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68-504: The Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band , also known as the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band , was the brainchild of Reverend Andrew Darby Jr., pastor of Fairview Baptist Church. The band was created in 1970 after Mr. Danny Barker became a member of Fairview Baptist Church. When Mr. Barker became a member, he asked Reverend Darby what he wanted him to do in the church. Reverend Darby asked him to enlist young people in

136-399: A Medley of Scotch Airs , a Medley of Southern Airs , and Thomas Glynn’s West Lawn Polka . Banjo innovation which began in the minstrel age continued, with increased use of metal parts, exotic wood, raised metal frets and a tone-ring that improved the sound. Instruments were designed in a variety of sizes and pitch ranges, to play different parts in banjo orchestras. Examples on display in

204-611: A bangoe . The material for the neck, called ban julo in the Mandinka language, again gives banjul . In this interpretation, banjul became a sort of eponym for the akonting as it crossed the Atlantic. The instrument's name might also derive from the Kimbundu word mbanza , which is a loan word to the Portuguese language resulting in the term banza , which was used by early French travelers in

272-414: A dialectal pronunciation of Portuguese bandore or from an early anglicisation of Spanish bandurria . Contrary evidence shows that the terms bandore and bandurria were used when Europeans encountered the instrument or its kin varieties in use by people of African descent, who used names for the instrument such as banza , as it was called in places such as Haiti , varieties that were built around

340-411: A gourd body with a wooden plank for the neck. François Richard de Tussac , a former planter from Saint-Domingue , details its construction in the book Le Cri des Colons , published in 1810, stating: As for the guitars, which the negroes call banzas , this is what they consist of: they cut lengthwise, through the middle, a fresh calabash [the fruit of a tree called the callebassier ]. This fruit

408-603: A bowed string instrument of the Byzantine Empire and ancestor of most European bowed instruments. Lira spread widely westward to Europe; in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments. West African fiddlers have accompanied singing and dancing with one-string gourd fiddles since the twelfth century, and many black musicians in America learned on similar homemade fiddles before switching over to

476-632: A fingerstyle in the Appalachians from musicians who never stopped playing the banjo, he wrote the book, How to Play the Five-String Banjo , which was the only banjo method on the market for years. He was followed by a movement of folk musicians, such as Dave Guard of The Kingston Trio and Erik Darling of the Weavers and Tarriers . Earl Scruggs was seen both as a legend and a "contemporary musical innovator" who gave his name to his style of playing,

544-424: A guitar, has gained popularity. In almost all of its forms, banjo playing is characterized by a fast arpeggiated plucking, though many different playing styles exist. The body, or "pot", of a modern banjo typically consists of a circular rim (generally made of wood, though metal was also common on older banjos) and a tensioned head, similar to a drum head. Traditionally, the head was made from animal skin, but today

612-426: A plectrum rather than with the minstrel-banjo clawhammer stroke or the classic-banjo fingerpicking style. The new banjos were a result of changing musical tastes. New music spurred the creation of "evolutionary variations" of the banjo, from the five-string model current since the 1830s to newer four-string plectrum and tenor banjos . The instruments became ornately decorated in the 1920s to be visually dynamic to

680-581: A short fifth string about 1831. However, modern scholar Gene Bluestein pointed out in 1964 that Sweeney may not have originated either the 5th string or sound box. This new banjo was at first tuned d'Gdf♯a, though by the 1890s, this had been transposed up to g'cgbd'. Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeney's group, the American Virginia Minstrels , in the 1840s, and became very popular in music halls . The instrument grew in popularity during

748-406: A theater audience. The instruments were increasingly modified or made in a new style – necks that were shortened to handle the four steel (not fiber as before) strings, strings that were sounded with a pick instead of fingers, four strings instead of five and tuned differently. The changes reflected the nature of post-World-War-I music. The country was turning away from European classics, preferring

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816-504: A three-stringed variant of the viola —known as the kontra —and by double bass , with cimbalom and clarinet being less standard yet still common additions to a band. In Hungary, a three-stringed viola variant with a flat bridge, called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa makes up part of a traditional rhythm section in Hungarian folk music. The flat bridge lets the musician play three-string chords. A three-stringed double bass variant

884-433: A variety of shapes and sizes. Another family of instruments that contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols , which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards. In performance, a solo fiddler, or one or two with a group of other instrumentalists, is the norm, though twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian, Scottish and Irish styles. Following

952-486: Is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, in modern forms usually made of plastic, originally of animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans and had African antecedents. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of

1020-421: Is a variation on Sweeney's original design. The fifth string is usually the same gauge as the first, but starts from the fifth fret, three-quarters the length of the other strings. This lets the string be tuned to a higher open pitch than possible for the full-length strings. Because of the short fifth string, the five-string banjo uses a reentrant tuning – the string pitches do not proceed lowest to highest across

1088-428: Is also open to improvisation and embellishment with ornamentation at the player's discretion, in contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer's notes to reproduce a work faithfully. It is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers (e.g., Alasdair Fraser , Brittany Haas , and Alison Krauss ) have classical training. The first recorded reference to

1156-468: Is also used, and a three-finger version that Earl Scruggs developed into the "Scruggs" style picking was nationally aired in 1945 on the Grand Ole Opry . In this style the instrument is played by plucking individual notes. Modern fingerstyle is usually played using fingerpicks , though early players and some modern players play either with nails or with a technique known as on the flesh. In this style

1224-456: Is also used. To a greater extent than classical violin playing, fiddle playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or folk music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound. American fiddling , a broad category including traditional and modern styles Fiddling remains popular in Canada , and the various homegrown styles of Canadian fiddling are seen as an important part of

1292-543: Is often made of various synthetic materials. Most modern banjos also have a metal "tone ring" assembly that helps further clarify and project the sound, but many older banjos do not include a tone ring. The banjo is usually tuned with friction tuning pegs or planetary gear tuners, rather than the worm gear machine head used on guitars. Frets have become standard since the late 19th century, though fretless banjos are still manufactured and played by those wishing to execute glissando , play quarter tones, or otherwise achieve

1360-423: Is sometimes eight inches or more in diameter. The stretch across it the skin of a goat, which they attach on the edges with little nails; they put two or three little holes on this surface, and then a kind of plank or piece of wood that is rudely flattened makes the neck of the instrument; they stretch three strings made of pitre [a kind of string taken from the agave plant, commonly known as pitre] across it; and so

1428-427: Is usually used in bluegrass music, though resonator banjos are played by players of all styles, and are also used in old-time, sometimes as a substitute for electric amplification when playing in large venues. Open-back banjos generally have a mellower tone and weigh less than resonator banjos. They usually have a different setup than a resonator banjo, often with a higher string action . The modern five-string banjo

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1496-557: The xalam of Senegal and the ngoni of the Wassoulou region that includes parts of Mali , Guinea , and Ivory Coast , as well as a larger variation of the ngoni , known as the gimbri , developed in Morocco by sub-Saharan Africans ( Gnawa or Haratin ). Banjo-like instruments seem to have been independently invented in several different places, in addition to the many African instruments mentioned above, since instruments similar to

1564-512: The Scruggs Style . Scruggs played the banjo "with heretofore unheard of speed and dexterity," using a picking technique for the 5-string banjo that he perfected from 2-finger and 3-finger picking techniques in rural North Carolina. His playing reached Americans through the Grand Ole Opry and into the living rooms of Americans who didn't listen to country or bluegrass music, through the theme music of The Beverly Hillbillies TV sitcom . For

1632-563: The minstrel shows of the 19th century. Along with the fiddle , the banjo is a mainstay of American styles of music, such as bluegrass and old-time music . It is also very frequently used in Dixieland jazz , as well as in Caribbean genres like biguine , calypso , mento and troubadour . The modern banjo derives from instruments that have been recorded to be in use in North America and

1700-413: The "upbeat and carefree feel" of jazz, and American soldiers returning from the war helped to drive this change. The change in tastes toward dance music and the need for louder instruments began a few years before the war, however, with ragtime. That music encouraged musicians to alter their 5-string banjos to four, add the louder steel strings and use a pick or plectrum, all in an effort to be heard over

1768-494: The 1820s, was Joel Walker Sweeney , a minstrel performer from Appomattox Court House , Virginia . Sweeney has been credited with adding a string to the four-string African-American banjo, and popularizing the five-string banjo. Although Robert McAlpin Williamson is the first documented white banjoist, in the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage. Sweeney's musical performances occurred at

1836-611: The 1840s after Sweeney began his traveling minstrel show. By the end of the 1840s the instrument had expanded from Caribbean possession to take root in places across America and across the Atlantic in England. It was estimated in 1866 that there were probably 10,000 banjos in New York City, up from only a handful in 1844. People were exposed to banjos not only at minstrel shows, but also medicine shows, Wild-West shows, variety shows, and traveling vaudeville shows. The banjo's popularity also

1904-540: The 1850s than there had been in the 1840s. There were also instruction manuals and, for those who could read it, printed music in the manuals. The first book of notated music was The Complete Preceptor by Elias Howe, published under the pseudonym Gumbo Chaff , consisting mainly of Christy's Minstrels tunes. The first banjo method was the Briggs' Banjo instructor (1855) by Tom Briggs. Other methods included Howe's New American Banjo School (1857), and Phil Rice's Method for

1972-463: The 19th-century minstrel show fad, followed by mass-production and mail-order sales, including instruction method books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but 5-string and 4-string banjos also became popular for home parlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 21st century, the banjo was most frequently associated with folk , bluegrass and country music , but

2040-494: The 5th (short) string to fill in around the melody notes [typically eighth notes]. These techniques are both idiomatic to the banjo in all styles, and their sound is characteristic of bluegrass. Historically, the banjo was played in the claw-hammer style by the Africans who brought their version of the banjo with them. Several other styles of play were developed from this. Clawhammer consists of downward striking of one or more of

2108-520: The Americas. Its earliest recorded use was in 1678 by the Sovereign Council of Martinique which reinstated a 1654 decree that placed prohibitions and restrictions on "dances and assemblies of negroes" deemed to be kalenda , which was defined as the gathering of enslaved Africans who danced to the sound of a drum and an instrument called the banza. The OED claims that the term banjo comes from

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2176-627: The Banjo, With or Without a Master (1858). These books taught the "stroke style" or "banjo style", similar to modern "frailing" or " clawhammer " styles. By 1868, music for the banjo was available printed in a magazine, when J. K. Buckley wrote and arranged popular music for Buckley's Monthly Banjoist . Frank B. Converse also published his entire collection of compositions in The Complete Banjoist in 1868, which included "polkas, waltzes, marches, and clog hornpipes." Opportunities to work included

2244-508: The Boston Herald in November 1884. He was supported by another former blackface performer, Samuel Swaim Stewart, in his corporate magazine that popularized highly talented professionals. As the "raucous" imitations of plantation life decreased in minstrelsy, the banjo became more acceptable as an instrument of fashionable society, even to be accepted into women's parlors. Part of that change

2312-555: The Caribbean since the 17th century by enslaved people taken from West and Central Africa. Their African-style instruments were crafted from split gourds with animal skins stretched across them. Strings, from gut or vegetable fibers, were attached to a wooden neck. Written references to the banjo in North America and the Caribbean appear in the 17th and 18th centuries. The earliest written indication of an instrument akin to

2380-556: The European violin. As early as the mid-1600s, black fiddlers ("exquisite performers on three-stringed fiddles") were playing for both black and white dancers at street celebrations in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (New York City), and by 1690 slave fiddlers were routinely providing the music at plantation balls in Virginia. The etymology of fiddle is uncertain: it probably derives from

2448-482: The Latin fidula , which is the early word for violin , or it may be natively Germanic. The name appears to be related to Icelandic fiðla and also Old English fiðele . A native Germanic ancestor of fiddle might even be the ancestor of the early Romance form of violin . In medieval times, fiddle also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have four strings, but came in

2516-711: The banjo are known from a diverse array of distant countries. For example, the Chinese sanxian , the Japanese shamisen , the Persian tar , and the Moroccan sintir . Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th century. Some 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as bangie , banza , bonjaw , banjer and banjar . The instrument became increasingly available commercially from around

2584-521: The banjo is in the 17th century: Richard Jobson (1621) in describing The Gambia , wrote about an instrument like the banjo, which he called a bandore . The term banjo has several etymological claims, one being from the Mandinka language which gives the name of Banjul , capital of The Gambia. Another claim is a connection to the West African akonting : it is made with a long bamboo neck called

2652-658: The beat) could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. Various fiddle traditions have differing values. In the very late 20th century, a few artists successfully reconstructed the Scottish tradition of violin and "big fiddle", or cello. Notable recorded examples include Iain Fraser and Christine Hanson, Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hanson's Bonnie Lasses, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas ' Fire and Grace, and Tim Macdonald and Jeremy Ward's The Wilds . Hungarian, Slovenian, and Romanian fiddle players are often accompanied by

2720-419: The beginning of the minstrel era, as banjos shifted away from being exclusively homemade folk instruments to instruments of a more modern style. Sweeney participated in this transition by encouraging drum maker William Boucher of Baltimore to make banjos commercially for him to sell. According to Arthur Woodward in 1949, Sweeney replaced the gourd with a sound box made of wood and covered with skin, and added

2788-638: The bowed lira was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911); in his lexicographical discussion of instruments he cited the lira (lūrā) as a typical instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the rabāb played in the Islamic Empires. The medieval fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira ( Ancient Greek : λύρα , Latin : lira , English: lyre ),

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2856-511: The brass and reed instruments that were current in dance-halls. The four string plectrum and tenor banjos did not eliminate the five-string variety. They were products of their times and musical purposes—ragtime and jazz dance music and theater music. The Great Depression is a visible line to mark the end of the Jazz Age . The economic downturn cut into the sales of both four- and five-stringed banjos, and by World War 2, banjos were in sharp decline,

2924-503: The church and in the neighborhood who played instruments and work with them as an instrumental group (band). Reverend Darby told Mr. Barker that there was a critical need to produce young musicians to carry on the rich tradition of music in New Orleans in order to ‘replenish the stock’ as adult musicians grew older. Under the leadership of Pastor Darby, Mr. Barker agreed. Thus, the tradition, would live on and on. The group of young musicians

2992-492: The fingerboard. Instead, the fourth string is lowest, then third, second, first, and the fifth string is highest. The short fifth string presents special problems for a capo . For small changes (going up or down one or two semitones, for example), simply retuning the fifth string is possible. Otherwise, various devices called "fifth-string capos" effectively shorten the vibrating part of the string. Many banjo players use model-railroad spikes or titanium spikes (usually installed at

3060-451: The fingerpicking bluegrass banjo styles, such as the Scruggs style and Keith style . The Briggs Banjo Method , considered to be the first banjo method and which taught the stroke style of playing, also mentioned the existence of another way of playing, the guitar style. Alternatively known as "finger style", the new way of playing the banjo displaced the stroke method, until by 1870 it

3128-710: The folk revivals of the second half of the 20th century, it became common for less formal situations to find large groups of fiddlers playing together—see for example the Calgary Fiddlers, Swedish Spelmanslag folk-musician clubs, and the worldwide phenomenon of Irish sessions . Orchestral violins, on the other hand, are commonly grouped in sections, or "chairs" . These contrasting traditions may be vestiges of historical performance settings: large concert halls where violins were played required more instruments, before electronic amplification, than did more intimate dance halls and houses that fiddlers played in. The difference

3196-423: The four main strings with the index, middle or both fingers while the drone or fifth string is played with a 'lifting' (as opposed to downward pluck) motion of the thumb. The notes typically sounded by the thumb in this fashion are, usually, on the off beat. Melodies can be quite intricate adding techniques such as double thumbing and drop thumb. In old time Appalachian Mountain music, a style called two-finger up-pick

3264-724: The guitar style of Banjo-playing...the little finger of the right hand is rested upon the head near the bridge...[and] serves as a rest to the hand and a resistance to the movement of picking the strings...In the beginning it is best to acquire a knowledge of picking the strings with the use of the first and second fingers and thumb only, allowing the third finger to remain idle until the other fingers have become thoroughly accustomed to their work...the three fingers are almost invariably used in playing chords and accompaniments to songs." The banjo, although popular, carried low-class associations from its role in blackface minstrel shows, medicine shows, tent shows, and variety shows or vaudeville. There

3332-432: The instrument is built. On this instrument they play airs composed of three or four notes, which they repeat constantly. Michel Étienne Descourtilz , a naturalist who visited Haiti in the early 1800s, described it as banzas , a Negro instrument, that the natives prepare by sawing one of the calabashes or a large gourd lengthwise, to which they attach a neck and sonorous strings made from the filament" of aloe plants. It

3400-644: The last one hundred years, the tenor banjo has become an intrinsic part of the world of Irish traditional music. It is a relative newcomer to the genre. The banjo has also been used more recently in the hardcore punk scene, most notably by Show Me the Body on their debut album, Body War . Two techniques closely associated with the five-string banjo are rolls and drones . Rolls are right hand accompanimental fingering patterns that consist of eight (eighth) notes that subdivide each measure . Drone notes are quick little notes [typically eighth notes], usually played on

3468-450: The market for them dead. In the years after World War II, the banjo experienced a resurgence, played by music stars such as Earl Scruggs (bluegrass), Bela Fleck (jazz, rock, world music), Gerry O'Connor (Celtic and Irish music), Perry Bechtel (jazz, big band), Pete Seeger (folk), and Otis Taylor (African-American roots, blues, jazz). Pete Seeger "was a major force behind a new national interest in folk music." Learning to play

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3536-416: The minstrel companies and circuses present in the 1840s, but also floating theaters and variety theaters, forerunners of the variety show and vaudeville. The term classic banjo is used today to talk about a bare-finger "guitar style" that was widely in use among banjo players of the late 19th to early 20th century. It is still used by banjoists today. The term also differentiates that style of playing from

3604-446: The museum include banjorines and piccolo banjos. New styles of playing, a new look, instruments in a variety of pitch ranges to take the place of different sections in an orchestra – all helped to separate the instrument from the rough minstrel image of the previous 50–60 years. The instrument was modern now, a bright new thing, with polished metal sides. In the early 1900s, new banjos began to spread, four-string models, played with

3672-531: The necks do not possess a Western-style fingerboard and tuning pegs; instead they have stick necks, with strings attached to the neck with loops for tuning. Another likely relative of the banjo is the aforementioned akonting , a spike folk lute which is constructed using a gourd body, a long wooden neck, and three strings played by the Jola tribe of Senegambia , and the ubaw-akwala of the Igbo . Similar instruments include

3740-992: The ranks of his band was exploitative, and forced him to disband the group or lose his own union membership. Barker withdrew, but the group immediately reformed as the Hurricane Brass Band , under the direction of the newly unionized Jones; members of the Hurricane band went on to form the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in 1977. Notable alumni of the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band include Jones, Wynton and Branford Marsalis , Dr. Michael White , Herlin Riley , Gregory Stafford , Joe Torregano , Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen , Charles Joseph , Kirk Joseph , Lucien Barbarin , Gene Olufemi , Shannon Powell , and Darryl "Lil Jazz" Adams . Banjo The banjo

3808-549: The second quarter of the 19th century due to minstrel show performances. In the antebellum South , many enslaved Africans played the banjo, spreading it to the rest of the population. In his memoir With Sabre and Scalpel: The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon , the Confederate veteran and surgeon John Allan Wyeth recalls learning to play the banjo as a child from an enslaved person on his family plantation. Another man who learned to play from African-Americans, probably in

3876-413: The seventh fret and sometimes at others), under which they hook the string to press it down on the fret . Fiddle Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians who play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and sustained notes. Fiddling

3944-461: The society of the most charming girls." Some of those entertainers, such as Alfred A. Farland , specialized in classical music. However, musicians who wanted to entertain their audiences, and make a living, mixed it in with the popular music that audiences wanted. Farland's pupil Frederick J. Bacon was one of these. A former medicine show entertainer, Bacon performed classical music along with popular songs such as Massa's in de cold, cold ground ,

4012-443: The sound and feeling of early playing styles. Modern banjos are typically strung with metal strings. Usually, the fourth string is wound with either steel or bronze-phosphor alloy. Some players may string their banjos with nylon or gut strings to achieve a more mellow, old-time tone. Some banjos have a separate resonator plate on the back of the pot to project the sound forward and give the instrument more volume. This type of banjo

4080-544: The strings are played directly with the fingers, rather than any pick or intermediary. While five-string banjos are traditionally played with either fingerpicks or the fingers themselves, tenor banjos and plectrum banjos are played with a pick, either to strum full chords, or most commonly in Irish traditional music , play single-note melodies. The modern banjo comes in a variety of forms, including four- and five-string versions. A six-string version, tuned and played similarly to

4148-442: Was a push in the 19th century to bring the instrument into "respectability." Musicians such as William A. Huntley made an effort to "elevate" the instrument or make it more "artistic," by "bringing it to a more sophisticated level of technique and repertoire based on European standards." Huntley may have been the first white performer to successfully make the transition from performing in blackface to being himself on stage, noted by

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4216-405: Was a switch from the stroke style to the guitar playing style. An 1888 newspaper said, "All the maidens and a good many of the women also strum the instrument, banjo classes abound on every side and banjo recitals are among the newest diversions of fashion...Youths and elderly men too have caught the fever...the star strummers among men are in demand at the smartest parties and have the choosing of

4284-573: Was also used in some rock , pop and even hip-hop music. Among rock bands, the Eagles , Led Zeppelin , and the Grateful Dead have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Some famous pickers of the banjo are Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs . Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in Black American traditional music and rural folk culture before entering the mainstream via

4352-545: Was given a boost by the Civil War, as servicemen on both sides in the Army or Navy were exposed to the banjo played in minstrel shows and by other servicemen. A popular movement of aspiring banjoists began as early as 1861. The enthusiasm for the instrument was labeled a "banjo craze" or "banjo mania." By the 1850s, aspiring banjo players had options to help them learn their instrument. There were more teachers teaching banjo basics in

4420-424: Was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music and fiddle music. Historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness that fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, did not always follow. In situations that required greater volume, a fiddler (as long as they kept

4488-564: Was organized in 1970 by banjo and guitar player Danny Barker . Based out of the Fairview Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana and led in performance by trumpeter Leroy Jones (who was twelve when Barker recruited him), the band gained considerable popularity in New Orleans and became a regular feature on the city's music scene. In 1974 union musicians in New Orleans protested that Barker's use of non-union youngsters to fill

4556-568: Was played during any occasion, from boredom to joyous parties and calendas to funeral ceremonies. It was the custom to also combine this sound with the more noisy bamboula , a type of drum made from a stick of bamboo covered on both sides with a skin that was played with fingers and knuckles while sitting astride. Various instruments in Africa, chief among them the kora , feature a skin drumhead and gourd (or similar shell) body. These instruments differ from early African-American banjos in that

4624-408: Was the dominant style. Although mentioned by Briggs, it wasn't taught. The first banjo method to teach the technique was Frank B. Converse's New and Complete Method for the Banjo with or without a Master , published in 1865. To play in guitar style, players use the thumb and two or three fingers on their right hand to pick the notes. Samuel Swaim Stewart summarized the style in 1888, saying, In

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