The oldtime banjo blog from Kiel

The skin on my bushel-banjo (almost a mistrel-banjo) is from calf, not goat, as Pär wrote to me. And just now I am reading in Bob Carlin's book "Banjo, an illustrated history" about Joe Sweeney, who must have been quite a guy when he was seven years old (i.e. 1817). His grandniece was telling stories about him having built his first own banjo in the age of seven using a gourd and the skin of the family's black cat - which led to his mother giving him a god thrashing and burning the banjo. As the family had another -white - cat, Little Joe jumped at the chance and took another gourd, this time with the white hide. It was then that his mother realized that this boy was special and from then on he got encouragement in his musical career.

Formula to buy banjos as everybody knows is N + 1  (N being the number of banjos you already own). Although I thought to break this rule at this years Banjoree (and buy 0, not 1 + x, x beeing the number of banjos you dream of) I really was stunned by the sound of one of the banjos on display there. Pär from Sweden/Wernigerode had built several big banjos with natural skins and a pot made from a bushel for grains. And there was this fretless 36 cm / 14 2/3´´ piece. I had the chance to play on it for half an hour. In the end I couldn´t  resist. Pictures here: And it sounds like this: 

(the last picture is taken from www.banjoree.eu)

First gig ever of the "Gray Rabbits" (at the Banjoree). Members are Mette, Lars and your´s truly.

Inspired by a guitar-related picture at the banjoree, I found out that this works with banjos too:

Schon wieder vorbei. Ich habe eine Menge Anregungen bekommen, von denen ich einige hier in loser Folge posten möchte. Für den Anfang mal ein Video, das mehr mit Ukulele als mit Banjo zu tun hat, in dem aber  Karsten Schnoor , "mein" Banjo-Bauer, eine nicht nur schleifende Rolle spielt:

... werfen ihre Schatten voraus. In ganz Deutschland - und den angrenzenden Ländern - sitzen und stehen jetzt Leute, die mehr oder weniger verzweifelt noch schnell das/den/die eine oder andere Tune lernen oder vervollständigen wollen, mit dem/der sie am Wochenende in der Proitzer Mühle am allgemeinen Hämmern bzw. Picken teilnehmen wollen. Das BANJOREE 2019 beginnt am kommenden Donnerstag. Kann ich denn nun endlich den zweiten Durchgang des C-Teils dieses Michael-Miles-Stückes auswendig? Wir werden sehen...