Editing Banjo (section)

=== Five-string banjo === <!-- This section is linked from redirect "[[Five-string banjo]]" -->
The modern five-string banjo is a variation on Sweeney's original design. The fifth string is usually the same gauge as the first, but starts from the fifth fret, three-quarters the length of the other strings. This lets the string be tuned to a higher open pitch than possible for the full-length strings. Because of the short fifth string, the five-string banjo uses a [[reentrant tuning]] – the string pitches do not proceed lowest to highest across the fingerboard. Instead, the fourth string is lowest, then third, second, first, and the fifth string is highest.

The short fifth string presents special problems for a [[Capo (musical device)|capo]]. For small changes (going up or down one or two semitones, for example), simply retuning the fifth string is possible. Otherwise, various devices called "fifth-string capos" effectively shorten the vibrating part of the string. Many banjo players use model-railroad spikes or titanium spikes (usually installed at the seventh fret and sometimes at others), under which they hook the string to press it down on the [[fret]].

Five-string banjo players use many tunings. (Tunings are given in left-to-right order, as viewed from the front of the instrument with the neck pointing up for a right-handed instrument. Left handed instruments reverse the order of the strings.) Probably the most common, particularly in bluegrass, is the Open-G tuning G4 D3 G3 B3 D4. In earlier times, the tuning G4 C3 G3 B3 D4 was commonly used instead, and this is still the preferred tuning for some types of folk music and for [[classic banjo]]. Other tunings found in old-time music include double C (G4 C3 G3 C4 D4), "sawmill" (G4 D3 G3 C4 D4) also called "mountain modal" and open D (F#4 D3 F#3 A3 D4). These tunings are often taken up a tone, either by tuning up or using a capo. For example, "double-D" tuning (A4 D3 A3 D4 E4) – commonly reached by tuning up from double C – is often played to accompany fiddle tunes in the key of D, and Open-A (A4 E3 A3 C#4 E4) is usually used for playing tunes in the key of A. Dozens of other banjo tunings are used, mostly in old-time music. These tunings are used to make playing specific tunes easier, usually fiddle tunes or groups of fiddle tunes.

The size of the five-string banjo is largely standardized, with a scale length of {{cvt|26.25|in|mm}}, but smaller and larger sizes exist, including the long-neck or "Seeger neck" variation designed by [[Pete Seeger]]. Petite variations on the five-string banjo have been available since the 1890s. S.S. Stewart introduced the [[banjeaurine]], tuned one fourth above a standard five-string. Piccolo banjos are smaller, and tuned one octave above a standard banjo. Between these sizes and standard lies the A-scale banjo, which is two frets shorter and usually tuned one full step above standard tunings. Many makers have produced banjos of other scale lengths, and with various innovations.

[[File:Don Wayne Reno playing the banjo with fingerpicks.jpg|left|thumb|250px|A five-string banjo]]

American [[old-time music]] typically uses the five-string, open-back banjo. It is played in a number of different styles, the most common being [[clawhammer]] or frailing, characterized by the use of a downward rather than upward stroke when striking the strings with a fingernail. Frailing techniques use the thumb to catch the fifth string for a [[drone (music)|drone]] after most [[strums]] or after each stroke ("double thumbing"), or to pick out additional melody notes in what is known as drop-thumb. Pete Seeger popularized a [[Folk music|folk]] style by combining clawhammer with up picking, usually without the use of [[fingerpick]]s. Another common style of old-time banjo playing is fingerpicking banjo or classic banjo. This style is based upon [[parlor-style guitar]].<ref name="Trischka">Trischka, Tony (1992). ''Banjo Songbook'', p.20. {{ISBN|0-8256-0197-5}}.</ref>

Bluegrass music, which uses the five-string resonator banjo almost exclusively, is played in several common styles. These include Scruggs style, named after Earl Scruggs; melodic, or [[Keith style]], named for [[Bill Keith (musician)|Bill Keith]]; and three-finger style with single-string work, also called Reno style after [[Don Reno]]. In these styles, the emphasis is on arpeggiated figures played in a continuous eighth-note rhythm, known as [[banjo roll|rolls]]. All of these styles are typically played with fingerpicks.

The first five-string, electric, solid-body banjo was developed by [[Buck Trent|Charles Wilburn (Buck) Trent]], Harold "Shot" Jackson, and David Jackson in 1960.

The five-string banjo has been used in classical music since before the turn of the 20th century. [[contemporary classical music|Contemporary and modern]] works have been written or arranged for the instrument by Don Vappie, [[Jerry Garcia]], Buck Trent, [[Béla Fleck]], [[Tony Trischka]], [[Ralph Stanley]], George Gibson, [[Steve Martin]], Clifton Hicks, [[George Crumb]], [[Tim Lake]], [[Modest Mouse]], [[Jo Kondo]], [[Paul Elwood]], [[Hans Werner Henze]] (notably in his [[Symphony No. 6 (Henze)|''Sixth Symphony'']]), Daniel Mason, [[Beck]], [[the Water Tower Bucket Boys]], [[Todd Taylor (banjo player)|Todd Taylor]], [[J.P. Pickens]], Peggy Honeywell, [[Norfolk & Western]], Putnam Smith, [[Iron & Wine]], [[The Avett Brothers]], [[The Well Pennies]], [[Punch Brothers]], [[Julian Koster]], [[Sufjan Stevens]], and [[Sarah Jarosz]].

[[George Gershwin]] includes a banjo in his opera ''[[Porgy and Bess]]''

[[Frederick Delius]] wrote for a banjo in his opera ''[[Koanga]]''.

[[Ernst Krenek]] includes two banjos in his ''Kleine Symphonie'' (''Little Symphony'').

[[Kurt Weill]] has a banjo in his opera ''[[The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny]]''.

[[Viktor Ullmann]] included a tenor banjo part in his ''Piano Concerto'' (op. 25).

[[Virgil Thomson]] includes a banjo in his orchestral music to accompany the film ''[[The Plow That Broke the Plains]]'' (1936).