music

without this high-pitched fifth string (which, by the way, is almost

always played with the picking-hand thumb).

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Figure 1-2: Comparing the string arrangement on (a) a guitar and (b) a five-string banjo.

In Chapter 5, I introduce you to roll patterns, which are the right-hand

picking sequences that are the basis of three-finger banjo technique. These
roll patterns are designed around the unique arrangement of banjo strings, as
is also the case with melodic-style banjo, a way of playing scales on the banjo
(see Chapter 11).

19th-and 20th-century American banjo

By the mid 19th century, the banjo was one of the most popular instruments
in the United States and England, played by white and black musicians alike.
The minstrel banjo style of the 1840s to 1860s reflects continuing African
and African-American banjo influences that helped launch the instrument to
international fame, accompanied by the publication of the first instructional
books and factory-made instruments.
By the 1860s, new ways of playing banjo were adopted from American guitar