Editing Banjo (section)

===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/>