What Killed The Tenor Banjo A Brief Historical Commentary of the Tenor Banjo 

The Tenor Banjo is very much alive and well in Irish traditional music

As an Irish tenor banjo player, I can confirm that the tenor banjo is not dead, it's just hiding at the local Irish pub on session nights.

Check out the historic Mummers. They formed huge bands of tenor banjos, dressed in elaborate costumes with large feather headdresses and paraded, I think in Philadelphia or maybe Chicago. I used to watch them on TV and they were amazing! Great post! 🎉

Great Video! Have myself a 1930’s Gibson master tone TB something. It’s my secondary instrument as 5 string Scruggs is my main instrument. I look forward to getting more proficient at tenor and blending the 2

As per Nick Reynolds /Kingston Trio influence I got a tenor guitar for "another sound" though a 5 string player. ( I am not alone in this ). The fact that I could tune the 4 strings the same as the first four of the 5 String banjo (in open G tuning) made it easy and I CAN finger pick a tenor guitar, don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. Also the open tuning makes for a different range of sound. The amazing thing about the vaudeville kings of tenor banjo, many of whom did play on T.V. variety shows of my time, Ed Sullivan among them, is the blurring speed for the plectrum hand as opposed to speed of the 3 fingers in 5 string. They play whole chords as the melody notes, the 1st string being that higher pitch A. Over time I have obtained 8 string tenors, one of which was a special order from Gibson, a 1961 L -3 body, I got used. Two others are a 4 string resonator type and an 8 string resonator, the 8 strings are doubled up like a 12 string guitar. Both of those are from Mike Soares, of Long Island, who had relatives in Poland with a guitar factory, make the wood part. He then installed the cone and rest. The venerable Pete Seeger began with the longer necked 4 string plectrum then added the 5th string. It IS a Banjo Family in toto, eh ?

I found your history of the banjo 'highly creative'.

I am gonna start posting a bunch of various covers on mine. I LOVE IT.

Where have you been? The tenor banjo is being played throughout North America and Ireland and has been for quite some time. Jazz tenor is tuned CGDA, whereas the Irish tenor tuning is GDAE, like the mandolin. And by the way, the 22 fret 4 string is known throughout the know universe as the "plectrum" banjo, not the "pectrum" banjo which is what you call it, and is still played in jazz bands, and peaked during the "pizza parlor" faze of the 1960's/70's.

Completely different situation in Ireland. Here the tenor banjo is used with a plectrum and plays the tune.

youll find tenor banjo all over ireland and lots of great players ass well,if you look up Gerry o Conner he is one of my Best banjo players iv ever heard,best wishes from green Ireland, and thanks for video Largethanks

I saw a tenor banjo in person a while back and always plan, and still do, to get one. The thing is I tried a regular banjo once and there was no way I could play it. Being left handed a tenor banjo could be easily flipped for left handed. Where a regular banjo could not. I've never seen a left handed banjo, and if I did, I'm sure it would cost A LOT!

There's just not a huge need for the instrument- it was designed for people who already played GDAE or DGBE. Plectrum banjo is another beast in its own right, considering it's more akin to a 5-string banjo in drop-C. Much more comfortable for complex jazz voicings.

I'm tempted to get a tenor banjo just based on fiddle/mandolin experience.

I have a question , what ever happened to mandelines with a round back, that I used to see all the time back in the day

At 6:04, that's no tenor banjo, it's got six full length strings, probably one of those guitar-neck-with-banjo-body-thingies!

clawhammer absolutely does not struggle to keep up with scruggs style, that's an absurd statement. It's a completely different style of music with it's own feel.

You completely skipped over Bob Seeger, and the folk banjo craze. Tenor is my main instrument, but with Chicago Tuning.

I play Irish banjo it’s not dead

I have one and I love it

What ? No demonstration of its' sound ? 😢

You obviously don't listen to the same music I do!

Most people in Ireland do not know there is a 5 string banjo!!!! There is a big big world outside the US!!!! I see a Banjo Guitar in your first pic.. The 5 string banjo was an afterthought. The tenor banjo was a shorter version of the C banjo and was more suitable for Jazz. I think the C banjo had 21 frets whereas the tenor has 19 frets. The Irish tenor banjo has 17 frets. Are you on medication.

Outside of Irish Celtic and New Orleans Jazz, the tenor banjo is pretty much obsolete. The 5 string has even made inroads into Irish and Celtic genres in Europe. 5 string just sounds better, and you can do more on it.

such an american viewpoint...too bad

basically every irish/celtic/english folk band all over europe uses a tenor banjo, so much so that you cant even play a simple melody on it, without it sounding irish. so it wasnt killed. it just emigrated to europe ;)

The late, great Barney McKenna almost single handedly popularised virtuoso tenor banjo playing in Ireland.

Actually tenor banjo was used in western swing- Billy Champion played tenor banjo with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. I collect vintage photos of banjo players, and have a few that show clearly musicians in 30's - 40's western costume playing tenor banjos. I think it was more popular in country than we're led to believe. I have one photo featuring a cowgirl playing a tenor next to a woman who was a minister. I do agree that this instrument is far more versatile than people realize. I also play 5 string banjo and mandolin. And I share your concern that this instrument may become a lost art as it's been decades since it was popular. (I play a Goldtone AC 4 in regular tenor tuning) Thank you so much for doing this video! It's an enjoyable watch.

I’m a professional Tenor Banjo player, nice video! Any information on Tenor Banjo is always welcome.

The first tenor banjos were invented by creol musicians. They were playing mandolin instruments in mandolin orcastras. Around nineteen hundred they wanted to play for dance halls. Mandolins were not loud enough for the dance halls so they experimented using plectrum banjos with capos. They were having Vega custom make shorter neck models so that they did not have to use the capo and would not keep banging the peg head on every thing. In 1908 Vega decided to make a standard model and add it to their catalogue, and the little wonder tenor banjo was born. Rag time was the first music they played until the Tango craze hit. After ww 1 the lead instrument changed from the tenor banjo and was replaced by horns. The tenor banjo was relegated to playing chordal acompanyment . The oregional EADG tuning was dropped and a longer scale was used to tune to ADGC which became the modern concert tenor banjo. Gibson went to 22.5 inches and Vega to this day uses 23.1 inches.

Actually you forgot about the 50s/60s folk revival, that brought the Banjo back into popularity outside of the mountain sound more so than deliverance (which I’d argue that movie turned the banjo into a backwards looking instrument) However the five string banjo was the main banjo in it thanks to Pete Seeger. Combine that with how the folk revival crowd also gave bluegrass new popularity (which got ditched by the country mainstream a decade or so earlier) the Five string was all the rage and the tenor banjo had little use in it (and was probably just seen as a relic of the jazz age)

I play 17 fret open back tenor banjo (tuned CGDA) a couple of times a week in various trad. jazz bands in my area. That instrument enriches my life in ways that I could never explain or even understand. #TenorBanjo4Ever.

I play tenor banjo since 9 years. I live in Bretagne. This instrument is very often use for celtic music (breton and irish) and 5 strings isnt very popular here. You go in a celtic session in à pub you Will Heard tenor but Nevers 5 strings. Tenor is also use in maroco music. I use thé GDAE or CGDAE like a fiddle and it is very useful for à lot of style (flamenco, arabica, slavic, celtic, médiéval, renaissance.

im trying to figure out where the tenor banjo is dead.where do you get your information? i know at least 8 tenor players i can call for a jam session today

Appreciate the support of the tenor banjo. I grew up on the Dubliners and Clancy Brothers so the tenor banjo seems normal to me. I have three (Goldtone GDAE and two from my Dad) and about 10 tenor guitars (4 electric) .

Interesting video. I play a plectrum banjo primarily, but I have a 19-fret tenor on hand that I enjoy playing. Four string banjos are a lot of fun to play and definitely underutilized. I've had the chance to play dozens of different types of tenor banjos, they are very common with Philadelphia Mummers string bands that I play with. We play with woodwinds - saxophones - so we need the loud sound to cut through the sax chorus.

I played a tenor banjo in a college jazz band over 60 years ago. Great for playing solo pieces from the 20's and 30's.

I think you left out a few key facts in the banjo history timeline . The tenor and plectrum banjos became very popular due to the jazz influence in the early 1900s , so much so that the 5 string banjo that was popular in old timey and mountain music was declining and many instrument makers during that time were making tenor and plectrum banjos instead of 5 strings . The style of 2 and 3 finger banjo picking had almost become extinct except for the folks in rural Appalachia who kept it alive . In the 1930s and 40s Earl Scruggs learned and perfected the 3 finger style of playing , which has come to be known as Scruggs style picking . With Bill Monroe Earl , Scruggs popularized the 5 string banjo and Scruggs style picking starting a resurgence of interest in that mode of banjo playing that has a rekindling of interest about every 10 years or so today. The popularity of the 5 string has been brought to the publics attention through television and films like the Dillards as the Darling family on the Andy Griffith show . The song Foggy Mountain Breakdown in the film Bonny and Clyde , the film Deliverance and the TV shows the Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw . There are several styles of banjo and their accompanying styles of playing , and they rise and fall with what is currently popular . Find the style you like and have fun with it .

The tenor banjo was supplanted in jazz by the electric guitar. Originally in jazz bands the guitarist had a difficult time cutting through the woodwinds and horns so the tenor banjo with resonator was used in the rhythm section. Most guitarists of the day were also tenor banjo players. Once the electric guitar was invented, and Charlie Christian et al had popularized it as a solo instrument the tenor banjo fell into disuse, outside of Dixieland bands. It's a 'tenor' banjo in the same sense the tenor guitar is a tenor. Much like with the mandolin family there's a whole range of banjos from bass to banjo ukuleles and whole banjo orchestras as well.

The tenor banjo is designed for the orchestra tuned in fifths and has open harmony to fit with the orchestra. Cuts through the other instruments.

Very much alive in Ireland its found in every folk session 🇮🇪🎶☘️

I just bought one from Gold Tone - it will be used for blue grass like tunes, Celtic, and arrangements of pop tunes. Gold Tone seems to sell a lot of them. Nice Morrison's on the outro. The blooper was great.

I began with mandolin, but switched to tenor (Irish tuning) banjo for more, distinctive sound. I use it for old time fiddle tune music, as played in contra dances and in our fiddle orchestra. The style is more mandolin than traditional jazz style. I credit Barney McKenna of the Dubliners for resurrecting the tenor banjo, Irish style. It's very popular in Ireland now, and showing up in music camps such as the Maine Fiddle Camp.

I play the tenor banjo in CGDA and I'm a happy man, definitely!

Have you heard of the bub??? Baritone uke banjo? They are a lot of fun as well.

I just bought a Tenor banjo in a yard sale. I play the guitar. I play the ukulele. But I have no clue how to play the Tenor banjo. But I will figure it out and I will love it. Thank you for this video.

I would say this, "When Earl Eugene Scruggs added a 5th (short) string on his banjo and played like NO one that ever played before! And over many years; the Tenor Banjo just couldn't do it any more! Sad of course. And it killed 4 man quartet singers; that used the tenor banjos"! And it happened with B & W movies and TV's! The Accordions, Hawaiian guitars; and other musical instruments, Etc! Thus, time goes by; and things change all the time. "Sum gud, Sum dud"! Oh Well.

The photo of the banjo starting at 1:36 thru 2:26 and again starting at 5:53 thru 6:06 is not a tenor nor a five string banjo. It is called a "guitjo" as it has a guitar neck and a banjo body. It has six strings and is tuned like a guitar. Just thought you should know since you used the photo so prevalent in your history of the tenor banjo.

I believe it is actually spelled "tenner," and originated in England from the phrase "I'll pay you a tenner to stop playing that bloody thing." 😂

I started out in early 60s playing an old Vega Professional Tenor Banjo with a Folk group “The Bucket 3” at Boy Scout campfires. We were featured on The Ted Mack Amateur Hour” from Hollywood CBS Television City in 1966. A RU-vid Video of our edited performance is available at the beginning of “Through The Artist’s Eye Part 1 of Six”. Then played in SF Bay Area Pizza Parlors with a Ragtime trio “The Nickelodeons” which did a 3 week USO Tour in South Vietnam - 1971. Bought a 1927 Vega Artist Professional Tenor Banjo from “Banana” of the “Youngbloods” & his “Players Vintage Instruments” Website in Olema, CA. I joined several Banjo Bands & presently play with “The San Francisco Banjo Band”, with many quality RU-vid videos available. Thank you for posting - BanjoBob

I built myself an electric octave mandolin. I lent it to a gent that plays mandolins and tenor banjos in a band. He thought I had created the missing link between octaves and tenors. I made it with a 21" scale--- just about right for someone who plays a tenor.

I'm a mandolin player and occasionally jam with my 1920 Maybelline 17 fret. But I would say I play the tenor guitar more often.

Let's hear it for the Tenor Banjo...popularized in the 1950's and 60's by such celebrities as Jerry VanDyke and George Segal. Many other Actors-Singers used the Tenor in their routines. In 1978 I took Tenor Banjo lessons from Howard Alden. So for me, the Tenor has always been the instrument of choice. Here's Howard making it look easy...ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TM5577vOYGM.html

I did enjoy the video, but will challenge some of the points you make. As many have noted, the Tenor Banjo is alive and well worldwide in Irish music. As for jazz, it's loudness and chordal and rhythmic properties were supplanted by drum kits and amplified guitars. On the revival of the 5 string banjo due to Deliverance, maybe or maybe not. The Beverley Hillbillies theme was just as well known prior to that. Cheers.

Bonnie and Clyde movie featured the banjo years before Deliverance.

The word is "Plectrum" banjo, not "pecktrum" banjo. Plectrum banjos are popular in polka bands. Eddie Peabody was a plectrum banjo player, as well. It was used for playing chord lead.

The banjo was hardly obscure when "Deliverance" came out. Earl Scruggs and John Hartford were quite well known

I won a tenor banjo (CGda) in a local auction, bidding on it on a whim as I am a mandoline player of many years (Irish, French-Canadien, early American, old English). In having one and being essentially self-taught (MelBay book), it is a sort of synchronicity in that suddenly I have made the acquaintance of scores of tenor banjo players! Most are performers in the variations of Celtic music, but a few lean more towards early jazz and even old-timey/bluegrass music. While I think that marketing is the huge factor in the 5-string being the common banjo, the tenor is by no means dead! On the other hand, it probably won't enjoy the supposed popularity it once held in the early 20th century... But then, one doesn't see but rarely the mandoline and concertina choirs that once were also fairly popular. So, good video, but take heart... It still lives!

the tenor banjo was played in dixieland music and riverboat music of the day, the 5'th string was added for the clawhammer style of mountian music, earl scruggs was the first man to pick a banjo with 3 pickes on his fingers and thats when bluegrass music was born, the banjo is the king of bluegrass music and the main insterment, you can't have a bluegrass band without a banjo, so the reason the tenor banjo died is because the music died that it was used on, we all hate 2 see it go but everything in this world is trendy now, the steam train died when the diesel engine was invented, and the steam tractor died when the farm tractor came around prior 2 that it was horses that helped do our work...

Putting on an amp helps you can increase resonance etc. You could probably take the fifth string off and change the tuning on a 5 string too , as I've already got two five strings can't afford to buy a tenor too❤

The Tenor Banjo is back, & guess what we have Tenor Guitars basically Tenor Banjo necks on Guitar bodies.

To be specific, the acoustic f-hole archtop guitar (the Gibson L5 and its derivatives and imitations) began taking over in swing band rhythm sections (think of Freddie Geeen’s work in Count Basie’s band). In a way, this makes perfect sense. The guitar has a less brittle attack that lends itself to the swing sound, a smoother, more legato approach than the staccato sounds of the Twenties for which the tenor banjo was so well suited. But I think the tenor (for that matter, the plectrum with its closer tuning) can work well in other styles beyond 20s style jazz for all the reasons you mentioned.

TENOR BANJO IS STILL ALIVE AND DOING GREAT AND ALWAYS WAS A GREAT BANJO AND ALWAYS WILL BE MY BELIEVE GREAT BANJO ...THIS GUY IS TALKIN BULL SHIT

I'd say the Beverly Hillbillies did more to promote 5 string banjo than Deliverence

Thing that mystifies me is Where are you from and where have you been to know as little as seems?? JohnPP

Think you left out plectrum virtuosos like Eddie Peabody.

Look up Tyler Jackson on RU-vid for some great tenor playing.

I have a tenor banjo tuned DGBE, Chicago tuning.

My late grandfather, that I never knew,played a 4 string banjo...I dont know if it was a " tenor" banjo, but it was a 4 string!

2:28 “The first tenor banjo” came in 1908 and I’ve got one from 1925 how amazing is this, I have one of the oldest banjos

I used to play the standard tenor but changed to the Irish tenor and now I do irish music, I also play the mandolin, that came after the irish tenor as my playing partner started to do the 5 string and the mandolin sounded good with it. I am now working on the 5 string, but I do not know that I am gonna do very well with it.

Great video. My grandparents played tenor, my pop pop strummed on a tenor banjo and grandma played melody on her tenor guitar, they always stayed with the standard CGDA tuning. After my pop pop retired he started making tenor banjos as a hobby, I currently have three he made an I’ve been playing for about 7 years now, I just picked up a mandolin a couple months ago as well so I’ve tuned one of them GDAE so I can easily switch between what I’m picking notes on.

The tenor banjo in the right hands and played well is a truly wonderful instrument - it's not dead, but as you ask - why isn't it more popular? Look and listen on RU-vid to Steve Caddick and Nathan duetting on 'Sweet Georgia Brown': ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KKetDwY38c4.html Here you'll hear chord and single string soloing akin to the great guitarist Django Reinhardt - but on the tenor banjo. I can't imagine how much work and talent it must take to achieve this level.

Thank you!! I really enjoyed the history lesson! I was gifted a tenor banjo two days ago. So far, I can sort of play Kumbaya! Lol! Mine is old, having the drum section almost completely void of the white cover, its transparent. Mine has a wood dowel like piece holding the neck to the body. Everything I've seen videos about "learning how to play for beginners", shows metal. So far, my finger tips hurt, lol, but I've never played any instrument and I'm having fun! I just turned 54, and we need a few instruments in our worship team. Can anyone direct me to contemporary worship music for the tenor banjo? Or can I just use chord sheets for guitars? Thanks again for this video! Idaho, USA

My 13 year old son has a 1954 Vega Tenor and a 1920s Epiphone Tenor. He plays his five string Banjos more, but! Give it time.

I have 4, 5 and 6 string banjos (latter for Dixie). Amazed saying the tenor is rare.....the so called Irish tuning (GDAE) very common in ther UK and Ireland.....CGDA, more commonly used for jazz, also regularly found.

Your homework was pretty good, but you forgot to include the four-string banjo craze and proliferation of "banjo bars" that occurred in the Sixties on both the East and West coasts: specifically the chain known as Your Father's Mustache and the Red Garter Clubs. And in fairness, the plectrum banjo offers a wealth of musical treasure in the CGBD tuning with 22 frets (the banjo that preceded the tenor.) Check plectrum greats here on RU-vid: Buddy Wachter, Ken Aoki, Lee Floyd, Doug Mattocks, Scotty Plummer, Brad Roth, Eddie Peabody and Don Van Palta. And of course the greatest of them all, Perry Bechtel.

How come all your pictures of New Orleans jazz bands don't have any black folks in em?? The chance that happened randomly is low my friend

Being a long time mandolin player I’ve made the switch to tenor as well in a slightly different manner.. I’ve made the switch to tenor resonator guitar and been looking it!

Stop making shit up. LOL … tenor banjos outsold five string banjos from around 1910-1950. It was originally developed from a five string banjo called a banjeaurine, an instrument with a wider diameter head and shorter neck. This was used in the era when banjo players actually read notes (like a classical guitarist) and there were orchestras and ensembles with different size five string banjos including a cello and piccolo banjo. The music they played included “ragtime” the forerunner to American “jazz. As it evolved to jazz in the early part of the century it was easy to remove the fifth string from the banjeaurine and tune it exactly as a cello. This was perfect for playing chords as a rhythm instrument. Eventually that was replaced by jazz guitar. No … it has nothing to do with Irish singing tenors though there is a sub set of people who play tenor banjo for irish fiddle tunes. By the way … most of the best bluegrass banjos are made by converting an original Gibson tenor banjo into a five-string … because more Gibson tenor banjos were made than five strings.

I'm no expert by any means, but for my own experience, the movie Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, with the theme song Foggy Mountain Breakdown, as well as the Beverly Hillbillies TV show beginning in 1962, with theme song Ballad of Jed Clampet, both compositions by Scruggs and Flatt, did most of the heavy lifting that brought bluegrass and the 5-string banjo to be appreciated by mainstream America. Deliverance and Dueling Banjos, originally Feudin' Banjos, at least in my opinion added to the appreciation but was not the real powerhouse.

I think you overlooked Jug Bands. From their beginnings in the early 20th century up through their various resurgences, the Tenor Banjo fit in just fine with the various jugs, kazoos and other homemade instruments. Jug Band Music is almost impossible without the Tenor Banjo. I beat on a 100 year old steel-pot Luxor Tenor to add the jangly bits to Jug Band Tunes.

It got replaced in Big Bands and Western Swing because the Guitar became the choice in those bands. Banjo was a rhythm instrument but it was loud and other band members didn't like it because of that. The Guitar could be a rhythm instrument also and much warmer sounding as well. You wouldn't have that noisy clattering sound of Banjos to deal with. It was still welcome in New Orleans Jazz Bands but not much anyplace else. Today there isn't much call for Tenor Banjo as New Orleans Jazz just isn't as popular as it once was. Besides we've learned with a 5 String Banjo you can pull the 5th string off the Banjo neck to the side and restrict it. Now you have a 4 String Banjo why buy a Tenor and all that added expense? Release the 5th string once again and you're back to Bluegrass and Claw Hammer Folk Music. So the Tenor Banjo is nice but do I really need to lay out the money for it? Most Banjo players would say no. I'm not going to play New Orleans Jazz often enough and if I'd like to I can adapt my 5 String on that occasion. I do it myself once in a while. It's fun to play New Orleans Jazz!

'Duelling banjo's' was based on a piece called 'Feudin' banjo's' - played on a tenor banjo accompanied by a 5-string 👍

I have a plectrum banjo that I love! I want to get a Tenor Banjo, An Irish Banjo, An Acoustic Tenor Guitar and an Electric Tenor Guitar and a mandolin. God help my pocket book.

I bought a Framus 4 string tenor banjo & began a loose picking/ strumming technique with it. I had some mandolin experience & use the same GDAE ( from top) tuning. I had an instrument- maker take off the original cheesy acrylic head & put a fibre skin on it meant to resemble sheepskin but with no humidity problems. The bridge is a 3 footed Irish style bridge & overall, with Irish tenor banjo strings...my instrument is mellow, thunky & projects well. I love playing it & use capo on the second fret down from the nut, giving me a 17fret scale. 🎉😂❤❤

Tenor banjo played in chordal is still a big part of Dixieland music. It's just not that visible - rather like how barbershop quartet singing is still around but largely hiding in the corners. Some fabulous virtuosos were around in the 20'a and 30's last century, like Roy Schmeck. Here's an example of the chordal playing : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4UbZjOQ5vkw.html

You really should learn about the subject before spouting inaccurate information. Tenor banjos were plentiful in hotel bands in all cities throughout the USA during the first 30 years of the 20th century. The plectrum also drifted in with its different voicing. Check the Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City for information about banjos in general. But the tenor is far from "dead", although many high-end particularly Gibsons have been converted to 5-string, because of the lucrative market. I've played tenor banjo for more than 60 years in North American jazz, musical theater, and traditional Irish venues.

Photo at about 1:35 actually shows a third completely separate variation on the theme, the 6 string Banjitar. Those are often found these days used more or less interchangeably with resonator guitars for busking the blues on street corners or chopping away at chords in modern Dixieland ensembles. Like resonator guitars these are sometimes in standard guitar tuning, sometimes in slide friendly tunings like open G. Banjitars and resonators turn up in those settings in preference to regular acoustic guitars for the same reason plectrum banjos became popular in jazz groups in the early 20th century- the volume advantage allows them to better keep up and be heard among a horn section or above street noise. Something which didn’t really get explored here very much is the fact that the fast and flashy style of bluegrass 5 string banjo we know today, characterized by steel fingerpicks and rapid rolls, really didn’t get developed and popularized until Bill Monroe’s bluegrass boys, including Flatt and Scruggs, brought it to the fore in the 1940s. Before that, pretty much everyone playing 5 string banjo was playing it in a style that today is called “claw hammer” or “frailing”. That’s essentially the way the banjos African ancestors from places like Gambia were played, and much of the real traditional Appalachian oldtime banjo repertoire was originally performed in that way. I’ll also echo other comments here pointing out that the tenor banjo has always been alive and well in Irish music over the past century, and has been joined there by other even more recent imports brought back home from various places in the Diaspora, like the Irish Bouzouki which followed some Irish musicians home from Greece and started turning up in trad Irish music in the 1960s and is now so fully embraced as part of that tradition that it’s hard to imagine an Irish pub session without either a bouzouki or a tenor banjo.

Thanks for bringing up the tenor banjo and starting this conversation. I had heard many years ago that the reason for the CGAD tuning was so that cello players could fit right in to the jazz craze of the 20’s. Cello players use the same tuning and made up many of the earliest tenor banjo players.

Hi, I’m a professional guitarist and I’ve been interested in guitar and string instrument history for a long time as a hobby and the story that I heard was at the end of the Spanish-American war, a bunch of surplus wind instruments showed up at the New Orleans port for very cheap and all these Musician started to play them and they drowned out the guitar players of the day and so they all had to switch to banjo, and the tenor banjo was their choice, The story came from the guitarist who switched the banjo because he had to it might’ve been Eddie Lang I need to research a bit more but in the mid-20s microphones became better and the guitar started to make a come back and eventually eclipsed the tenor banjo

I have a nice old Henson tenor banjo hanging on my wall - I think it's from the 1930´s, but I have a hard enough job trying to learn the 5 string, so it stays on the wall - a "sleeper." I don´t think Irish music has much of a foothold here in Andalucia, but one day its prince will come ...

I build custom cigar box instruments. I’m about to finish my first tenor banjo, cigar box style, complete with a resonator. I have become enamored with these things. I haven’t really played one much but I’ll pick it up fast since I’m also a multi-instrumentalist

Tenor banjo is very strong in irish tradition. It's THE banjo for irosh music as 5 string just doesn't handle chord bashing well. Plus it's easy for Mandolin/bouzouki players to double on.

Come to County Kerry , Ireland . You won't throw at stone over a wall without hitting a tenor banjo player.

Come to my part of Ireland . You can't throw a stone without hitting a tenor banjo player. It's the econd most popular instrument after accordion .

This was, obviously, the precursor of the "tenor guitar," of which I am a devotee. I've always wondered where its tenor moniker came from. Now I know.

The Irish love the tenor banjo and I suspect the name was in line with the tenor guitar. That would make more sense. And you didn't mention, but showed, six string banjos which have been around since at least 1820.

Claw hammer banjo player here. Just picked up a tenor. Does anybody have any good suggestion for online tutorials, books etc.. Need some help getting started.

The tune from Deliverance was written by Arthur Smith and was called Feuding Banjos . He played tenor banjo and Don Reno played five string. He could play rings around any five string. I've played 5 and 4 string all my life. Love them both

You missed a cultural touchstone for the tenor banjo: Mickie Finn's tv show that brought the tenor banjo back for a short time in 1966. It was a wonderful show and was sorry to see it go so soon.