What am I going to do with a tenor banjo? I could always string it like a uke - like Valery Sauvage!

The Entertainer by Scott Joplin - on tenor banjo.



The very talented ukulele and banjolele player Valery Sauvage, known as "ukeval", from France has replaced the metal strings on this vintage tenor banjo with nylon; extra-long Aquila new nylgut strings - and strung and tuned it like a baritone ukulele! So there's a third way of stringing a tenor banjo! It sounds pretty good, too - and definitely something I'll experiment with.

It was Valery's videos that first acquainted me with the music and playing of Roy Smeck. More about "Wizard of the Strings" Roy Smeck another time - but check out ukeval's channel for more great music... he's a fine musician!

What am I Doing with this Tenor Banjo?

Yes, you read it right - a tenor banjo. It has been a really weird couple of days - I'll tell you about yesterday next time - but suddenly I find myself the owner of this rather large big brother to my banjolele!

As ever, it's Himself that's to blame really... LSH - he came in at lunchtime saying he'd seen a second-hand banjo in a shop for £50 - four strings...."That's a tenor" said I..."That's a good price for a banjo......"

Now, I've never had or played a banjo, but I've always had a soft spot for them; I love to hear one played well - the late great Barney McKenna of the Dubliners was a fantastic player of Irish tenor banjo. So - it was irresistible - by tea-time, it was mine. £60, not £50... but an okay price to have a banjo to have a go at - and all I knew about them was that they have four metal strings, and different tuning from the ukulele.

Now I'm a little wiser. The first discovery on Google was that I've paid the same price for this used instrument as I would have paid for a new one! It's a Swift - £60. Amazing. That just can't be right. But what the heck, I can sell it on if I don't like playing it, and hopefully not lose more than a few pounds. It's obviously a very basic banjo. That's fine. I only want to explore....

Next - tuning. Easily found by internet search; standard tuning, CGDA. Irish tuning, GDAE. So I think to myself - I'll tune it up to standard tuning til I know what I'm about... TWANG! Goes the second string..... so I start to loosen the others off again - and TWANG goes another. Now I only have two strings left on it.

This is a rapid learning curve.... I search online for new banjo strings - and learn that different gauge strings are used for standard tuning than for Irish - not surprising really, as Irish tuning is a whole fourth (four notes) lower than standard. Then it came to me - the banjo must have been fitted with strings designed for Irish tuning - and trying to pull them up five notes higher broke them straight away! So now I have to wait for some more to arrive in the post.

It's just as well - after all, I've got my handsome new Kiwaya soprano to play!

Meanwhile - it's not ukulele - but here's Barney.

I'm so glad we saw the Dubliners on their tour last year, before Barney shuffled off this mortal coil.... RIP Barney McKenna

Dueling Banjos (On One Ukulele)

I've found me another Ukulele Hero! He goes by the pseudonym Woodshed, and he has arranged Dueling Banjos, (that wonderful duet between a 5 string banjo and a guitar, used in the film "Deliverance",) for one ukulele.

It is an awesome arrangement. I've downloaded the tab but I'll never be able to play it. He gets two completely different tone colours by alternating playing on the fingerboard with playing down past the sound hole for the "guitar" passages.

The ukulele is a KoAloha Sceptre tenor; solid koa wood, made in Hawaii. You can see Woodshed's review of it on his blog, Uke Hunt here.

Hail Woodshed, you've got another fan!

Edit - some folk have asked for the tab - so here's a link to Woodshed's page on his fabulous blog, Uke Hunt! A link to the tab is on there!