Gerry O'Connor on Irish Banjo

[cathalsirishmusik]

deadly



[primushl]

I find this very inspiring and I am now practising "The Bag of spuds" on my recorder, thanks Gerry!

[FarmerNinja]

i fuck my sheep

[thebailster5]

18 people need to burn

[TheMrBlackCrow]

I really like this, thank you...your playing is awesome

[trinitypoolservice]

Who could possibly hate this? Jazus!! This was totally awesome..... and wicked triplets! Guru I think:) I agree with irishphil757...... A Hurl to the head should do it!

[irishphil757]

18 people need to see me so I can split their fucking heads open!

[warina5511]

18 people are blind



[sammom4k2]

I like the way he completely gets into the groove of playing and ignores everything else. Total focus.

[canvascat]

lovely presice playing gerry--thanks , loved it.

[devonriley415]

that's what im talkin about!

[philochristos]

I cannot find this on iTunes.  :-(

[Olebull93]

hes good. suppringsly good.

[IchigoKenny]

Will you all shut up, Jesus invented the Banjo to annoy dinosaurs.

[rebarproductions]

@IchigoKenny i read that in my history book

[busway27]

Don't matter who made it. Matters who made something out of it. Many cultures, including the Irish and African cultures have made some incredible music using the same instrument.

[AdventOctober]

If you're going to say that Africans invented the modern banjo then you might as well say that Eli Whitney invented the international harvester. The africans invented the predecessor to the banjo that may or may not have inspired the modern day banjo. On that note, who really gives a shit.

[AdventOctober]

What tuning is he in?

[ghsr82]

@AdventOctober GDAE

[charlesbarton924]

Strings on a gourd ha ha ha where would you have found a string to put on a gourd in your grass or mud hut surprised you even knew how to grow gourds are you sure you didn't steal food from a more civilized nation or wait for a hand out . String on a gourd ha haha ha ha you were too busy worrying about getting eaten by lions

[voodoihippo]

NICE TREMOLOS !!!

[SlothyTwoToes]

@avp007 Africans invented a goard instrument with a stick for a neck and no tuning pegs. The modern banjo is a WHITE MANS INVENTION. Jackass.

[smellmyfingure]

@SlothyTwoToes dosent matter Africans invented it, its possible that "white" man made it better but at the end of the day credit goes to the africans

[TheJosherymill]

This banjo = Awesome.

[icedogg93]

thats amaaaaaaazing XD epic tune :D



[tonysshadow]

Im scotch irish by blood as is (or was orginally) a huge chunk of folks in southern US of A. I grew up hearing such sounds. Im awful happy to see a connection with my kinfolk thru music.

(Contrary to urban legend here in the US of A.... the banjo was not invented in sub-sahara Africa)

Will the PC nonsense ever stop???

[fairyloila]

IS he play a short neck..

[larsforyou]

Good banjo playing

[mauramcfly]

Hello Gerry! Our grandmothers were first cousins - that's what my aunt, Sister Sheila O'Sullivan tells me! My grandfather was Tim O'Sullivan. Your music is wonderful! Come visit us in Canada! :) Tell your mother and dad Sr Sheila says hello!

[flyingspacepotatoes]

those triplets defy my primitive understanding of physics.

[FINESTb0ii]

but who invented the dildo?

[Torome86]

No single culture can ever claim sole credit for music. All music passes through and is adapted by different peoples and sent back and adapted again many times over. Instruments are adopted, modified, then retuned and remodified over and over... just enjoy beautiful music for what it is... beautifiul. BTW, I'm American.

[Sanvorae]

This is a Tenor Banjo right?

[krijger103]

This reminds me of the Battle music in Braveheart.

[onekiwi2]

Stirs the irish blood in me, had my toes tappn!

[SuperJewFag]

@onekiwi2 did you get drunk too

[EliasCrowe]

no one "invinted" the banjo

[biscuit23232]

i have started doing covers of pop songs on tenor banjo. check out my first video please on my channel. katy perry - i kissed a girl.r

[TheLordbanjo]

he probly puts on fresh strings everyday hes making so much , lucky fella

[wookieproductions]

he looks like Paul McCartney!

[seriall1337]

@wookieproductions he really does, I was gonna comment about it, then i saw your comment.

[empossible1]

everyone invented the banjo at the same time! problem solved :)

[flashybobashy]

the banjo did start in ireland



[polmaccaba01]

lol.. the banjo originated from Africa....okay....i could go one...

[banjobassman]

Gerry is Bela Fleck's long lost Irish Twin

[georgieonmymind]

Wonderful, do you give out tabs?

[waveking81]

holy shit. my hopes of becoming a decent banjo player.... were just brutally crushed

[zingzangwallawalla]

fantastic :)



[fiddlinhoss]

Wonderful job, Mr. O'Connor, truly brilliant playing!!! You've just earned a new fan!!

[frdwd6]

Ohhh the banjo is an American instrument!! Originated with African slaves in the colonies.

[MRmattconnell]

Fuck white people!

[butternutsquashpie]

one of the only people i would buy off itunes

cause it's worth it

[pilot91]

I wanna go to a tavern and sit by the fire with a pint of ale...

[kiwimac1]

cant play it .......just like a lot of the favs ...tube forget sort it out

[Mikeydottt]

Jesus, why does everything on YouTube have to blow up into race wars. Who gives a shit where the banjo came from or that he is Irish or white or whatever.. Shut the fuck up and enjoy the music or GTFO, Haters.

[ddahea]

@Mikeydottt Amen brother amen

[brelfan]

@Mikeydottt Yeah. Irish music and banjo really important to American folk. Music from slaves also very important. Probably wrong too to assume slave music and African music is precisely one in the same because most slaves came to US from the Carribean. Probably a lot of English and Scottish in these songs too, and much music that we consider to be Irish really orginated in one of the other British iles. Not sure how German, Norwegian and French music fits, but it probably does. Right. Enjoy.

[Caninedogma]

@Mikeydottt Can we all agree that no one invented the Banjo, and that it doesn't exist?

[3seashells]

@Mikeydottt You're only saying that cos you're white and American. Trust me, I'm Irish. We invented top rated comments...

[Ulrigh]

@Mikeydottt very nice comment! :)

[nfapiper1]

This is great, but Barney McKenna is the real king of the tenor banjo.

[toweringmatt]

dang, 4-string banjo

[713price]

Wow...

[EnigmaticWolf1]

15 people dont like good music.

[Boutlandish]

@muffinsNsausage. Too funny! XD

-this was a great video, it makes me want to play the banjo. I wish I knew how.

[BSbusters]

Music is the Devils work.

[buildgod93]

@BSbusters Art in general is the devil's work, and that's why I love it. 

[muffinsNsausage]

@BSbusters Yup, that's why you sing hymns in church.

[chessleach]

@BSbusters Not all of it. but a lot of todays pop songs.

Some Church music isn't, It's still music though.

[TroggDoor]

Jesus, why is it that nearly every conversation thread on the internet turns into a racist insult match?

[captbanjo1]

I took a week-long class with Gerry years ago in Boston at the now-defunct Gaelic Roots teaching week. Incredible musician and a great guy! (Went back to 5 string banjo after that...)

[TheRedcurrant1]

makes me feel inadequate as a banjoist

[targetcxd]

@TheRedcurrant1 I know right! I've got to practice my reels until I bleed now

[NoRaces]

i am play bass, tenor banjo, and mandolin and this guys is a fucking genuis. i mostly play jazz, and punk on the side and the banjo is not just a hic instrument

[strings6able]

Gerry O Connor the finest banjo player you can meet for irish trad well done Gerry

[SupaGlitch]

This is not irish music. This is Music.

[bmxdude1978]

the IRISH Spirit lives on and on.....

[octavoinfierno2]

loco... como rompen las pelotas con esas propagandas que se cargan antes de los videos... al final se esta poniendo mas propaganda que video el youtube!!!!

[55copper88]

fuck thees ads

[chicotheblue]

Fuck Me..Awesome...Irish Deliverance!

[xander2541]

I LOVE IT BRUDER!!! Throw in a bagpipe and you'd really be jammin LOVE LIVE IRELAND!

[4evergreendayfan]

is he playing a tenor banjo?

[55copper88]

grt thees fucking ads off u-tube

[Prometheus1st]

I like this song, but I have to POINT you to MR Steve Martin's performance of "Clawhammer Medley during a COMEDY show he was performing back in the 70's(?) Here it is in all it's glory:

"youtube.com/watch?v=l31MSpojW­TA"

[Tillhammer]

This guy and Barney Mckenna are the two gods of the banjo.

[topholewhat0]

obviously hasn't reached my level yet but i do see alot of potential.

[55copper88]

get thees fucking ads. off u-tube

[uhyea101]

how the fuck can "anyone" not like this!

[Deputydog857]

Fuk these dumb ass commercials

[Deputydog857]

Fik advertisments

[Buanand]

The banjo was "invented" by African slaves transported to the West Indies. They inter married with the white slaves the Brits sent from Ireland. It's a m ixture of African & celtic music.

[tezzabanboy]

does it matter.this is good banjo playing enjoy it .

[razzyj88]

Fuck yea!

[avp007]

@55copper88

except that the banjo originated from Africans

[briteenough2burn]

@avp007 that's a bit of a stretch.

[avp007]

@briteenough2burn

is it? do some research.

[madshakon123]

@avp007 just as the white men:)

[avp007]

@madshakon123

haha. that's true too i guess

[LilRick67]

Lol... some of the most primitive people come up with the most incredible things do they not? Oh that's right, they don't! Read more than just a paragraph from wikipedia every now and then.

[avp007]

@LilRick67

im sorry if I made it seem like i got my information from wikipedia, i didn't. Furthermore, it's not my opinion, it's the opinion of the majority of musical history experts (you can ask around yourself and see that I am right). And yea, for the most part their contributions seem primitive, but their contributions to music are never argued, although they might not receive the credit they deserve.

[briteenough2burn]

@avp007 their contributions are never argued because they consist of banging on animal hide. want me to ask around? here, let me get out my address book of experts on musical history...oh wait...

it sounds like "asking around" is where you get all your information.

furthermore, this is no place for a debate on anthropology or race.

[avp007]

@briteenough2burn

you're right, it's no place to debate such things

[amgonfire]

some boy for 1 boy

[butternutsquashpie]

@avp007 which originiated in Rome prior to that :D

[Gloryboys17]

@butternutsquashpie are you sure of this??

[butternutsquashpie]

@Gloryboys17 Twas called the loot.

which is the basis of everysingle stringed instrument today

[Gloryboys17]

@butternutsquashpie that's awesome

[eriknyquist123]

@butternutsquashpie lute actually

[sdmf435]

@avp007 where do you get that from?

[argone72]

@avp007 um... your wrong bro sry,the drums came from africa not banjo,its started in ireland

[CLOSETEDVICTOR]

@avp007 enslaved africans

[darklotrfan193]

@avp007 That has to be the funniest shit ever, it came from Africa? Are you serious? Do you know who plays the banjo now a days??....Rednecks in the deep south and other whites. Please tell me your trolling with that.....

[avp007]

@darklotrfan193

I wasn't trolling. I was talking about it's origin, not how far it has spread, or with whom it is now popular.

Think about the potato. Its origin is in South America(Peru). The potato is essential and highly revered in Europe, and in Ireland, it provided poor medieval families with excellent nutrition that they didn't have (up until the famine). The potato has now spread throughout all cultures, but it was completely unknown to the rest of the world until the Spanish spread it

[nadnerbmcg]

@avp007

Potato not introduced into Ireland until 1589 so would not have fed Irish medieval poor.

[avp007]

@darklotrfan193

similarly, stringed instruments can be traced back (with solid evidence) to Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and Northern african cultures. The Spanish conquests then spread stringed instruments to southern europe and then northern europe, and other parts of the world where regional peoples developed their own unique instruments based off of previous, perhaps primitive designs.

I dont mean to start race wars here, its not about that. Its about history, human history.

[Flopthelot58]

@avp007 yeah and the guitar from Arabs, the fiddle from Italy and so on... what's your point?

[PrinzEugenMCMLXXXIII]

@55copper88 HAHAH, schooled.

[twoeaglesch]

irish banjo?

[opoponits]

1: no one should hate on regional differences in banjo playing because if it doesn't make sense that people in ireland, rural america and west africa play an instrument differently than you don't deserve to listen.

2: standard tuning?

[MrLongtimegone]

Why didn't he change up the dam arangment some ..5 minutes of the same thing over and over. He is a class picker he should have just straight picked it on a guitar woulda sounded better.

[geofflovett]

It was the irish that took it to America,so some toothless fucking inbred retard could play dueling banjos.

This is music heaven sent.

[twoeaglesch]

@geofflovett actually it was made by the slaves, a mixture of instruments from africa

[mentalillnesstalking]

@twoeaglesch Yeah, it was. The title of this video surprised me a bit. The banjo is an African American instrument. I think that it's become used so much in Irish music recently that even the Irish have become confused about it's origins.

[mentalillnesstalking]

@geofflovett You're wrong my inbred, toothless irish friend. In very recent years (we're talking the mid 1900s) the irish adopted it just as they adopted the mandolin from the Italians earlier. The banjo was first made by African Americans, then used by the Scots-Irish Americans, then adopted by the general American public, and finally borrowed by the irish. Look it up.

[CNFstudios]

most people these days take the banjo as a shitty country instrument that inbred hicks play on a porch and it annoys me, this guy is here playing very wonderfully and its great to see people enjoy this type of music as much as i do.

[7SonsofFeanor]

@CNFstudios

Haha, country bands don't have banjos. You have to listen to bluegrass to get something like this....

[bigdjindustriez]

@7SonsofFeanor This is nothing like bluegrass banjo. Bluegrass banjo is played finger style on a 5 string, this is played with a flat plectrum on a 4 string tenor banjo. Completely different

[superhamzah85]

Exxellent playing!

Only funny thing about banjo is, you can make love to a chick in rock n roll, classical, pop, rnb, soul.....but it's IMPOSSIBLE with banjo music.

[valad272]

@superhamzah85 true but you shore as hell can fight to it

[RoughshodElm]

hahaha shit the beginning made me laugh

[raukorist77]

anybody else want to be in a bar with a pint in hand stomping your foot to the beat and singing a bar song? i sure as hell do! god i miss ireland

[getduloh]

i sampled this video and made a hip hop remix, check my channell

[RoughshodElm]

@getduloh na

[RoughshodElm]

I wan't to get a Banjo.. learn how to play this... And skip down an old country road in Ireland with a banjo while playing this at the same time

[55copper88]

@RoughshodElm aman

[biggieboy2510]

0:25 is the start of the song. amazing!

[biggieboy2510]

this makes me want to dance and BURN THE HOUSE DOWN!

[Goldie450]

Fair Ply to ya Gerry FANTASTIC!

[alankingwell]

Nice one Gerry

[cymmitch]

why is it I hate Country Muzac but ya give me a banjo... and I am all there!!!

[MrRalf012]

@cymmitch me too man. bluegrass rocks, country sucks.

[LuneMortRaiser]

god dammit i love the bag of spuds i have it like ringtone :D

[nono74lpf]

@LuneMortRaiser

It's my wake up alarm ^^

[tikioaktree]

WOW I ALMOST JUMPED INTO A JIG lol :D awesomeness

[lytken]

awesome

[chucklds]

I want this cd!!!!!!!!

[flyingspacepotatoes]

i would like to that on a fiddle

[Hisgracecase]

No, the 5 string is tuned bluegrass style with open G as the tuning. The Irish is tuned to be chowder and flat picked. The standard tenor is tuned diff also. The tenor or 4-string is shorter with a more staccato sound. The Irish tuning lens itself to a more Gaelic melody. Good luck. I play both types but prefer the 5.

[EvergreenSasquatch]

Hello, I was just wondering if their is a huge difference between the four string banjo, and a five string banjo. Someone is giving me a Gibson Mastertone Copycat, and I was just curious if I would be able to achieve the traditional Irish sound on a five string?

[7The7Green7]

@EvergreenSasquatch The earliest photos of Banjo in Ireland are 5 stringers. A few video clips on YT of 5 string style, fingerstyle and even clawhammer! There is also a training book and perhaps dvd to teach some 5 string Celtic tunes. I know 'cuz I also play 5 string but prefer the Irish music. Irish banjo is tuned same as a mandolin.

[EvergreenSasquatch]

@7The7Green7 Alright cool, thanks.

[MrAudioProducer]

Why this banjo is called as "Irish Banjo"? It's usual 4-string tenor banjo using in dixieland bands

[piperscott081295]

@MrAudioProducer its called an irish banjo because of the playing style just like a fiddle and a violin theres no difference exept for the way its played

the only exeption iswhen a bonjo player uses a 17 freted banjo witch is just a short scale banjo but 90 % of the pro players use full sized banjos

[Greg763]

I apologize, at 3:40 he did bend a note. Sounded great to add that in there.

[Greg763]

Excellent, but I'd like to hear him add in a few notes in which he bends the strings like a guitarist would. This gets kinda monotonous after a minute or so.

[wylley1]

cool

[jaimecoady]

fuckin offensive pre-message about healthcare. You should be ashamed. I just want the music

[Pashazgv]

the sheet for that piece must be as thick as the bible

[Xerxes4242]

@Pashazgv With much more substance!

[ruggggg]

JamesTKirkCobain, tell ya what. when i get my banjo in a few weeks & i've had enough lessons on here to know what i'm doing. i'll do a song for ya & hopfully i'll sound good enough to where you'll want to go out & get one too...  LOL LOL but if you want to listen to another REALLY good banjo player (without lessons ) her name is Mean Mary. i don't know why she has "mean" in her name, because she's sweet & sexy ! ! ! Check her out

[SB47ab16]

This is just bloody amazing. Thanks for sharing this Gerry.

[Skater4Life295]

"tyune" awesome

[youdirtylittlemoocow]

bad ass banjo playing right there

[PureZOOKS]

That narrator has the THICkest irish accet I have ever heard.

[okatoman]

Good Stuff

[RusnakBanjo]

Great!...Few tenor players say in these youtube videos what type pf flat pick they use? Thin, mediaum, heavy? Some folks say they have to use picks with the cork on one side because the pick seems to slip around when trying those tripps..Tell us about picks and preferences etc...I'm a newbie on the Irish tenor and my picks revolve between my fingers as I play.

[paddyryan53]

@RusnakBanjo

i play tenor banjo in an irish band an i prefare to use a medium to heavy pick as a with a thin pick i tend to miss the strings or not hit them with the force i would like to. have a look at my video of me playing and you will see what i mean. however strangly it may be effected by your string choice. if i use light strings then i tend to use lighter picks, but i oftern use medium string guages so i tend to use heavyer picks. hope this helps

[gopherbar]

Tims

[banjopaul100]

Gerry is like a grandmaster of the tenor banjo world class !! he has inspired me for years after a long and enjoyable journey i`m playing quite well thanks gerry.

[paddyryan53]

@banjopaul100 give me some feedback into the way i play please, as i have developed my own style on the tenor banjo but use standard tuning EADG.

Thanks

[gercolt]

class

[Gaels9]

Did anyone else hear him change tunes?! Cos I didn't!! Now that's quality...

[Lisnageeragh]

@Gaels9  2: 16 !

[OrangeLightBulbCat]

to get into such a rhythm with your right hand must a very difficult

[mkaul78]

This is a seriously awesome tune. Wish I could start learning the banjo and play some good irish tunes to myself. You are the man Jerry! You got a CD or songs on iTunes?