Bill Evans: Minstrel Banjo

Here Bill plays two stroke-style pieces from the 1800's on a fretless minstrel banjo replica built by George Wunderlich.

The first piece, "St. Patrick's Day," is from Frank B. Converse's New and Complete Method for the Banjo With or Without A Master (1865).

"Whoop Jamboree" is the second piece, from Thomas Briggs' Briggs' Banjo Instructor (1855).

Many thanks to Joe Ayers for publishing these instructional manuals and keeping minstrel banjo alive in the 21st century.

For more information about Bill's "Banjo In America" tour, vist Bill online at http://www.nativeandfine.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• world
• music
• banjo
• bluegrass

[LegallyMoi]

Hey are those gut or nylgut strings? Great vid by the way

[BillEvansBanjo]

You know, I'm not sure. I think nylgut. The nylguts work very well - they don't fray (or don't fray as fast) as gut. I'm not totally into messing with strings on these minstrel banjos - I tend to just use whatever is on there when I purchase it!

[CowboyBobinpa]

What kind of head is on this banjo. I have one similar with a skin head and it sinks. what Size Pot? CBB

[BillEvansBanjo]

It's a skin head but I'm not sure of the exact dimensions of the pot. The brackets are designed to keep the head tight but because there are so few brackets and the skin head is always adjusting to the immediate environment, I don' t keep the head very tight. All the best, Bill

[Andrehippie12]

@LegallyMoi Well, at 1:41 you can see that the 4th string is wire-wrapped. A lot of sets of nylgut strings feature a wire-wrapped 4th string, so I'm guessing the rest of the strings are nylgu, too.

[joeshea1010]

really enjoyed this thank you

[kratanuva725]

Wow, I love the sound of this banjo! So nice and mellow sounding.

[martyfan11]

@arcitejack

I think it's open F.

[arcitejack]

Bill, whats the tuning here...seems like an open G maybe turned down to an A?

[giggleblaggle]

Well I've been playing Scruggs style banjo for about 12 years now but i've never really known anything about minstrel banjo. Why is it tuned so low? What's the tuning? How do you play it? It looks similar to clawhammer; I suppose it is the style before clawhammer? SO many questions. But I know one thing, it sounds really good.

[flatpikinguitar]

Its kinda like going from mandolin to fiddle. same tuning only a fiddle has no frets so you just have to learn where the frets would be and go there. and actually IS its actually harder than it sounds.

[ilovemutemath]

that is a BEAUTIFUL banjo.