It's undersung jazz banjoist Elmer Snowden (1900-1973)  #banjomojis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7boHKgmSXQ0 #jazzbanjo

@scruss CGBD is the traditional tuning for a plectrum banjo, which evolved from 5-string banjos back in the day (just drop the 5th string, now you can accompany one of these new-fangled jazz bands!) although guitarists also tune them DGBE so they can use scales and chord shapes they already know.

17 and 19-fret tenor banjos are typically tuned CGDA and have a more strident sound. (Irish players will often tune a 17 fret tenor GDAE an octave below a mandolin.) #jazzbanjo

@mayor With the caveat that I know fairly little about banjo, but a bit about early jazz - you definitely do want to get chords down. *But* blues songs have a very regular form as you probably know, and could be a good place to start.

Not endorsing specifically, but e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENTN4wgiolA

A lot of jazz standards are based on modifications to the blues, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_changes

Good luck, and I for one am a fan of #jazzbanjo (and #jazz more generally 🙂)

Tenor Banjo 12 Bar Blues Song Lesson: Shake That Thing

YouTube
Not much love for the #jazzbanjo hashtag #onhere is there

I have so many musical irons in so many fires right now, but I got bitten by the plectrum/jazz bug tonight; I acquired this wonderful Paramount Style A last year and earlier this year I put LaBella 17 nylon strings on it, which was a game changer. I've been playing on nylon strings for so long that any calluses I had from my clawhammer days are long gone.

Just a week or so before the pandemic really started to hit my neck of the woods, I found out about a jug band open session near me and I was super-excited to finally have a chance to work on my plectrum chops, but then of course everything went sideways.

The @magicians project will give me more of an excuse to tinker with early jazz/blues plectrum banjo, but I need to get some other stuff cleared off my metaphorical desk before I can really dig into it.

Meanwhile, here's the verse of 'Louisiana Fairytale', marginally played.

#jazzbanjo #plectrumbanjo #banjo #jazz https://peertube.social/videos/watch/c329d457-8b69-4a80-ae42-f5982a39eec1

Louisiana Fairytale (verse)

PeerTube