Thanks, M. Ted, your post came while I was working on my response to MMario and Tiger :-)

I think there's utility to readers of this forum to see lists like that -- what are the options? what are the decisions that are to be made? It's not possible to give THE answer, because there isn't one. It's also useful to be pointed toward examples of what happens when different musicians have answered things for themselves.

Another cogitation:

I play banjo and have taken classes from Debby McClatchy, Dan Levenson, Jeff Davis, and Ken Perlman, as well as listening to and observing Sara Grey and John Roberts. An interesting assortment of folks, working on an interesting assortment of musical styles.

With a banjo, you can be very melodic, like Ken Perlman, and play hardly any brush strokes. Then you can play tunes as he does, but just recently I heard him accompanying the fiddler Alan Jabbour, and he took his style and what he knows about where the notes are and did some interesting things with harmonies and countermelodies and so on, as well as unison playing. On the other hand, there is sometimes something lacking in the energy of his playing. And he doesn't accompany singing much.

Some banjo players accompany by doubling the melody. Some use the melody for instrumental breaks, but do more work with chords when against the singing. Jeff Davis has a beautiful sparse old-time style that works with the old-time songs he sings, using partial chords and droning notes, odd rhythms. John Roberts is mostly accompanying songs that are not southern Appalachian, and he's got a great driving style with lots of off the downbeat brushes as well as interesting chords, and little twiddly melodic things between the lines or verses.

Debby McCatchy and, even more, Sara Grey, are masters of playing the banjo slowly. If you're accompanying a slow song, that's really useful, and surprisingly hard to do. (I know, I keep realizing that my banjo playing is making me sing much faster than I would without the banjo, on some songs.) Alternatively, banjo accompaniment to a slow song can basically speed up to double the time of the song, and create an entirely different effect.

Dan Levenson, in working with me on putting together one tune, said "play it the way you would sing it". That's not how everyone does it.Anyway, that's enuf from me for the moment.

~ Becky