What Banjo Should I Buy? - Banjo Mountain

Our teacher John breaks down all the considerations of what banjo a new player should buy? He also talks about pros and cons of buying from a store and things to consider if buying online. You can start learning banjo today in a proven step-by-step method at thebanjomountain.com for only pennies a day.

Additional notes from John:
In my goal to make this video as clear as possible to viewers (specifically with regard to my comments on the 5-string banjo), there are a few additional notes I’d like to add here.

First of all, my apologies to all the clawhammer pickers out there who may have felt that I gave clawhammer playing (also known as frailing) short shrift in this video.

There are a few key moments in my discourse where I mention the 5-string banjo in relation to the styles played on it. In reviewing the video (and the comments from viewers), it is clear to me that I make it appear as if bluegrass banjo is the only style ever played on a 5-string. As most of you may already know, this is obviously not the case. Clawhammer banjo (the type of banjo playing featured in the musical style known as old-time) has been played on 5-string banjos in this country since the 17th century. While bluegrass banjo, clawhammer’s younger cousin, tends to get the lion’s share of attention in pop culture, bluegrass banjo has only been around for a fraction of the time that clawhammer playing has been here (most historians date the birth bluegrass banjo somewhere around the mid-1940s). My hyper-focus on bluegrass picking in this video is likely due to the fact that for the past 40 years the bulk of my professional playing has revolved around bluegrass, not clawhammer/old-time. Again, no offense meant to all the clawhammer players out there. Just a simple oversight on my part. Apologies!

A few other notes I’d like to add:

At 2:37 I say, “There’s no pot on this side”. Just a simple slip of the tongue. I meant to say “resonator”.

At 2:46 I say, “Open-back banjos, unlike banjos with resonators, which would have a wooden pot here...” Again, “resonator” is what I meant, not pot.