JohnnyReb Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Well I thought about asking this on AGF but figured I would get bombarded over there for it . But being a resident of south Kentucky the banjo has always been a well accepted instrument and I've never seen so much as a smirk over banjo playing. ( yea I know somebody will say something about deliverance and I hear banjo music. So HA HA in advance). But seriously, what's the big anti banjo thing all about on guitar forums?? I always felt a good guitar and a banjo went hand in hand together. I can understand simply not liking bluegrass music, but it's always JUST the banjo that isn't cared for much. Now with some people I could understand this. I've seen some banjo players with Mastertone banjos play them as loud as possible to purposely drown the whole band out. Yes, that is rude. I'm a intermediate banjo player and I never purposely try to drown my fellow players out. A banjo can be reined back just like anything else. But for the rude guys, I blame them not the banjo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindboygrunt Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 there are jokes about drummers n bassists , i think maybe if you regularly look at banjo forums there would be jokes about guitarists guitar and banjo sound great , i defy anyones mood not to be lifte upon hearing the plonk of a well played banjo. mumford and sons made a cracking album which i played to death . wonderful instruments but..... i am completley guilty of cracking banjo jokes , feel no shame at doing so in front of guys i know that play the banjo . but its just fun and nothing else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aster1 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Well for me I can say this about that. A banjo & bluegrass music is some of the happiest music for me to listen to. It can be exciting and calming as well as bringing the biggest grin to my face equaled only with riding a Harley on a scenic windy stretch of road. Just me maybe but I just love a banjo and to play one and a string bass & mandolin are on my Bucket List for sure. Know I couldn't ever do a fiddle. Aster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dchristo Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 no hate here, I was raised in Carolina listening to bluegrass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParlourMan Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I like banjos, had one and sold it though... I'd like another though. Nifty when done correctly, cheesy when it's not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tafmutt Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I'm guessing that the banjo is such an uplifting sound that it brings out the fun in people, much like the accordion does. Thus, Banjo players and accordionists are often the subject of (usually) well-intended humor. The banjo player in our band is subjected to a constant barrage of jokes and seems to revel in them. With sincere apologies to banjo players; I can't resist... Upon hearing from his doctor that he only had six months to live, a man exclaimed, "But doctor, is there anything I can do?" "I'm afraid not." said the doctor. "But, there is one thing you could try..." "What, what, I'll try anything..." "Find yourself a homely girl that plays the banjo and move to Omaha." "Will that help me live longer?" "No, but it will make time go by really slowly..." MJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 The banjo occupies it's rightful place in the pantheon of musical eloquence... It's bright staccato contributions cannot help but uplift the ambience of any performance Too much 'Deliverance' in serial form can be counter-productive and eventually lead to complaint I have never cracked a 'banjo' joke... But personally bemoan the dearth of symphonies and concerti featuring said instrument I only know one accordion joke...it could be adapted for the banjo... How do you know a man is a true gentleman?... He knows how to play the accordion...but chooses not to... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroAussie Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Because (at least for me) after while the sound just becomes somewhat annoying .... a bit like listening to Bjork for more than three tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tafmutt Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdd707 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Yeah, I think it's all good natured fun. Being from Kentucky, you'll understand a sports analogy. It's sorta like Kentucky basketball vs. (well) any other team. Ya''ll don't really hate other teams, but you know you are the best. So it's part of the fun to poke at others. In Alabama we don't really hate Auburn, just like to beat 'em on the football field and then rub it in. Hey, some of my best friends are Auburn fans and banjo players (although I wouldn't want my sister to marry either). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig_no Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Doc Watson and David Holt did all right together. Flatt & Scruggs. Ralph Stanley. Etc., etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry K Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Resonator envy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Take a great song with some minor chords like the Dillards "There Is A Time", and that happy music thing can quickly get turned on it's head. Blusey numbers & jazzy tunes can also work well in the right player's hands. Not quite the instrument for all seasons, but sometimes surprisingly versatile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suburude63 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Play the acordian go to jail !!! Thats the Law!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpbiii Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Here is Mark Twain's take from 1865. I like Gottschalk well enough. He probably gets as much out of the piano as there is in it. But the frozen fact is, that all that he does get out of it is "tum, tum." He gets "tum, tum," out of the instrument thicker and faster than my landlady's daughter, Mary Ann; but, after all, it simply amounts to "tum, tum." As between Gottschalk and Mary Ann, it is only a question of quantity; and so far as quantity is concerned, he beats her three to one. The piano may do for love-sick girls who lace themsleves to skeletons, and lunch on chalk, pickles and slate pencils. But give me the banjo. Gottschalk compared to Sam Pride or Charley Rhoades, is as a Dashaway cocktail to a hot whisky punch. When you want genuine music -- music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, -- when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo! - "Enthusiastic Eloquence," San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, 23 June 1865 He also made the "gentleman" quote above. Our biggest problem is, like morphine, they are addictive. We bought one, and now our family room looks like this. Let's pick, -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissouriPicker Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I think that for most people (at least people who have matured into adults), the banjo jokes are simply jokes told in a good-natured way. I like banjos and I like banjo music. It's all part of the music I love: folk. Does their sound tend to overwhelm other instruments? Yes. Are they kind of clunky sounding and awkward looking? Yes. Does their physical appearance scream-out "Hee Haw"? Yes. But I still like them and always will. Hope I play mine better..............Aside from all of that------Why are banjo conventions always in the dark? Because there are not enough banjo players there to change the lightbulb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I think Banjo jokes are hilarious. Like racial jokes or sexist jokes, I think they are funny because the joke is on the one telling the joke. Why do guitar players hate Banjos? Because they take away our spotlight. It's all over, and the jeolousy is because the gig is up and there ain't nothing we can do about it. No more spotlight for the guitar player. Here's the gig: The guitar gets the most attention, but is the easiest instrument to play. When it comes to playing in the band, it is the worst support instrument, and easier to play than a fiddle, banjo, or bass. It does very little to support a band, but rather, we like playing with a band because they support US while we get center stage while poeple ask us to play this or that so we choose not to play other instruments because we like the attention. Admit it. When we discovered the guitar, we put DOWN the banjo because it was too hard and all we had to do was sit on the porch with only a guitar and we got all the attention we wanted. Didn't need others anymore. Banjo just spoils that gig for us. Now no one can hear what we play, and no one really cares WHAT we play. We are barely a rhythm instrument. Us guitarist don't like that. We didn't pick up the guitar to be a mere rhythm player! When Bill Monroe laid down the law and wrote the Bluegrass constitution in the 60's, he knew the guitar player would do everything in his power to grab the whole spotlight. He knew because he was a guitar player, and he made the rules the way he did to insure his place and not be taken over by OTHER guitarist. Guitar was never a traditional instrument for that "type" of music in the first place, so he invented "bluegrass" so he could be in the spotlight with a guitar. It is nature that causes us to do everything we can to eliminate the banjo, or make it as hard as we can. The more we can destroy, or fall into disrepiar, the less can be played. The harder it is for the beginner to learn, the more will give it up. It is a matter of survival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 When Bill Monroe laid down the law and wrote the Bluegrass constitution in the 60's, he knew the guitar player would do everything in his power to grab the whole spotlight. He knew because he was a guitar player, and he made the rules the way he did to insure his place and not be taken over by OTHER guitarist. Guitar was never a traditional instrument for that "type" of music in the first place, so he invented "bluegrass" so he could be in the spotlight with a guitar. Except for the fact that Bill played mandolin & formed the Bluegrass Boys in the '40s (even before that gig, he was the guy playing mandolin in the Monroe Brothers). Thankfully he liked the sound of Earl's banjo, and from there the rest, as they say, is history. Oh btw, in those early days they also employed an accordian in the group. Take a listen to the original version of Rocky Road Blues - it works perfectly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JuanCarlosVejar Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I love banjos and mandos . love bluegrass music and I think it's one of the best forms of music out there. JC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aster1 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I have also found that I just love a good German round of some Polka music (not to dance to) but to listen to that great accordion & that wonderful tuba & a good 6 string guitar. More happy music even w/o the beer!!! Aster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The G Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Why are Banjo jokes so simple? So, Bass players can understand them. Seriously ,how can you not feel good listening to a good banjo player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Except for the fact that Bill played mandolin & formed the Bluegrass Boys in the '40s (even before that gig, he was the guy playing mandolin in the Monroe Brothers). Thankfully he liked the sound of Earl's banjo, and from there the rest, as they say, is history. Oh btw, in those early days they also employed an accordian in the group. Take a listen to the original version of Rocky Road Blues - it works perfectly! How embarrasing. That kinda blows my whole point. It's not that I don't think I know what I'm talking about, I'm just wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Lest we forget...a fact or two to peruse (and by implication subsequently ruminate thereupon :blink: ) People are somewhat fixated on Bluegrass as the quintessence of 'banjo' music Where as...drawing on the late 19th century blues origins... Dixieland and 'Trad' jazz rely on the banjo for rhythmic anchorage The great Lonnie Donegan...himself an ex trad jazz banjo-ist Found fame and fortune in the skiffle genre Inspiring such nascent greats as The Quarrymen, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, Billy Connolly et al.... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyReb Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 Well I do seem to have a better understanding now. And yea I do have a sense of humor, I frequently laugh at the banjo jokes Missouripicker.....what's wrong with HeeHaw???? It rocks Anyhow it doesn't seem anyone here has any actually hate for a banjo. It still seems the AGF crowd has a little disgust for them though. But I think it's just Yankees who stereotype a banjo with some kid on the porch with his teeth falling out ( there's deliverance again!) For you guys talking about Bill Monroe.....I don't live to far from his home place. One day shortly before he died he was on the local news channel here for assaulting his wife with a bible apparently she got out of line and he thumped her over the head a few times. The news was even sure to film him going to church and stuff. My old man always said bill was a pretty onery fella but I guess that proved it to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortyearspickn Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Here is Mark Twain's take from 1865. He also made the "gentleman" quote above. Our biggest problem is, like morphine, they are addictive. We bought one, and now our family room looks like this. Let's pick, -Tom Wowsers! You have definitely got a bad case of BAS ! I feel deprived having only one Deering 5 string ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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