Grabbed this off FB...Golden Highway

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Ha !...absurd talent indeed. Jalan Crossland
Thank you for the share Nate.
Love the song too.
See reply in chat box.

Jalan Crossland is an absurd talent 

If you're reading this, and you're a banjo fanatic,
there's a player you should seek out named Kyle Tuttle.
He and I shared a few motorcycle rides, and lived only a couple blocks apart.
A simple google search of his name will bring up a nice overview of his work.

Nate. You have a cool Uncle. That is a nice looking banjo. Last year bought a Deering Goodtime 2 banjo and later bought the Deering Goodtime Banjo/Ukulele. Love it. Easy to play and sounds a lot like a banjo.Steve B.

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Hi, My main instrument is the 5-string banjo. I recent did a book for Hal Leonard called Do-It-Yourself Banjo. Written during Covid, it's sort-of intended as a self teaching guide, complete with audio and video files to demonstrate what's being presented in the book. Been teaching since the mid-1970s, so feel free to hit me up with any questions. Naturally, I recommend the book, but I have been getting good feedback about it.

My uncle just gave me one of his banjos! It's something I've always wanted to learn.

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The combination of instruments in use guarantees some excellent tunes for dancing.

Yes, but strictly Bluegrass on that instrument. In fact, I just wrote a methods book.

Are we allowed to self-promote? If so, https://www.halleonard.com/product/354325/do-it-yourself-banjo

Been playing banjo since 2008, the longest out of all my string endeavors lol. Been picking on dulcimers since 2015, learning on the first one I made. Here’s a duet video I made playing the tune “Hunt the Buffalo” on mountain banjo and dulcimer.

Some more photos, before and after:   https://fotmd.com/jim-yates/gallery/rs-williams-banjo/all

Jim, sounds like your friend Teilhard is skilled at restoring an old banjo. I love to see that! A happy new life for a lovely old banjer... and joy for you to play!

Just this weekend my friend Teilhard Frost, a wonderful gourd banjo builder (and player) paid us a visit toreturn my R.S. Williams banjo which had been in terrible, unplayable condition since I bought it for $20 at a yard sale in 2018(?).  I could see that it had promise and when Teilhard saw it, he said that he could bring it back to playable condition.  Well he sure did that.  It was made prior to 1879 (when the company was renamed R.S. Williams & Son) and has been restored with rosewood pegs and nylon strings.  I have been playing it constantly since I got it back.
One photo before Teilhard got hold of it and one after he worked his magic.

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Jumping ?? Jumping ?? We don't jump--we levitate --why do you think we get paid the big bucks for concerts ?? We spend hours meditating & considerable yoga hours for that :)   We are training to ascend :)

My bass string was out of tune--so I walked away from the mic to tune.  Then back again to play. Cameron is my favorite fiddler & he knew my string was out--so he just held the tune and the stage. Happy Holidays :)

That jumping was fun, Mary.

I'm curious as to why you left the stage for a while- ?

Lets try again :)

Here's a little banjo from Saturday night with Boston fiddler, Cameron Freer.   This is our levitation verson of dance tunes Black Eyed Susie/Forked Deer. :)

Back in 1971 I had a cheap what some call a bottle cap banjo. A good Vega banjo was around $300. I could not afford one. Then 30 years later they were in the one to three thousand dollar range. I thought I could build a shop and build my own for less. I did!. I've got long necks, short scale, normal scale, fretless, semi fretless, six string. 10" , 11" , 12" pots , block rims, plywood rims, brass tone rings, wood tone rings. I had to restrain myself from building more and focus on dulcimers. All together they cost me about the same as one high quality open back banjo....Robert

Steven, I pretty much agree with this.  Though I do love some of my oldtime steel string banjers too, they have their own pretty bell-like tone appeal. 

@Strumelia I do know jeff menzie I have placed several orders for skins from him I love his builds on this gourd banjos even though I do not have one of his 

My current banjos which are both open back is a 11 inch Bart Rieter Grand Concert and a Rickard 11 inch maple whyte LAYDIE the Rickard I installed a John Balch pre mounted jeff menzie goat skin head in my experimenting with bridges I ended up with a Doc Huff old time bridge which weighs 7.3 grams 

That is the other thing I learned while experimenting with bridges weight means nothing 

I also am building a gourd banjo for myself that I hand carved the neck out of zebra wood 

The banjo I am having built by a local luthier I supplied the wood to him which the rim is made out of bocote the neck will be laminated paduk with a purple heart center strip and overlayed with a pale moon finger board it will also be a long neck which I elected to have fretless

There's nothing like a fretless gourd or wood-shell banjo, strung with gut or nylon strings, with a natural skin head, to make the world go 'round!

Ken, many factors contribute to a unique sound from every banjo. Pot material does actually make quite a difference, as do different types of wood. I have a friend who made an entire banjo out of ebony. It was a thing of beauty and extremely heavy. But sadly, it sounded way too quiet and not resonant at all, because of the denseness of the ebony, which would not transmit sound vibrations at all.

My husband has 5 old (mainly '20s + a 19th c.) banjos.  That keeps him from complaining about my "Folk Instrument Petting Zoo" including several dulcimers.  He definitely agrees about the pots, pointing to cigar box & a ham can as proof.  Skins certainly make the difference.  His oldest has a goat skin head & gut strings.  He says that combination makes a big difference.

He's not been at all tempted by gourds (thank heavens!), but we know a fellow, Tim Twiss, who loves fretless gourd banjos for reenacting & just plain enjoyment.

Hi.  Once when I was playing a small banjo concert in the mountains--I also played a couple tunes on my mountain dulcimer. I demonstrated several different banjos too--I think the cello banjo, my fancy mermaild Deering, the John Bowland 1865 Fretless & the John Hartford with the grenadilla tone ring.  A lady rushed up at the end and gushed--I love all your banjos--but I love that all wood banjo the best.  (mountain dulcimer)  maryzcox.com

I love Jeff Menzies instruments!  If I were going to play banjo it would be one of his... 

I believe, but could be wrong, that the material a banjo pot is made of makes little measurable difference in the sound produced. 

Granted, a Leggo(tm) rim or PVC pot will probably sound different than a wooden or gourd pot.  But I doubt you'd get any measurable difference between say Walnut, Birch, laminated exotic woods, or bamboo.  After all, the primary sound producer is the vibrating head.  I can understand big differences in sound between a skin head of various origins and a "plastic" skin.

@don-smith , i too think banjos can be made successfully out of most hard woods. If you have a chance look up stuff about banjo maker Jeff Menzies - he moved to Jamaica years ago and while living there he used all kinds exotic woods to make gourd banjos... whatever wood was available from trees that fell or discarded local wood. His banjos sound wonderful. I loooove gourd banjos, but I only have one, made by Jeff.

I know this is an older post but figured I would add myself to the Banjo player

Banjo's are my addiction I have three and having a fourth built by a local Luthier I am also in the process of building several Gourd Banjo's for my kids and grand children the first banjo I ever purchased was a resonator banjo and it did not take me long to figure out I had no desire to lug around a 14-17 pound banjo and I had no desire to learn to play bluegrass style i have never been able to get accustomed to having picks on my thumb and fingers,  even though I do love bluegrass music, I play claw hammer style, i am also infatuated with different bridges and how different bridges can have a huge impact on the way a banjo sounds it is an experiment i feel anyone that plays a banjo should perform at some point just to see how different bridges and different woods can affect the tone,volume, how clear and clean notes sound up and down the neck with different bridges and different woods in bridges 

I think more out of the box when it comes to different woods for banjo builds than most and believe there is more than just maple,black walnut, cherry,mahogany, and oak that a banjo can be built with and the way i look at it is if someone can take a danged old gourd and make a banjo and an actual really great sounding banjo from them in a lot of cases it tells me that any good hard wood will work and there are a lot of exotic woods that i believe could be used to make a great playing and sounding banjo

I also enjoy Mary's banjo and dulcimer playing.
I'd like to share a banjo duet that AlKirby and I recorded alittle over a decade ago.  Al is playing Scruggs style and I'm playing clawhammer style.  Our friend the late Zeke Mazurek added some fiddleto the mix.  This was on our Sittin' In The Kitchen CD.
https://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/audio_player2.asp?playlist=1201&musicid=

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Yes! Play clawhammer banjo; enjoy Mary Z. Cox’s tasteful banjo playing.

I have a few instruments in the banjo family.
I play clawhammer and a few other folk styles on my 5-strings. 
I have a tenor that is strung with nylon strings that I often play in the Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band.
I also have a few banjoleles that I use Somebody Stole My Gal, Sweet Sue and Walkin' My Baby Back Home.

I used to play bluegrass banjo,but the arthritis in my thumbs has slowed that down a lot.

I had to read your comment to my "loud & raucous" banjo playing husband.  He's my Roadie & I can only get him to play for my Civil War era programs, when I do WWI or Prohibition he swears it's not his style.  Good thing I love him & vice versa 'cause I pick on him mercilessly about that banjo.

I have 3 banjos, none of which I play well. None have resonators, and, all have skin heads. I have a modern tonering banjo, a fretless mountain banjo, and a fretless tackhead minstrel-style banjo. Tried for years, but can't get the clawhammer or any down -picking style down, so I play a 3-finger style. Love the sound of instrument!

Yeah, any instrument that makes you feel happy when playing it is just plain GOOD.  :)

(Cynthia I would love to hear more of you on your kantele- I loved what you posted a while back... so full of feeling and so ...from a Different time and place.)

There are many more gourd banjo makers now than there were ten years ago.  You can actually get a decent playable one for $300 or less.  Gourd banjers are less expensive than regular banjos in general. 

Clawhammer banjo is the one that grabs me, and I used to play it. If I had a gourd with nylon strings I'd be playing it right now! About happiness and instruments...gotta add ukulele...yep, just gotta. Beautiful Lisa. I really love the Sacred Harp tunes on clawhammer banjo. Listen to the Banjo Apes do those. Wish I hadn't sold that banjo.

Bess, for that tune (from an old WV Hammons family recording) I was playing in clawhammer style. Other times I play in minstrel style and tuning.  Even though the two styles have a lot in common and can look like the same thing to an observer, I do find the actual physical playing styles of clawhammer and minstrel banjo to be different in significant ways other than simply because they use different tunings.  It took me a few years to actually notice that there were these differences.  To this day it takes me a minute or so to mentally/physically adjust when I switch back and forth between those two styles of playing.  There are always some moments of "Uh, what the heck are my fingers supposed to be doing, again?"... lolol.

I do suggest that a beginner decide which of the two styles to concentrate on for a while, rather than jumping back and forth between clawhammer style/tunings, and minstrel style/tunings.  Mixing the two up could be problematic unless you've had at least a year or two of playing one style before exploring the other style.  It's possible to learn both styles at the same time as a beginner of course, but the result would very likely be a hybrid style, so you have to decide on what your personal goal is.

If you mostly just play alone at home or with family you can play however you like without worrying about styles at all.  But if you plan to play with other folks that seriously play one of those styles and not the other, it might not be the best idea to jump into their established jamming group and start playing their customary repertoire in a hybrid style.   ;)   Playing in groups means we try to blend harmoniously and enhance what the group likes to do, rather than sticking out and possibly disrupting what they like to do. 

Wow! Thanks for the wonderful gourd banjo playing , Stumelia. I was fortunate enough to find a travel sized minstrel banjo who is patiently waiting for me learn how to play. Were you using minstrel style of play or clawhammer? I can manage an imitation of clawhammer and find myself using it on ukes as well as banjos and banjoleles. The non-steel strings definitely give the banjo another character. One of my favorite instruments is a baritone banjolele. I like it because it adds more of a percussive element and doesn't steal the show like a real banjo.

Barb

Some banjos are loud and beautiful, others can sound mellow and beautiful.  I have quite a few banjos.  My most mellow sounding banjo is my lovely gourd banjo with nylon strings:

I play 5-string resonator banjo, Earl Scruggs style. I had a wonderful teacher who first taught me fingerpicking guitar (46 years ago), then I moved on to fingerpicking (aka Earl Scruggs style) banjo. Don't play as much as I should, but it is still fun to pull out now and again.

I have a little 3-string banjo built by Michael Fox, called a Dulcijo.  The dulci portion of the name refers to the tunings used-- typical mountain dulcimer tunings-- but it is definitely a little banjo.  Nice & cool little instrument!

I got my banjo playing buddy a new tuner for Christmas --  Acme Wirecutters!!~!

I play a bit of banjo.  It is a lot of fun. 

It is also loud and raucous.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. 

Some of you might like to check out this site:

http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/search?term=banjo

Sue - I was really pleased when I got the hang of clawhammer, it is a really versatile technique.

Lisa - I totally agree that it is impossible to play banjo or MD and not notice an immediate lifting of the spirits!

I think banjos and mountain dulcimers make more people happy than any other instruments!

learning this old technique of Clawhammer and love it !

well it has been a year since any banjo related news was shared.

I got me a very be-au-ti-ful new banjo a couple of months ago; a Wildwood Troubadour. It was just sitting there on Ebay with no one paying any attention, so I got it for about half what I would have paid for a new one, and got to see and try it too before sealing the deal. I have wanted one with a tubaphone tone ring so I was really pleased. It needed a little attention as the head was really loose, and I found the action a little low so I swapped the bridge for a 5/8th. And now I can hardly bear to put it down! Hve not got any recordings yet but will be working on that during the summer.

Sam thank you for the nice comments.

Foggers, I look forward to hearing more on your banjo journey!

I got to play some banjo this weekend at a little oldtime festival in MA.

I'm glad that you and Brian can find time to play your music together. The music and chemistry make this one of my all time favorite vids to watch. I'd almost bet I've watched it more than the two of you!

Strumelia said:

Well, that's great! I came upon your post shortly after putting down the banjo.

I had a brief discussion with a musician, talking about fiddle (and banjo)tunes and their names and so on. This was on Friday the 3rd of June, after the rehearsal for our daughter's wedding (which, obviously, was on Saturday the 4th). The musician was the piper. The wedding was in Strathcona park in Ottawa (since no banjos were played, I'll give a write-up in The Drifting Thread). If you ever come across a banjo tab for "The Clumsy Lovers", please forward it.

I asked my husband Brian this evening if he wanted to play some music together after dinner- something we just don't make the time to do often enough! To my surprise out of the blue he asked if I would give him a banjo lesson. So I did!

He did very well. We had to get creative due to his lacking the use of his left index finger and thumb (he has learned to get around this quite well while fiddling). We started with a non-chord style approach in G modal tuning to take advantage of the open drone strings as much as possible. I was very flattered that he would actually ask me for abanjo lesson, considering what a wonderful fiddler he is! I'm very lucky to live with a good natural musician.

So it was an interesting and rewarding musical evening for us both.

I'm spending soooo much time on the banjo lately. Really, I should be sounding soooooooooooooooooooo much better, but I'm not.

On the 6th I celebrated my birthday by going to Toronto by myself and wandering around. Bought the great strawberry Danish at Bread & Roses, visited my old school and surprised a bunch of teaching colleagues, went downtown, and visited the Twelfth Fret. Unfortunately, they didn't have a head that would fit my old Orpheum. They did, however, have a fair selection of banjos which I took the time to try out. I started out on an 1890's Cole, and then tried the newer ones: Vegas, Gold Tone, Wildwood, and a terrific Nechville Atlas with a twelve-inch pot. I found the newer banjos easier to play, with slightly wider string spacing.

I took the Orpheum back in for its third repair of the year, some work on the peghead. It will be a couple of weeks waiting its turn in the shop. I'm thinking of relegating it to two-finger picking, but I have to save up for a new open-back. Maybe I'll try one of the "kits" that Bill Rickard puts together. The bonus is that he's just north of Toronto.

This Friday was our second jam of the new year. I raced up to Sunbury only to realize I'd left my music and instrument stands at home. I dumped the guitar, banjo, and mandolin and flew back home. I made it back with time to spare, which surprised some people. Marge signed me in second, my usual spot, and I did "Keep on the Sunny Side" and "Down the Road", both for the first time. Another singer said, when it was her turn, that I'd taken her song, so she had to choose another. Second time around I did "Pancho and Lefty", and I got a third turn and closed the evening's activities with "Goodnight Irene". A couple got up from the audience and joined in at my mic, while other musicians took the rest of the mics.

When Lorne, our steel player, had his first turn, he took so long trying to figure out his second song that I said, "Hurry up, or we'll get the hook!" And when Les thanked the audience for not running out on him during his numbers, I said, "It's cold out!" He replied, "I'll get you for that!"

Our fiddler surprised my with a banjo CD he'd burned just for me.

Well, gotta start gettin' ready for Friday's jam. So far I've narrowed it down to "Pack up Your Sorrows" (guitar), "Hard Times Come Again No More" (banjo), "Chased Old Satan" (banjo), and "So Long - It's Been Good to Know You" (maybe guitar, maybe banjo, maybe ...). But I've been working on "If I Needed You" by Townes Van Zandt, and I played a Ry Cooder CD (Into the Purple Valley) in the car when we went to breakfast this morning (and on the way back, with a newly purchasedantique table), so the list could change drastically by Friday evening.

Oh (said he, already having given waaay too much information for one post), bicycles and banjos (and other instruments) do mix. I've reserved the Portsmouth tavern for a Thursday evening in February for a Kingston Velo Club jam session. Exact date not set yet, but all cyclists (and non-cyclists) would be welcome.

I gave a 90 minute banjo lesson to a friend the other day, and boyhowdy but that toughened up my wimpy callouses in a hurry! lol! I taught him Sandy Boys, and he loved it.

Thought I'd bump this'n up....hoping to get a progress report from Ken & Foggers?....you got that banjo put together huh Ken?

I been playing Green Willis here a little lately. I had to put the noter aside a month or so ago and play dulcimer & banjo with my fingers....they were getting soft!... : )....