Taylor swift playing banjo with fiddle player at her 2009 fearless concert tour • Video (ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO) RU-vid: DOBEFOREIDIE INSTAGRAM: 2DOBEFOREIDIE TUMBLR: DO-BEFORE-I-DIE.COM
@SonicProvocateur Banjos are tuned to open G, not C. Also, that "banjo" has 6 strings, which means it is simply a guitar shaped like a banjo (which are sold at Guitar Center).
What's the matter with people, dissing this talented young lady? So she's not THE BEST at everything. She doesn't have to be, she's a fantastic entertainer and she writes her own songs. Versatile and lovely.
She is a manufactured personality with orchestrated appearance of talent that appeals to a generation that have been enabled to think they are special or a princess she is the image they close their eyes and imagine they are to escape reality that their parents lied to them and they are in fact pathetic losers
Yup, Tom Warlick is spot on. It's not a banjo, it's what's known as a guitar banjo, guitjo, banjar, banjitar, bantar or ganjo. It's essentially a banjo head with a guitar neck with standard 6 string guitar tuning. It's got banjo twang, but is played identically to a guitar which is completely different than a 4 or 5 string banjo. She also strums it like a guitar, and doesn't pick Scruggs or Claw-hammer style as a banjo player would do. Banjos are a tough instrument to master. Tons of practice!
Not only is it not a banjo, it's also not a "solo!" I'd go further and say that Taylor Swift also isn't "music," but I actually do think she has more talent than the average pop star these days.
To those that say this is a banjo I can give a little history lesson which can clarify why this is not a banjo. What makes a banjo a banjo is it's origins which are found in the Senegambia region of West Africa where it is believed that primitive banjos traveled to America by way of the slave trade where it developed into today's five string banjo whereas that instrument is a guitar which originates in Spain therefore making an inaccurate description of a banjo.
If a keyboard has a grand piano plugin to make it sound like a grand piano does that make the keyboard a grand piano? What she is playing is a guitar made to sound like a banjo. It may sound like a banjo but it's a guitar. I play both guitar and banjo and they are very different instruments. The skills needed to play each are hardly interchangeable. She doesn't know how to play a banjo, she knows how to play a guitar.
Ok, SHE DOES PLAY A SOLO BEFORE THIS!!!! Then Caitlin comes out. Even though it's not a banjo, she said it herself that this was a nerve-wracking part of the show. Be nice!
She isn't bad, but I've heard some of her living performances in which she's really coping it. She isn't a bad singer, and I'm not sure how much the recording people "fix" up her voice, but you gotta realize in the studio, you have the liberty of recording yourself when your voice is at your best.You don't have this opportunity to wait on your voice being in top shape live. So, I wouldn't say Taylor Swift is bad, but she definitely is not the best either.
As with Elvis's later work, she's just using the instrument (which really isn't a banjo anyway) as a prop. However, Elvis could actually play some rhythm guitar when he took a mind to.
Uh, it`s not a traditional banjo. Notice it has six strings. It is configured so that anone who lays guitar can play it the same way. Traditional banjos have 5 strings and are played very differently.
check out bands like Slim Cessna's auto club, 16 Horsepower, Deadly gentlemen, O'death .. They're giving a fresh twist to country/oldtime/bluegrass... Dale Watson, Dan Tyminski, Crooked Still, are examples of modern artists who still perform in a more traditional way. ( I also count bluegrass as country )
@GuitarGirlMia And no, it's a banjo, not a "banjitar" there is no such thing.. Banjo's are tuned in open C so all you have to do is strum it open and it sounds like your playing it.
@SonicProvocateur - Superfluous implies that they are unnecessary or unneeded. I am aware that changing tunings on a guitar usually requires them to be set up differently. The point that I was trying to make is that a multitude of tunings and being able to switch between them seems to be an integral part of the banjo experience, especially at the higher levels of the instrument, especially as compared to guitar.
Nope. It's a banjo designed to be easy to a guitar player to play. It uses a stretched membrane to amplify the sound and not a wood body like a guitar. If I took the sixth string off my guitar, tuned the remaining five strings like a banjo, and played it with a clawhammer technique would it become a banjo? Of course not, because it's still using a wood body and not a stretched membrane to amplify the sound.
Outlaw Country, Altcountry, Southern Gothic,... whatever you call these sub genres, it's all country.. I can assure Country music is alive, maybe not in the way it was before but younger bands are experimenting and creating new things. Look up Muddy Roots festival, check the line-up and you'll see what I am. They don't play these guys on the radio, you have to know where to look. Just because they're not on the surface doesn't mean it's dead. I definitely agree 'bout Pop country sucking.
@SonicProvocateur - I find it shortsighted of you to openly declare that there is only one way to tune a banjo. Look in the liner notes of any Tony Trischka album and you will probably find at least three different tunings, if not more. When I first started learning about banjo, I was presented with no less than six potential tunings, depending on the key of the song. Also, if you're in music retail, perhaps you might know the purpose of a "Scruggs Tuner".
There are lots of Banjo Tunings for 5 string. Open G is pretty common but there is also C tuning , Double C, Open C, Triple C, D Tuning, D Minor. Most of these are used in either Clawhammer or Bluegrass depending on the song. The C tuning is only one note different from the open G. However, since this video uses a Guitar Banjo ( so named by Gibson) these are all moot points here.
Folks, that is a 6 string banjo. 6 string banjos are played like a guitar. You strum and so on. It has a head like a 5 string with a "bluegrassy sound". It is still a banjo, regardless.
I think the banjo is officially touching the floor. I would get a kink in my arm trying to fret it. Someone needs to teach Ms. Swift about how to hold instruments to avoid hurting herself.
Music can be catchy and fun, but the fact is that that's ALL popular music has become about nowadays. Music should also emulate art at times, have a sense of humor, irony, etc. None of those other things are prevalant here.
This is what I want from commercial country: It's catchy, fun to listen to, not too annoying or overly produced, and there's a cute lady involved. Maybe she's not technically an excellent 6 string banjo player but she is a dynamic performer who is very fun to watch. I remember Lucinda Williams making fun of "chin scratchers" with high and mighty ideas about music and I'm going to make a wild guess that Lucinda would like this. What's so terrible about music that's just catchy and fun?
Shes a pop star. A product.The banjo for her is a prop.Want to see some girls with real talent?try Sarah Jarosz,Sierra Hull, and Macyn Taylor.to be fair to Taylor,she can put on a show.Heck,I even saw her front Def Lepard and was impressed.but put her up against any of the talent I mentioned on an instrument and she would be toast.
There are 6 string banjos, but that's a guitar neck on a banjo head. I know Deering makes them, probably other companies as well. Trying to look country but not.
a sorry but this concert was her speak now tour, I didn't go but I do know she wore this and I saw the dvd, I just saw u wrote this was at her 2009 fearlees tour... :)
Not a solo, a duet. NOT a banjo, it has six strings. It's a guitar shaped like a banjo. Backwoodhauling; Since it's a guitar that might explain it. TruagrassBoy; Take some banjo lessons? I've never seen a six string banjo, it's a guitar. "Doesn't cut it in the real world"? That's funny considering the number of records she has sold. What are you up to now?, Zero? Why am I not surprised.
@SuperMonkeyCube Yeah, the original superfluous detuner. When I first started working in retail I got more complaints from players that the banjos weren't in C that they would just tune them up to G if they wanted so over the years I just tuned them to C. Same as standard versus drop D or D modal for guitar players. Banjos rarely come setup from the factory (to keep the bridge from being smashed, unlike guitars) but guitars have to be reintonated with drastic tuning changes.
Now if it made me feel something and made me think and reflect on my life then it has emulated art and it has worked. If she has filled an arena with thousands of people who gave up 3 hours and tens of dollars to see her she must be doing something right, unless all those people just like the wrong things.
Real Banjo Player = Earl Scruggs, J.D. Crowe, Mike Munson, and the like. I've been playing Banjo among other instruments over forty years and have jammed with Crowe and Munson, I wish I could have jammed with Earl Scruggs. But then, I didn't know such talent was expected of Taylor Swift. Opinions of her vary. I figure until you can best her numbers and performance, it's just that an opinion. And the option of not listening to her is always available.
Idk, this brings up my respect for her a little bit when pop artists go away from their mindless pandering to perform an alternate interest. Sorta like how lady gaga likes ragtime.
@museblock Couldn't agree more. Title belies a Swift fan trying to attribute anything and everything to their favorite artist. A good SINGER Ms. Swift is, a good picker, she is NOT.
Some things that are popular also happen to be good. Marketing works out better if what is being marketed is good, and I don't have a problem with someone talented being paid for her work. Commercial country isn't my favorite genre and I don't find much of it very interesting, but I also recognize that many very talented people perform something which I don't like very well. Now will you please plug in your camera and show me how much better you can do?
Is a 4 string banjo tuned in Chicago tuning also not a banjo? Could I turn my 5 string banjo into a non-banjo by tuning the 4 melody strings to DGBE and not touching the drone string? The instrument with a guitar body, 4 melody strings, and 1 shorter drone string that Gibson made must also not be a guitar, then. And forget about 7 string and 10 string guitars. It is the method of producing sound and not the string count or tuning that makes it a banjo or a guitar.
The timbre and method of producing sound define an instument more than tuning, number of strings, or method of playing. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go convert my banjo to a guitar by tuning it to DGBE and strumming it with a pick, LOL.
@SirAtticusCrow If you play clawhammer (real) banjo, its in C. I've worked in music retail all my life and that's how we tune all our banjos. It compliments the 5th of the A and D in most violin parts. Quit googling and learn from a real musician.
Is there a reason we need the pure music to be popular? No. Who said we wanted to "consign her to an islamic nunnery" for wanting to "popularize it"??? She isn't popularizing bluegrass if she isn't even playing a real banjo. I'm thoroughly confused by your comment...
Taylor Swift talented huh???..she can play guitar and banjo and write her own songs and no I not a teeny bopper..I"m 3 or 4 days away from being 43 (9/12)..that song is Our Song right????...I more of a fan of Carrie Underwood but Taylor has style huh???....sundresses and cowboy boots..wish I could play guitar and banjo....I'd like to see both girls on tour
