1850s Minstrel banjo

[hardeeflag]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

I have seen a small image of one that was a camp banjo used by Capt Thomas of the 18th Texas Cavalry (Dismounted), Ganbury's brigade. It is not the best image but can be seen here.

Caption:

Handmade banjo used during the Civil War by Capt. James Pinckney Thomas. The drum is made of bobcat skin. Capt. Thomas served in Company "E", 18 th Texas Cavalry led by John D. Coit under Gen. Granberry, Clebourne Division. It is said of him, "He did more good with that banjo than many a preacher, when he kept the boys in camp nights, with his playing and singing." Dallas Historical Society.

http://www.dallashistory.org/history/texas/civil_war.htm

[hardeeflag]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

I am new to playing banjo but I can play, I got to say these banjos make you work to play. At least this one I build does. They are not the easiest playing instruments.

Anyone have any comments on setup to make these minstrel banjo action a little more payable?

[Boucher42]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

The picture of the banjo in the above post, is a double headed Boucher ( or a very close facsimile) far from "home made" as mentioned in the blurb.

[gregcadams]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Anyone have any comments on setup to make these minstrel banjo action a little more payable?

Dear Rich,

Welcome to the excitement and frustration of playing the banjo. For me, it's working carefully with the bridge and nut (the things about a banjo that can be easily changed/manipulated). I have about a dozen bridges that I use/experiment with on my reproduction Ashborn banjo. If you haven't glued the nut into place, also consider playing around with the height of the strings above the fingerboard on the nut-side of the neck. My Ashborn banjo's nut was not glued in, making it easier for me to put in blanks and customize what I wanted. Overall, my current set up includes the strings on the nut-side of the neck just a fraction above the fingerboard and a bridge that is 1.5 cm high.

Greg C. Adams

[CW Watch Collector]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Question from a newby to the forum:

I have been playing clawhammer style banjo for 11 years. How hard is it for a reasonably good clawhammer picker to learn minstrel style? Does one ever pick chords in minstrel style playing? And how many fingers are usually used on the right hand? Thanks.

Clint Geller, Pittsburgh PA

[dculgan]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Question from a newby to the forum:

I have been playing clawhammer style banjo for 11 years. How hard is it for a reasonably good clawhammer picker to learn minstrel style? Does one ever pick chords in minstrel style playing? And how many fingers are usually used on the right hand? Thanks.

Clint Geller, Pittsburgh PA

I can best address your second and third questions. Yes, chords are played, either a full chord brushed in stroke style, or picked with thumb and two fingers in "guitar style" (examples - Brigg's Corn Shucking Jig, Kentucky Juba). Many of the banjo tunes are played out of chord shapes. In stroke style the thumb and one finger are used, down-picking a la clawhammer. In guitar style the thumb and two fingers (or more) picking up are used. Dave Culgan, Camptown Shakers. ( band is playing at Remembrance Day in Gettysburg - "Old Gettysburg Village" in the afternoon, Farnsworth House in the evening).

[Silas]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Go to the Minstrel Banjo forum that I linked early in this thread. Many, if not most, of the period tutors can be found and downloaded. The three primary authors to find are Briggs, Converse and Rice. The instruction in Rice is awesome and answers many of your questions. And more.

[hardeeflag]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Question from a newby to the forum:

I have been playing clawhammer style banjo for 11 years. How hard is it for a reasonably good clawhammer picker to learn minstrel style? Does one ever pick chords in minstrel style playing? And how many fingers are usually used on the right hand? Thanks.

Clint Geller, Pittsburgh PA

I second what Silas says. The Briggs an Rice instruction manual are reproduced and also there are a lot of YouTube videos to pickup on too. With 11 years experience with clawhammer I don't think you'll have a hard time adapting at all.

I'm a little over a year into playing (mostly been playing clawhammer and a little 19th Century stroke style) and I stink when comparing my self to others playing but I can sure entertain myself and stroke out a few tunes. This thread was when I was building my Bell Boucher kit. I still have it and played it last night. I now have now minstrels and three open backs. As you can see form the buy and sell forums that banjo and CW living history kind of attract obsession types. :)

[CW Watch Collector]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I frequent another website called the Banjo Hangout, and I asked the same question there. Some very accomplished minstrel and clawhammer players there (e.g., Bob Flesher, among others) responded that the two styles are much more similar than I had thought. They also pointed out that "minstrel banjo" was mostly an urban stage performance style that most rural people of the time, which would have been most people, might never actually have heard. So being that that is the case, I am not inclined to change my current style of play too much. The specific issue of whether to play chords is a bit tricky, though. Many contemporary banjo players started out as guitar players, where chords are central. I began on the banjo, but my primary teacher started as a guitar player. Hence, I learned to play chords as an essential element of banjo music. I like chords. They give the music a fuller sound, and when playing melody, they frame the melody in a way that single notes can't. But whether chords are authentic for CW reenactment is another question, as guitars likely entered into mainstream American music somewhat later. I suspect that individual picking styles varied widely, even more so then than now, as the homogenizing influences of mass media were entirely absent. So one could not say categorically that chords are inappropriate.

[Danny]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

To the general question posed earlier: Was it common that an enlisted soldier would carry a banjo on the march? No. There's scant evidence of it, officers or sailors a little more. Is it common in reenacting lately? Yes.

[CW Watch Collector]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

To the general question posed earlier: Was it common that an enlisted soldier would carry a banjo on the march? No. There's scant evidence of it, officers or sailors a little more. Is it common in reenacting lately? Yes.

Maybe so, but banjos would not necessarily have to have been "carried" on the march to end up, or to have been improvised, on one. See, for example Bob Flesher's statement on the matter, and the references cited therein: http://www.drhorsehair.com/war.html

Another piece of persuasive circumstantial evidence that banjos likely were present in Civil War army camps on campaign is that they apparently were commonplace in British armies on campaign in the l880's and 1890's, if not earlier. We know that because of Rudyard Kipling's well known poem written in 1894, "The Song of the Banjo," : http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176149 .

[Danny]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

If you want to have and play a banjo in reenacting it's not hard to construct a scenario for your impression. And why not? Look how many reenactors have grey hair (the "grizzled veteran" in the heritage unit to ignore actual ratios) or are officers (a particular commission in the heritage unit to ignore actual ratios).

Since some camps were long term, for instance winter camps, there was ample time to have a factory or other existing banjo mailed to you (an officer or a particular private with resources), or to find materials and construct a banjo (resourceful soldier with skills), or to win one in a poker game (resourceful soldier), or to"forage" one locally. The tintypes we have of such tend to show a long-term camp setting, to go by the accompanying furniture in camp and the time necessary for a photographer to set up the pose, etc.

[Danny]

Re: 1850s Minstrel banjo

Regarding the Dr. Horsehair cites, Baur and Sweeney were professional players so their experience with camp music in the army is not typical for just any soldier who played a banjo. Still, that's one way to construct your impression, even if not specific to the unit you portray, or specifically not about a unit on the march. It's not like anyone can deny it.

For those of us that refer to them often, the published reminisces of old soldiers in the late century/new century tend to wax poetic and go as much for their own legacy as they did for factual reality, which were clouded by decades after all, and for which they were not bound to factual reality. Field diaries are the more reliable source for camp life, and you would think that given how many of those there are banjos would be mentioned as often as other pastimes like coffee, tobacco and card playing.