Banjo

The banjo is considered to be a member of the "guitar family."
Well sure, it has strings stretched the length of the neck and body;
It is held horizontally, and the strings are picked or strummed;
The left hand can finger both individual notes and chord shapes.

The big distinction is that, rather than a hollow body with a soundhole,
the banjo's sound comes from a resonator head similar to that of a drum.

A look at the peghead would lead one to believe the standard banjo is a four-string instrument.		But another peg sticks out of the neck partway up, so there are five strings where the picking happens.
	The "extra" string is called a drone, even though you can't fly it over your neighbors' yards to spy on them. It is usually not fingered, so when it's picked or strummed, it always sounds the same note. So, when that note—usually G—doesn't fit the chord, you probably want to leave it untouched for the moment.

The banjo dates back to the early years of Africans on the American
continent. We might think of ragtime music as primarily a piano style,
but it was inspired in part by the syncopated playing by banjoists.
The banjo became an important ingredient in folk music (e.g. "Man of
Constant Sorrow") and country music (e.g. "Gentle On My Mind"). But
wait; there's more. It sometimes sneaks into pop and rock repertoires:

song	artist	banjoist
Honky Cat	Elton John	Davey Johnstone
Last Child	Aerosmith	Paul Prestopino
Squeeze Box	The Who	Pete Townshend
Sweet City Woman	The Stampeders	Rich Dodson
Take It Easy	Eagles	Bernie Leadon

Now, here are two genres that rely heavily on BANJO. . . .

DIXIELAND

One of the influences on the New Orleans dixieland was marching band music.
Many small groups wanted to be able to march in addition to playing in halls.
The de facto standard instrumentation became three horns plus a rhythm section:

clarinet	providing lively improvisation above the melody line
cornet*	playing melody, often "jazzed up" but still recognizable
trombone	improvising in "tailgate style" with lots of glissandos
drums	individual pieces, because you can't march with a full trap set
tuba	for the bass part, because you can't march with a string bass
and BANJO!	to provide the chords, because you can't march with a piano

*or trumpet

BLUEGRASS

Bluegrass is an Appalachian high-energy folk-country style
that has roots in Scottish, Irish, jazz, and blues music.
In addition to vocals, here's a typical instrumentation:

fiddle	as played by	Robert Bowlin, versatile player and instructor
mandolin	as played by	Bill Monroe, The Father of Bluegrass
acoustic guitar	as played by	Doc Watson, pioneer who won seven Grammys
upright bass	as played by	Missy Raines, voted best bass player of the year ten times
& BANJO!	as played by	Earl Scruggs Bela Fleck Alison Brown Noam Pikelny Tony Trischka Pete Seeger Steve Martin Don Reno Ralph Stanley John Hartford J. D. Crowe et alii

banjo.

The Sunnysiders, an extremely obscure pop group of the 1950s, recorded one single
during their career. It was written by Freddy Morgan and Norman Malkin and called
"Hey Mr. Banjo." I ran across a lead sheet for it in one of the museum's fakebooks.

Stephen Foster was one of the most prolific songwriters in American history.
He drew influences from many sources, including southern black Americans.
His song "Ring The Banjo" was written in a dialect from the antebellum era.

~ FURTHER READING ~

I once knew a craftsman who built guitar effects pedals (among other things).
I was writing for a pop band and wanted to have a banjo in one of the arrangments.
To my disappoinment, no one in the band—not even the guitarist—played the banjo.
I asked the man, "Is there an effects box that will make a guitar sound like a banjo?"
His confident answer was, "Probably. . . . But why would anybody want to do that?"
He continued, "The best sound a banjo makes is when it hits the bottom of the trash can!"

Hmm. Taste. To each his own, I guess.