In Peanuts Guide to Life, the collection of one-frame wisdoms of Charlie, Lucy and Linus, cartoonist Charles Schultz advises, "As soon as a child is born, he or she should be issued a new dog and a banjo." Good advice for anyone wanting the right start. The idea begs two questions though-what kind of dog and which type of banjo? The answer to the first is obvious, it's a beagle. The second answer concerning the right banjo is a little more elusive.
Banjos are made from a host of materials, metal and wood primarily, with some plastics and combinations using each. There are also banjos made from other instruments like ukuleles, guitars or mandolins. It seems there are more banjo types than dog types. One banjo uses a bass in a standup version that is definitely far more than just a drumhead with strings, often the very definition of banjo. String quantities are another wide variable, with one, three, four, five, six or ten. Many of these combinations use open backs, others use closed backs, some with pickups for amplification, others without pickups. The combinations available can boggle your mind.
Cigar box banjos often get lost in the shuffle. They are often simple instruments that long ago were made by beginning players from whatever components they had available at the time. Often the first exposure a beginner had to music was from a cigar box made from scratch. Today cigar box banjos can be made from scratch or from a building kit that has all the basic components. Even though they are relatively simple to make their quality of sound and playability doesn't suffer. It depends on the effort and commitment to excellence the builder is willing to make. Whether made from scratch or from a kit, the builder can let his or her creative imagination run wild while building a unique, well playing instrument.
It is true that "good sounding banjo" is a subjective term dependent as much on the music you're trying to produce as it is on the banjo itself. It can range from plunky hollow and incisive to piercing and painful, especially in the beginning. Mark Twain once said that a gentleman is a person who knows how to play a banjo but doesn't. But as Mark Twain also knew well, that inimitable banjo sound is exactly what makes playing a banjo the matchless experience that it is. Cigar box banjos don't play quite as loud as a conventional banjo, but with care and craftsmanship you can create that uniqueness in a well playing instrument that is both rich and responsive, often with a deeper, mellower sound.
Many well known banjo players and many well known people who are not so well known for their banjo playing got their first exposure to making music with a cigar box instrument. Freddie Hart, whose 1971 country hit "Easy Lovin'" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, grew up in Loachapoka, Alabama in a large, sharecropping family of fifteen children. He got started musically by cobbling out a cigar box instrument using strings made of wire from the copper coil of a Model T Ford.
Jim Reeves made his first instrument from a cigar box and rubber bands. Stringbean Akerman made his first banjo using thread from his mother's sewing kit and a shoebox. Creating what would hardly be considered a musical instrument by many today, these artists and many others developed the roots of their iconic musical style from the very rudiments of instrument making.
Many who had no claim to playing any instrument well experimented early with cigar box banjos. Carl Sandburg, recognized as the American Bard, tried his hand at a willow whistle, then a comb with paper over it, a tin fife, a flageolet (a type of wooden flute), and an ocarina before developing his own brand of music early in life using the banjo. He is quoted as saying, "My first stringed instrument was a cigar box banjo where I cut and turned the pegs and strung the wires myself", and these experiences helped define who he really was.
What ties all these folks together is their gift of originality, the minutest part of that originality may have been sparked by these early-in-life experiences. But if you can in the minutest way identify with that experience, then my work here is done. Now that we have the banjo, let's go get a beagle.
Banjos are made from a host of materials, metal and wood primarily, with some plastics and combinations using each. There are also banjos made from other instruments like ukuleles, guitars or mandolins. It seems there are more banjo types than dog types. One banjo uses a bass in a standup version that is definitely far more than just a drumhead with strings, often the very definition of banjo. String quantities are another wide variable, with one, three, four, five, six or ten. Many of these combinations use open backs, others use closed backs, some with pickups for amplification, others without pickups. The combinations available can boggle your mind.
Cigar box banjos often get lost in the shuffle. They are often simple instruments that long ago were made by beginning players from whatever components they had available at the time. Often the first exposure a beginner had to music was from a cigar box made from scratch. Today cigar box banjos can be made from scratch or from a building kit that has all the basic components. Even though they are relatively simple to make their quality of sound and playability doesn't suffer. It depends on the effort and commitment to excellence the builder is willing to make. Whether made from scratch or from a kit, the builder can let his or her creative imagination run wild while building a unique, well playing instrument.
It is true that "good sounding banjo" is a subjective term dependent as much on the music you're trying to produce as it is on the banjo itself. It can range from plunky hollow and incisive to piercing and painful, especially in the beginning. Mark Twain once said that a gentleman is a person who knows how to play a banjo but doesn't. But as Mark Twain also knew well, that inimitable banjo sound is exactly what makes playing a banjo the matchless experience that it is. Cigar box banjos don't play quite as loud as a conventional banjo, but with care and craftsmanship you can create that uniqueness in a well playing instrument that is both rich and responsive, often with a deeper, mellower sound.
Many well known banjo players and many well known people who are not so well known for their banjo playing got their first exposure to making music with a cigar box instrument. Freddie Hart, whose 1971 country hit "Easy Lovin'" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, grew up in Loachapoka, Alabama in a large, sharecropping family of fifteen children. He got started musically by cobbling out a cigar box instrument using strings made of wire from the copper coil of a Model T Ford.
Jim Reeves made his first instrument from a cigar box and rubber bands. Stringbean Akerman made his first banjo using thread from his mother's sewing kit and a shoebox. Creating what would hardly be considered a musical instrument by many today, these artists and many others developed the roots of their iconic musical style from the very rudiments of instrument making.
Many who had no claim to playing any instrument well experimented early with cigar box banjos. Carl Sandburg, recognized as the American Bard, tried his hand at a willow whistle, then a comb with paper over it, a tin fife, a flageolet (a type of wooden flute), and an ocarina before developing his own brand of music early in life using the banjo. He is quoted as saying, "My first stringed instrument was a cigar box banjo where I cut and turned the pegs and strung the wires myself", and these experiences helped define who he really was.
What ties all these folks together is their gift of originality, the minutest part of that originality may have been sparked by these early-in-life experiences. But if you can in the minutest way identify with that experience, then my work here is done. Now that we have the banjo, let's go get a beagle.
About the Author:
Get more information about cigar box banjos or buying and building a banjo here, or email me at walker@papasboxes.com and I'll send you a follow up with photos.
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