Banjo- Watchers.

Subject: Banjo- Watchers.
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Nov 98 - 08:26 PM

There I've said it!.....I like the Banjo!

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: McMusic
Date: 14 Nov 98 - 08:57 PM

Well....I'll 'fess up. I like the banjo, too! I've got one i plan on learning how to play one day. That doesn't make me a bad person, you know!

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: BSeed
Date: 14 Nov 98 - 09:14 PM

Why on earth should anyone be ashamed of liking the banjo? It's not the accordion, ya know. --seed

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: jets
Date: 14 Nov 98 - 09:32 PM

I like good a banjo played well.I also like accordions and I make no apology for that .Perhaps you have failed to n0tice that the accordion is making a strong come back in this country.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Big Mick
Date: 14 Nov 98 - 10:39 PM

It was the first instrument I ever wanted to play. My Grandma had one in the attic. I wanted it desperately. But she gave it to my cousin instead. Broke my heart. I still plan on taking it up someday, after I finish learning how to play the Uillean pipes. Which means that I probably won't ever learn the banjo.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From:
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 02:07 AM

Yeah, the banjo is my next instrument after I master the guitar. (If I live that long.)

I like to listen to bluegrass, but I can't see myself playing it. I would go for the old-time banjo.

Murray

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: DonMeixner
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 02:11 AM

My understanding is this, If you can throw a banjo in a trash can from 10' without hitting any of the rim of the trash can its an example of perfect pitch.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Mo
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 05:04 AM

Now I understand why you lot are all so "agin" the accordion - liking it is pretty small beer to confessing to liking the banjo. It's denial you know, say what you like about the accordion, doing the banjo is much much worse. But it's okay - you can get help, you just have to want it. And your right McMusic, it doesn't make you a bad person. "Love the sinner, hate the sin". Now if you'll excuse me, I feel the need to hear a recording of sound like a cat with it's tail stuck in a door .... !!!

Mo

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 05:40 AM

Thank you Mo, We deserved that.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Snookums
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 03:46 PM

I like the Banjo- there are very few instruments that you can constantly change to alternate tunings so that no one blames you when the thing is out of tune. (PS- that's also why I like the fiddle also) Snookums

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Snookums
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 03:49 PM

PS- What is the best sound that a Banjo can make?

Why, of course, the sound of a Banjo smashing an accordian!

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: BSeed
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 05:00 PM

I'm sure an accordian (-on?), played softly, with a bare minimum of mushy chords and a clear melody line in a sweet voice could be almost pleasant. Just stay the hell away from "Lady of Spain"! --seed

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Chet W.
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 05:29 PM

Will nobody mention the hammered dulcimer? If you're waiting for a reason to hate it, try stringing one, for a friend. Plus there just seems to be a sort of righteousness about them that is unattractive. But like all instruments, in the right hands, it can be a beautiful thing.

Chet W.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From:
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 08:27 PM

I really like the accordian in Cajun music. I like the way Leadbelly plays the button accordian. I have even thought of playing around with one of those little diatonic button ones.

Murray

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Jack (Who is called Jack)
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 10:25 PM

I think the reason banjo and accordian get such a bad rap is that they belong to a class of instruments that can be played so badly as to be physically painful to hear. Bagpipes and violin are also members of this group.

But (as Bela Fleck has shown) a great player can make any instrument sound good.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: BSeed
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 11:12 PM

I've strung autoharps, Chet, and a hammered dulcimer couldn't be as bad as that: you don't have to thread the strings under the chord bars. but I agree about the sound: a very good player dropped in to the Fifth String in Berkeley one Thursday (song circle) evening. It was more than a treat, it was a blessing. I also heard a street musician (again, in Berkeley) playing a very similar instrument, a cymbalon, I think. beautiful enough for me to buy a tape from him (in the days before CDs). --seed

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Jon W.
Date: 16 Nov 98 - 10:45 AM

Just like I enjoy using planes and chisels that have a sharp edge, I enjoy music that has a sharp edge. That's why I listened to Hendrix and Zeppelin as a callow youth, got into Delta Blues as a young adult, and now as a middle ager I have added Celtic folk with Uillean pipes, accordians and yes, banjos. I've nearly completely recycled my little bit of guitar skill into 5-string, I'm learning Irish session tunes on it, and for me it's the cat's meow (without tail stuck in door).

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Maelgwyn
Date: 16 Nov 98 - 05:23 PM

I saw an interesting thing the other day. I was in my friend's music shop and he had gotten a six string banjo tuned like a guitar. Of course, I instantly fell in love with it. Unfortunately ...sigh... I can't afford another instrument right now, not that I need one anyway. My hands are full with my fiddle.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 17 Nov 98 - 04:55 PM

THe Banjo was my first instroment {after rock and roll drums} and I love the sound of them.I like old Tubaphones and the mastertone with a ball bearing head.Both have alot of throwty sound.Mid-range? Have you looked at the Gruen book of vintage instroments DRool Drool..........

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Sean Ruprecht-Belt
Date: 17 Nov 98 - 05:16 PM

I'm learning to play claw-hammer style banjo these days and i must say that i'm having more fun with it than I've had in nearly 30 years of playing the guitar, mandolin or flute!

it is definitely my musical soul mate.

...Sean

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Earl
Date: 17 Nov 98 - 06:40 PM

I just ordered a Bart Reiter banjo for a family Christmas present. If we all take a hand at it no one can cast the first stone.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 17 Nov 98 - 09:24 PM

I've had a Reiter for about five years now. Lovely instrument.

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From:
Date: 18 Nov 98 - 02:44 AM

Maelgwyn:

There is some discussion about six and twelve string banjos in the thread about Plectrum banjos. Click

here

to read it.

Murray

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Crystal Patterson
Date: 18 Nov 98 - 10:01 PM

If you throw a banjo, accordian, and hammered dulcimer off the Empire State Building, which one will hit the ground first????

WHO CARES!!!!!!!!! HAHA!!!

(Before anyone replies to this comment and thinks I am a banjo-hater, I would like tell you that my mother has played banjo all her life and I grew up hearing it!!! I am also in a bluegrass band and it is part of my job to put down the banjo player (because I play the fiddle!!!HAHAHA!!!)

REMEMBER FOLKS*** "FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS PLAY BANJOS!"

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: Earl
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 12:21 AM

Dick, It's great to hear your praise of Reiter banjos. I ordered based on their reputation and an unsolicited endorsement is reassuring

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: McMusic
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 02:24 AM

Are good. Picked up a great deal on a Reiter at Mars Hill, NC this past summer. Fella was selling it on consignment for about half of what it was worth. I was steered toward it by friends and bought it just in time--about four other people were just waiting to buy it. Made the purchase and headed for the hills, with them snapping at my heels!

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From: BSeed
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 02:35 AM

I have a Wildwood Minstrel, a Vega tubaphone style instrument, simple but beautiful, incredible sound, a lovely touch to it. I looked at a lot of instruments, including Bart Reiters, before deciding this was my axe. I like it better, even, than my friends' (two of them) Wildwood Whyte Ladies. --seed

Subject: RE: Banjo- Watchers.
From:
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 06:43 AM

Well Chrystal, Freud would have something to say about that.

If you want to see some real accordian and banjo bashing, look in on the newsgroup

rec.music.makers.acoustic

Murray