with that sound than any other factor.

That syncopated, rolling, rollicking rhythm that, when done right, mesmerizes some, and makes others want to jig around, or just bob up and down when one hears it, and is really the thing that I strive for in my own playing. Have I reached it? I don’t know, but I have been trying for many, many years.

What makes that rhythm? Well………I know it when I reach it, thorough a combination of hammers, slides, pull-offs, and maybe a thump on the head now and then with the end of the lead finger, while picking a string. At first that “thunk” on the head was accidental, but then if found that it had a percussive effect one would hear in Irish music, and I came do it purposely in some selections.

(This article was written for "Silver Strings" banjo ezine.)

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