Editing Banjo (section)

==History==
{{See also|American Banjo Museum}}
{{hatnote|Note: This article uses [[Helmholtz pitch notation]] to define banjo tunings.}}

===Early origins===
[[File:SlaveDanceand Music.jpg|thumb|''[[The Old Plantation]]'', {{circa|1785–1795}}, the earliest known American painting to picture a banjo-like instrument, which shows a four-string instrument with its 4th (thumb) string shorter than the others; thought to depict a plantation in [[Beaufort County, South Carolina]]]]
[[File:Surinamese Creole, c 1770-1777.png|thumb|The oldest extant banjo, {{circa|1770–1777}}, from the [[Suriname]]se [[Creole peoples|Creole]] culture.]]

The modern banjo derives from instruments that have been recorded to be in use in [[North America]] and the Caribbean since the 17th&nbsp;century by enslaved people taken from West and Central Africa, such as the [[Kora (instrument)|kora]]. Their African-style instruments were crafted from split [[gourd]]s with animal skins stretched across them. Strings, from gut or vegetable fibers, were attached to a wooden neck.<ref name=banjojstor>{{cite journal |last=Epstein |first=Dena J. |title=The folk banjo: A documentary history |journal=Ethnomusicology |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=347–371 |jstor=850790 | date = September 1975|doi=10.2307/850790 }}</ref> Written references to the banjo in North America and the [[Caribbean]] appear in the 17th and 18th&nbsp;centuries.<ref name=banjojstor/>

The earliest written indication of an instrument akin to the banjo is in the 17th&nbsp;century: Richard Jobson (1621) in describing [[The Gambia]], wrote about an instrument which some consider to be similar to the banjo.

<blockquote>They have little varietie of instruments, that which is most common in use, is made of a great gourd, and a necke thereunto fastned, resembling, in some sort, our Bandora; but they have no manner of fret, and the strings they are either such as the place yeeldes or their invention can attaine to make, being very unapt to yeeld a sweete and musicall sound, notwithstanding with pinnes they winde and bring to agree in tunable notes, having not above sixe strings upon their greatest instrument.<ref name=banjojstor/></blockquote>

The term ''banjo'' has several etymological origins. One theory links it to the [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] language which gives the name of [[Banjul]], capital of The Gambia. Another claim is a connection to the West African ''[[akonting]]'': it is made with a long bamboo neck called a ''bangoe''. The material for the neck, called ''ban julo'' in the Mandinka language, again gives ''banjul''. In this interpretation, ''banjul'' became a sort of eponym for the akonting as it crossed the Atlantic. The instrument's name might also derive from the [[Kimbundu]] word ''mbanza'',<ref>{{cite web |title=How did banjos get their name? |website=The Banjo Guru |url=http://www.thebanjoguru.com/music/276-how-did-banjos-get-their-name/ |access-date=31 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227071335/http://www.thebanjoguru.com/music/276-how-did-banjos-get-their-name/ |archive-date=27 December 2010}}</ref> which is a loan word to the Portuguese language resulting in the term ''banza'',<ref name=banjojstor/> which was used by early French travelers in the Americas.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Confidence and Admiration: The Enduring Ringing of the Banjo |first=Robert Lloyd |last=Webb |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/pdfs/Banjo_on_Record.pdf|title=Banjo on Record: A Bio-Discography|editor=Heier, Uli |editor2=Lotz, Rainer E.|page=8|year=1993|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9780313284922|series=UCSB Historical Discography Series|accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref> Its earliest recorded use was in 1678<ref name=banjojstor/> by the Sovereign Council of Martinique which reinstated a 1654 decree that placed prohibitions and restrictions on "dances and assemblies of negroes" deemed to be ''[[calinda|kalenda]]'', which was defined as the gathering of enslaved Africans who danced to the sound of a drum and an instrument called the banza.<ref name=banjojstor/><ref name=Dessalles_Vonglis>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhczAQAAMAAJ |title=Les annales du conseil souverain de la Martinique |volume=2. Introduction, sources, bibliographies et notes |author=Dessalles, Pierre-François-Régis |editor=Vonglis, Bernard |page=260 |year=1786 |publisher=L'Harmattan |isbn=978-2-7384-2366-5 |accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref>

The [[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]] claims that the term ''banjo'' comes from a [[dialect]]al pronunciation of Portuguese ''bandore'' or from an early anglicisation of Spanish ''[[bandurria]]''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Banjo |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/15231?redirectedFrom=banjo& |access-date=12 October 2017}}</ref> Contrary evidence shows that the terms ''bandore'' and ''bandurria'' were used when Europeans encountered the instrument or its kin varieties in use by people of African descent, who used  names for the instrument such as ''banza'',<ref name=banjojstor/> as it was called in places such as [[Haiti]], varieties that were built around a [[gourd]] body with a wooden plank for the neck. [[François Richard de Tussac]], a former planter from [[Saint-Domingue]], details its construction in the book ''Le Cri des Colons'', published in 1810, stating:<ref name="RichardTussac">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgoUAAAAIAAJ|title=Le Cri des Colons|author=Richard Tussac, François|page=292|year=1810|publisher=Delaunay, libraire|accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref><ref name="HaitianBanza">{{cite web |url=https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/the-banjo-in-haiti/the-haitian-banza/ |title=The Haitian Banza |date=13 February 2013 |editor=Press |publisher=Duke University |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref>

<blockquote>As for the guitars, which the negroes call ''banzas'', this is what they consist of: they cut lengthwise, through the middle, a fresh [[calabash]] [the fruit of a tree called the [[Crescentia cujete|callebassier]]]. This fruit is sometimes eight inches or more in diameter. The stretch across it the skin of a goat, which they attach on the edges with little nails; they put two or three little holes on this surface, and then a kind of plank or piece of wood that is rudely flattened makes the neck of the instrument; they stretch three strings made of pitre [a kind of string taken from the [[agave]] plant, commonly known as pitre] across it; and so the instrument is built. On this instrument they play [[Air (music)|air]]s composed of three or four notes, which they repeat constantly.<ref name="RichardTussac"/><ref name="HaitianBanza"/></blockquote>

[[Michel Étienne Descourtilz]], a naturalist who visited Haiti in the early 1800s, described it as ''banzas'', a Negro instrument, that the natives prepare by sawing one of the calabashes or a large gourd lengthwise, to which they attach a neck and sonorous strings made from the filament" of aloe plants.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Haitian Banza |url=https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/the-banjo-in-haiti/the-haitian-banza/ |website=Banjology |access-date=14 February 2024 |date=13 February 2013}}</ref> It was played during any occasion, from boredom to joyous parties and [[Calinda|calendas]] to funeral ceremonies. It was the custom to also combine this sound with the more noisy ''[[bamboula]]'', a type of drum made from a stick of bamboo covered on both sides with a skin that was played with fingers and knuckles while sitting astride.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/florepittoresque05desc/page/n7/mode/2up|title=Flore Pittoresque Et Médicale Des Antilles|author=Descourtilz, Michel-Etienne|page=85-86|year=1821–1829|volume=5|publisher=Paris Pichard|access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref><ref name="HaitianBanza"/>

Various instruments in Africa, chief among them the [[Kora (instrument)|''kora'']], feature a skin [[drumhead]] and [[gourd]] (or similar shell) body.<ref name=Pestcoe-Adams-2010>{{cite web |author1=Pestcoe, Shlomoe |author2=Adams, Greg C. |year=2010 |title=Banjo roots research: Exploring the banjo's African American origins & west African heritage |type=blog |website=Myspace.com |url=http://www.myspace.com/banjoroots/blog |url-status=dead |access-date=19 April 2021 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20121229072104/http://www.myspace.com/banjoroots/blog |archive-date=29 December 2012}}</ref> These instruments differ from early African-American banjos in that the necks do not possess a Western-style fingerboard and tuning pegs; instead they have stick necks, with strings attached to the neck with loops for tuning.<ref name=Pestcoe-Adams-2010/>

Another likely relative of the banjo is the aforementioned ''akonting'', a spike folk lute which is constructed using a gourd body, a long wooden neck, and three strings<ref>{{cite web |url=https://baileyandbanjo.com/what-is-an-akonting/ |title=What is an Akonting? |date=16 May 2023 }}</ref> played by the [[Jola people|Jola tribe]] of [[Senegambia]], and the ''ubaw-akwala'' of the [[Ibo people|Igbo]].<ref name=Chambers-2009>{{cite book |first=Douglas B. |last=Chambers |year=2009 |title=Murder at Montpelier: Ibo Africans in Virginia |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |page=180 |isbn=978-1-60473-246-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqpoxEl_0_4C&pg=PA180}}</ref> Similar instruments include the ''[[xalam]]'' of [[Senegal]]<ref name=FischerKelly2000>{{cite book |author1=Fischer, David Hackett |author2=Kelly, James C. |collaboration=Virginia Historical Society |year=2000 |title=Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-1774-0 |pages=66ff  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFa7KVPWmKwC&pg=PA66}}</ref> and the ''[[Ngoni (instrument)|ngoni]]'' of the [[Wassoulou]] region that includes parts of [[Mali]], [[Guinea]], and [[Ivory Coast]], as well as a larger variation of the ''ngoni'',  known as the ''gimbri'', developed in [[Morocco]] by sub-Saharan Africans ([[Gnawa]] or [[Haratin#Morocco|Haratin]]).

Banjo-like instruments seem to have been independently invented in several different places, in addition to the many African instruments mentioned above, since instruments similar to the banjo are known from a diverse array of distant countries. For example, the Chinese ''[[sanxian]]'', the Japanese ''[[shamisen]]'', the Persian ''[[Tar (lute)|tar]]'', and the Moroccan ''[[sintir]]''.<ref name=Chambers-2009/>

Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th&nbsp;century.<ref name=Pestcoe-Adams-2010/> Some 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as ''bangie'', ''banza'', ''bonjaw'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Cynric R. |year=1827 |title=Hamel, the Obeah Man |edition=1st |publisher=Hunt and Clarke |place=London, UK |page=17 |url=https://archive.org/stream/hamelobeahman00hamegoog#page/n26/mode/2up |access-date=7 February 2016}}</ref> ''banjer''<ref>{{cite news |title=Entertainment at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]] featuring stage character, 'The Negro and his Banjer' |newspaper=[[The Times]] |place=London, UK |date=5 October 1790 |page=1}}</ref> and ''banjar''.

The instrument became increasingly available commercially from around the second quarter of the 19th century due to [[minstrel show]] performances.<ref name=grove/>

===Minstrel era, 1830s–1870s===
[[File:Medley of minstrel songs by Ruby Brooks 1897-1899.ogg|thumb|right|Medley of minstrel songs played on the banjo by [[Ruby Brooks]]. The playing style is [[clawhammer]] or frailing.]]

In the [[antebellum South]], many enslaved Africans played the banjo, spreading it to the rest of the population.<ref name="banjojstor"/> In his memoir ''With Sabre and Scalpel: The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon'', the Confederate veteran and surgeon [[John Allan Wyeth]] recalls learning to play the banjo as a child from an enslaved person on his family plantation.<ref name="banjojstor"/> Another man who learned to play from African-Americans, probably in the 1820s, was [[Joel Walker Sweeney]], a [[minstrel show|minstrel]] performer from [[Appomattox Court House National Historical Park|Appomattox Court House]], [[Virginia]].<ref name=Voloshin>Metro Voloshin, ''The Banjo, from Its Roots to the Ragtime Era: An Essay and Bibliography'' Music Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 6(3) 1998.</ref><ref name=2009Banjo>{{cite web |url=http://www.banjomuseum.org/banjohistory.htm |title= Banjo History |author=<!--Not stated--> |website= banjomuseum.org |publisher= American Banjo Museum |access-date= 10 February 2020|quote= [Taken from a May 15, 2009 archived version of the American Banjo Museums website.]|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090515200646/http://www.banjomuseum.org/banjohistory.htm |archive-date= 15 May 2009 }}</ref> Sweeney has been credited with adding a string to the four-string African-American banjo, and popularizing the five-string banjo.<ref name=Voloshin/><ref name=2009Banjo/> Although [[Robert McAlpin Williamson]] is the first documented white banjoist,<ref>Gibson, George R. and Robert B. Winans. "Black Banjo Fiddle and Dance in Kentucky and the Amalgamation of African American and Anglo-American Folk Music." In ''Banjo Roots and Branches'', 224. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018.</ref> in the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage.<ref name=Voloshin /> Sweeney's musical performances occurred at the beginning of the minstrel era, as banjos shifted away from being exclusively homemade folk instruments to instruments of a more modern style.<ref name=AmerRhytm>{{cite magazine |last= Tutwiler |first= Edward |date=18 November 2016 |title= About That Banjo |url= http://www.americanamusicmagazine.com/featured-articles/about-that-banjo/ |magazine= Americana Rhythm Music Magazine |access-date= 9 February 2020 }}</ref> Sweeney participated in this transition by encouraging drum maker William Boucher of [[Baltimore]] to make banjos commercially for him to sell.<ref name=2009Banjo/>

[[Image:Dandy Jim from Caroline.jpg|alt=Drawing of man in blackface playing the banjo with exaggerated movements and a wide-eyed expression; a smaller, similar figure is in each corner.|thumb|right|200px|Sheet music cover for "Dandy Jim from Caroline", featuring [[Dan Emmett]] (center) and the other [[Virginia Minstrels]], c. 1844]]

In 1949, Arthur Woodward credited Sweeney with replacing the gourd with a wooden sound box covered in skin, and adding a short fifth string around 1831.<ref name=Bluestein>{{cite journal |last1= Bluestein|first1= Gene|date=October 1964 |title= America's Folk Instrument: Notes on the Five-String Banjo |journal= Western Folklore |volume= 23 |issue=4 |pages=243–244, 247 |doi= 10.2307/1520666 |jstor= 1520666}}</ref> However, modern scholar [[Gene Bluestein]] pointed out in 1964 that Sweeney may not have originated either the 5th string or sound box.<ref name=Bluestein/> This new banjo was at first tuned d'Gdf♯a, though by the 1890s, this had been transposed up to g'cgbd'. Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeney's group, the American [[Virginia Minstrels]], in the 1840s, and became very popular in [[music hall]]s.<ref name=Zither>{{cite web|url=http://www.shlomomusic.com/zitherbanjo.htm |title=The English Zither-Banjo |access-date=24 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703164949/http://www.shlomomusic.com/zitherbanjo.htm |archive-date=3 July 2008 }}</ref>

The instrument grew in popularity during the 1840s after [[Joel Sweeney|Sweeney]] began his traveling minstrel show.<ref name=RTB6>{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Robert Lloyd |date=1984 |title= Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory |location= Anaheim Hills, California|publisher=Centerstream Publishing |page=16 }}</ref> By the end of the 1840s the instrument had expanded from Caribbean possession to take root in places across America and across the Atlantic in England.<ref name=BOB1>{{cite book |last=Carlin |first=Bob |date=2007 |title=The Birth of the Banjo |location= Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland and Company |page=145 }}</ref><ref name=banjoentc>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=64 }}</ref> It was estimated in 1866 that there were probably 10,000 banjos in New York City, up from only a handful in 1844. People were exposed to banjos not only at minstrel shows, but also medicine shows, Wild-West shows, variety shows, and traveling vaudeville shows.<ref name=RTB1>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=162 }}</ref> The banjo's popularity also was given a boost by the Civil War, as servicemen on both sides in the Army or Navy were exposed to the banjo played in minstrel shows and by other servicemen.<ref name=RTB2>{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Robert Lloyd |date=1984 |title= Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory |location= Anaheim Hills, California|publisher=Centerstream Publishing |page=12 }}</ref> A popular movement of aspiring banjoists began as early as 1861.<ref name=Kansas>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2140271/banjo-craze-dog-and-cat-skins/|title=Banjo craze dog and cat skins|date=19 January 1961|pages=9|access-date=19 April 2021|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The enthusiasm for the instrument was labeled a "banjo craze" or "banjo mania."<ref name=Kansas/>
[[File:Briggs' banjo instructor (music) - containing the elementary principles of music, together with examples and lessons, to which is added a choice collection of pieces, numbering over fifty popular (14781476931).jpg|thumb|left| The ''Briggs' Banjo Instructor'' was the first [[Method (music)|method]] for the banjo.  It taught the ''stroke style'' and had notated music.  Publication date - 1855]]

By the 1850s, aspiring banjo players had options to help them learn their instrument.<ref name=banjoentb>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |pages=83–84 }}</ref> There were more teachers teaching banjo basics in the 1850s than there had been in the 1840s.<ref name=banjoentb/> There were also instruction manuals and, for those who could read it, printed music in the manuals.<ref name=banjoenta>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |pages=85–86 }}</ref> The first book of notated music was ''The Complete Preceptor'' by Elias Howe, published under the pseudonym ''Gumbo Chaff'', consisting mainly of [[Christy's Minstrels]] tunes.<ref name=banjoenta/> The first banjo method was the ''Briggs' Banjo instructor'' (1855) by Tom Briggs.<ref name=banjoenta/> Other methods included ''Howe's New American Banjo School'' (1857), and ''Phil Rice's Method for the Banjo, With or Without a Master'' (1858).<ref name=banjoenta/> These books taught the "stroke style" or "banjo style", similar to modern "frailing" or "[[clawhammer]]" styles.<ref name=banjoenta/>

By 1868, music for the banjo was available printed in a magazine, when J. K. Buckley wrote and arranged popular music for ''Buckley's Monthly Banjoist''.<ref name=banjoent5>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=128 }}</ref> Frank B. Converse also published his entire collection of compositions in ''The Complete Banjoist'' in 1868, which included "polkas, waltzes, marches, and clog hornpipes."<ref name=banjoent7>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=127 }}</ref>

In the 1840s, opportunities for work were found not only in minstrel companies and circuses, but also in floating theaters and variety theaters, which served as precursors to the variety show and [[vaudeville]].<ref name=banjoentb/>

===Classic era, 1880s–1910s===
[[File:Carnival of Venice, composed by Julius Benedict, arranged for banjo and played by Alfred A. Farland.flac|thumb|[[Carnival of Venice (song)|Carnival of Venice]], variations on the folk song composed by Julius Benedict, arranged for banjo and played on banjo by [[Alfred A. Farland]]. This song is an example of Farland's use of bare fingers to produce [[tremolo]] to get long notes from the instrument (much as the cornet or violin can naturally play.)]]
The term ''classic banjo'' is used today to talk about a bare-finger "guitar style" that was widely in use among banjo players of the late 19th to early 20th century.<ref name=banjoent1>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=232 }}</ref> It is still used by banjoists today. The term also differentiates that style of playing from the fingerpicking bluegrass banjo styles, such as the [[Scruggs style]] and [[Keith style]].<ref name=banjoent1/>

The ''Briggs Banjo Method'', considered to be the first banjo method and which taught the ''stroke style'' of playing, also mentioned the existence of another way of playing, the ''guitar style.''<ref name=Stewart1/><ref name=banjoent3>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |pages=151, 170 }}</ref> Alternatively known as "finger style", the new way of playing the banjo displaced the stroke method, until by 1870 it was the dominant style.<ref name=RTB3>{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Robert Lloyd |date=1984 |title= Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory |location= Anaheim Hills, California|publisher=Centerstream Publishing |page=13 }}</ref> Although mentioned by Briggs, it wasn't taught. The first banjo method to teach the technique was ''Frank B. Converse's New and Complete Method for the Banjo with or without a Master'', published in 1865.<ref name=RTB4>{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Robert Lloyd |date=1984 |title= Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory |location= Anaheim Hills, California|publisher=Centerstream Publishing |page=15 }}</ref><ref name=banjoent4>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=126 }}</ref>

To play in guitar style, players use the thumb and two or three fingers on their right hand to pick the notes. [[Samuel Swaim Stewart]] summarized the style in 1888, saying,

{{blockquote|In the guitar style of Banjo-playing...the little finger of the right hand is rested upon the head near the bridge...[and] serves as a rest to the hand and a resistance to the movement of picking the strings...In the beginning it is best to acquire a knowledge of picking the strings with the use of the first and second fingers and thumb only, allowing the third finger to remain idle until the other fingers have become thoroughly accustomed to their work...the three fingers are almost invariably used in playing chords and accompaniments to songs."<ref name=Stewart1>{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=Samuel Swaim |date=1888 |title=The Banjo! A Dissertation|location= Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|publisher=S. S. Stewart |pages=43–45 }}</ref>}}

[[File:Banjo, from the Musical Instruments series (N82) for Duke brand cigarettes MET DPB883184.jpg|thumb|Banjo, from the Musical Instruments series (N82) for Duke brand cigarettes, 1888]]

The banjo, although popular, carried low-class associations from its role in [[blackface]] minstrel shows, medicine shows, tent shows, and variety shows or vaudeville.<ref name=olive1>{{cite thesis |last=Peters |first=Sean |title= An Olive Branch in Appalachia: The Integration of the Banjo into 19th Century American Folk Music |url= https://twu.edu/media/documents/history-government/An-Olive-Branch-in-Appalachia-Ibid.-Volume-7-Spring-2014.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://twu.edu/media/documents/history-government/An-Olive-Branch-in-Appalachia-Ibid.-Volume-7-Spring-2014.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|pages= 104, 105|access-date=28 March 2020|quote=In America it has always been seen as an instrument of the lower class...}}</ref> There was a push in the 19th century to bring the instrument into "respectability."<ref name=olive1/> Musicians such as [[William A. Huntley]] made an effort to "elevate" the instrument or make it more "artistic," by "bringing it to a more sophisticated level of technique and repertoire based on European standards."<ref name=banjoent11>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |pages=152–153, 230 }}</ref> Huntley may have been the first white performer to successfully make the transition from performing in blackface to being himself on stage, noted by the Boston Herald in November 1884.<ref name=banjoent11/> He was supported by another former blackface performer, Samuel Swaim Stewart, in his corporate magazine that popularized highly talented professionals.<ref name=banjoent8>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |pages=148–149, 169 }}</ref>

As the "raucous" imitations of plantation life decreased in minstrelsy, the banjo became more acceptable as an instrument of fashionable society, even to be accepted into women's parlors.<ref name=RTB6/><ref name=banjoent13>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |pages=152, 230 }}</ref> Part of that change was a switch from the stroke style to the guitar playing style.<ref name=RTB6/><ref name=banjoent13/><ref name=RTB4/> An 1888 newspaper said, "All the maidens and a good many of the women also strum the instrument, banjo classes abound on every side and banjo recitals are among the newest diversions of fashion...Youths and elderly men too have caught the fever...the star strummers among men are in demand at the smartest parties and have the choosing of the society of the most charming girls."<ref name=banjoent9>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=163 }}</ref>

Some of those entertainers, such as [[Alfred A. Farland]], specialized in classical music. However, musicians who wanted to entertain their audiences, and make a living, mixed it in with the popular music that audiences wanted.<ref name=banjoent10>{{cite book |last=Schreyer |first=Lowell H. |date=2007 |title=The Banjo Entertainers |location= Mankato, Minnesota|publisher=Minnesota Heritage Publishing |page=175 }}</ref> Farland's pupil [[Frederick J. Bacon]] was one of these. A former medicine show entertainer, Bacon performed classical music along with popular songs such as ''Massa's in de cold, cold ground'', a ''Medley of Scotch Airs'', a ''Medley of Southern Airs'', and Thomas Glynn’s ''West Lawn Polka''.

Banjo innovation which began in the minstrel age continued, with increased use of metal parts, exotic wood, raised metal frets and a tone-ring that improved the sound.<ref name=museumsign>{{Cite sign |title=The Classic Era |date=n.d. |type=Sign inside museum |publisher= American Banjo Museum |location=[[Oklahoma City]]}}</ref> Instruments were designed in a variety of sizes and pitch ranges, to play different parts in banjo orchestras.<ref name=museumsign/> Examples on display in the museum include [[banjorine]]s and piccolo banjos.

New styles of playing, a new look, instruments in a variety of pitch ranges to take the place of different sections in an orchestra – all helped to separate the instrument from the rough minstrel image of the previous 50–60 years.<ref name=museumsign/> The instrument was modern now, a bright new thing, with polished metal sides.<ref name=museumsign/>

===Ragtime era (1895–1919) and Jazz Age era (1910s–1930s)===
In the early 1900s, new banjos began to spread, four-string models, played with a plectrum rather than with the minstrel-banjo clawhammer stroke or the classic-banjo fingerpicking style. The new banjos were a result of changing musical tastes. New music spurred the creation of "evolutionary variations" of the banjo, from the five-string model current since the 1830s to newer four-string [[#Plectrum banjo|plectrum]] and [[#Tenor banjo|tenor banjos]].<ref name=mushistpage>{{cite web |url= http://www.banjomuseum.org:80/banjohistory.htm |title= Banjo History |author= <!--Not stated--> |publisher= The National Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080520074724/http://www.banjomuseum.org/banjohistory.htm |archive-date= 20 May 2008 |url-status= live }}</ref>

The instruments became ornately decorated in the [[Roaring Twenties|1920s]] to be visually dynamic to a theater audience.<ref name=mushistpage/> The instruments were increasingly modified or made in a new style – necks that were shortened to handle the four steel (not fiber as before) strings, strings that were sounded with a pick instead of fingers, four strings instead of five and tuned differently.<ref name=mushistpage/> The changes reflected the nature of post-World-War-I music.<ref name=mushistpage/> The country was turning away from European classics, preferring the "upbeat and carefree feel" of jazz, and American soldiers returning from the war helped to drive this change.<ref name=mushistpage/>

The change in tastes toward dance music and the need for louder instruments began a few years before the war, however, with ragtime.<ref name=mushistpage/> That music encouraged musicians to alter their 5-string banjos to four, add the louder steel strings and use a pick or plectrum, all in an effort to be heard over the brass and reed instruments that were current in dance-halls.<ref name=mushistpage/> The four string plectrum and tenor banjos did not eliminate the five-string variety. They were products of their times and musical purposes—ragtime and jazz dance music and theater music.

The Great Depression is a visible line to mark the end of the [[Jazz Age]].<ref name=mushistpage/> The economic downturn cut into the sales of both four- and five-stringed banjos, and by World War 2, banjos were in sharp decline, the market for them dead.<ref name=2009Banjo2>{{cite web |url=  http://www.banjomuseum.org/banjohistory.htm |title= Banjo History |author=<!--Not stated--> |website= banjomuseum.org |publisher= American Banjo Museum |access-date= 10 February 2020|quote= The resulting catastrophic collapse of the stock market and Great Depression which followed marked the end of the jazz age – the final years in which the banjo held a place of prominence in American popular music.  By 1940, for all practical purposes, the banjo was dead.|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090515200646/http://www.banjomuseum.org/banjohistory.htm |archive-date= 15 May 2009 }}</ref>

===Modern era===
[[File:Hubby Jenkins October 2 2021 Raleigh NC.jpg|thumb|[[Hubby Jenkins]] performing on solo banjo at the [[International Bluegrass Music Association|IBMA]] Bluegrass Live! festival in Raleigh, North Carolina on October 2, 2021]]

In the years after World War II, the banjo experienced a resurgence, played by music stars such as [[Earl Scruggs]] (bluegrass), [[Bela Fleck]] (jazz, rock, world music), [[Gerry O'Connor (banjo player)|Gerry O'Connor]] (Celtic and Irish music), [[Perry Bechtel]] (jazz, big band), [[Pete Seeger]] (folk), and [[Otis Taylor (musician)|Otis Taylor]] (African-American roots, blues, jazz).<ref name=entrydisplay>{{cite AV media |title=Entry display at the American Banjo Museum |medium=motion picture, music, signs, 3-dimensional displays, posters, voiceover |location= Oklahoma City, Oklahoma|publisher= American Banjo Museum}}</ref>

Pete Seeger "was a major force behind a new national interest in folk music."<ref name=2009Banjo/> Learning to play a fingerstyle in the Appalachians from musicians who never stopped playing the banjo, he wrote the book, ''How to Play the Five-String Banjo'', which was the only banjo method on the market for years.<ref name=2009Banjo/> He was followed by a movement of folk musicians, such as [[Dave Guard]] of [[The Kingston Trio]] and [[Erik Darling]] of the [[The Weavers|Weavers]] and [[The Tarriers|Tarriers]].<ref name=2009Banjo/>

Earl Scruggs was seen both as a legend and a "contemporary musical innovator" who gave his name to his style of playing, the ''Scruggs Style''.<ref name=Scruggssign>{{Cite sign |title=Earl Scruggs.... Bluegrass Pioneers... New Traditions |date=n.d. |type=Sign inside museum |publisher= American Banjo Museum |location=[[Oklahoma City]]|quote= [This ref takes from three signs from the same area in the museum]}}</ref> Scruggs played the banjo "with heretofore unheard of speed and dexterity," using a picking technique for the 5-string banjo that he perfected from 2-finger and 3-finger picking techniques in rural North Carolina.<ref name=Scruggssign/> His playing reached Americans through the [[Grand Ole Opry]] and into the living rooms of Americans who didn't listen to country or bluegrass music, through the theme music of ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]'' TV [[sitcom]].<ref name=Scruggssign/>

For the last one hundred years, the tenor banjo has become an intrinsic part of the world of Irish traditional music.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theirishplace.com/traditional-irish-music/the-irish-banjo/ |title=The Irish Banjo |date=7 February 2020 |access-date=7 February 2020}}</ref> It is a relative newcomer to the genre.

The banjo has also been used more recently in the [[hardcore punk]] scene, most notably by [[Show Me the Body]] on their debut album, ''[[Body War (album)|Body War]]''.