How Banjos Are Made Using Traditional Techniques | Extraordinary Stories Behind Everyday Things
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2023
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Greg Deering, the founder of Deering Banjos, tells of the history of the Banjo and how his factory produces them using traditional techniques.
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From Season 1 episode 5.
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The two most prominent foreign instruments adopted into traditional Irish music are the American banjo and the Greek bouzouki.
I own the Goodtime banjo. Wonderfully built affordable instrument. Thanks, Greg and the Deering staff.
I’m glad Discovery made an updated video on this great American company and proved that it was “Made in the USA!!” I’m waiting for my Deering Goodtime 2 to be delivered! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Thank you!
And the cool thing I’ve noticed some new popular music using banjos while they aren’t the center of the show they’ve made a comeback in mainstream music
Thank you for your great banjos. We have a GoodTime tenorbanjo. Great craftsmanship. Greetings form Arnbak Banjos in DK.
i own and play deering eagle 2 and one of the most beautiful the CALICO
Very interesting.
Yeah. I think imma get a banjo now. Looks fun to play
Love it.
Great !
I'm pretty sure this guy is a scientologist iirc.
The Banjo. Created by African Slaves and the body is kind of a drum. What a cool instrument!
Yes, it originated from West Africa
The 5 string banjo was created by joel Sweeney, the original banjo came from egypt according to 1880s sources, the west african instrument was very basic and developed by sweeney from virginia.
Man, all the history of the banjo stuff in this video is inaccurate. The banjo isn't prehistoric, and it wasn't invented in America. It's a very modern instrument and it was invented in the Caribbean. Sweeney's design only became popular because the instrument was already popular on the continent. It's wild that the history is still being misrepresented when so many historians have worked so hard to dispell those old myths.
The banjo is based on African instrument concepts that have been around for thousands of years (gut strings stretched over a drumhead) the addition of metal hardware in the pot was added in the 1800s. Prior to this, the drumhead was typically tied on or sometimes tacked on. The banjo has predecessors in Africa, which were adapted by slaves into several improvised instruments, one of which persisted as a general design long enough to be adapted into what is now called a banjo. The instrument popular in the carribean hundreds of years ago was simply 1-4 gut strings, a flat stave of wood, and a membrane of hide. All of the more recent adaptations like frets, the 5th string, the tone ring, etc are what make it a "banjo."
@@N8Dulcimer that's highly inaccurate. The term banjo predates those modern contributions by at least 100 years. This is well laid out in the research down by Kristina Gaddy in her new book Well of Souls. Tackhead banjos, which were homemade instrumenta that were exclusively played by black people had a fifth string prior to their mass production and the adding of hooks. Further to that songs played on the modern banjo can still be played or old design African gourd banjos, using the same voicings and tunings. It is silly to say that they are two different instruments. Lastly I think it speaks to a subtle racism to deny the African-ness of the banjo. Like other African inventions, there's always a push to disassociate African individuals and culture from the invention itself. This is because it is common to believe the myth that Africans aren't fully human. You wouldn't say the Violin isn't a European instrument even though like other lutes from that region it descends from a thousand years old tradition that comes from Asia.
@@abbanjo13 You're being pedantic. It is generally accepted that the banjo is based on similar African instruments such as the akonting. At what point the term 'banjo' was applied to an African descendant instrument is totally moot. When white people invented that term, there were NO standardized features of banjos. The specific instrument now referred to as a "banjo" has key differences from those original folk instruments. It is accurate to say that the banjo was standardized into it's modern form in the mid 1800s. Very little has changed since then, lots and lots changed before then.
You subtly accuse me of racism, but you're showing your own ass. For example, suggesting that because African folk banjos CAN be played in modern styles, that makes them the same as modern ones. Traditional African music does not want or need the rigid structure of 12 tone equal tempered frets in major key tunings, which is why traditional banjos played by African folks did not include frets. The desire to add frets was specifically to allow it to play with other European instruments. You need to leave your baggage at the door because while I understand that banjo history is very divisive, people are not racist for simply disagreeing with you.
@@N8Dulcimer I am not that the ekonting or other African lutes are a banjo. Clearly they aren't. The instrument that was invented in the Caribbean in the 17th century clearly is though. Also while it's correct that African string music does not follow the standard notation African Diasporic music often does. 17th century records of black banjo music like those of Hans Sloane and Jean Baptiste show this. When I say the banjo is an African instrument I mean one invented in the diaspora amongst African descendents with influences from European ideas in their vicinity. Furthermore the tackhead banjo (which is different from the gourd banzas that preceded them) was purely a black instrument for a while. The instrument has a standardized fretless neck, five strings and a wooden rim with a skin tacked in. It was the version of the banjo that white entrepreneurs reworked but aside from some minor changes its a modern banjo in every sense. I'm not accusing you of racism because you disagree with me, I'm accusing you of it because you want to erase 200 plus years of black banjo history and begin the life of the instrument in white hands in the mid to late 1800s. This is part of a tradition of denial of black cultural creativity and invention that is white supremacist. I also think it is rich to accuse me of being pedantic when you are arguing that frets, tone rings and hooks are defining features that make a banjo a banjo. This is foolish because for the majority of it's history white and black people did not play banjos that had those features. Your definition would exclude the entire Appalachian homemade mountain banjo tradition for example.
@@abbanjo13 You are arguing with points I would never make. It clearly relates more to your own personal issues than it does to anything I'm saying. Let me make this abundantly clear. Traditional music from west Africa *is physically impossible to play on a modern banjo.* The correct notes and scales are not accessible once you slap on 12 tone frets. The only point that I am making is that when you bastardize an instrument so extensively that it is no longer playable in a region, you can no longer say it originates from that region. Did African descendants create the original banjos? Of course. Are they the same instrument that white people started making in the 1800s? Of course not. Did white people use ideas from African instruments and then alter them to be functional as western instruments? Of course.
It's no different than the way that people sell "native american style flutes" that play a diatonic major scale. You can't just take the aesthetic of a different culture, totally warp and malign it into something that works for you, then assert that you never changed anything, and that it is still in it's intact traditional form.
I would never argue with you that black folks invented and played tack head banjos. The fretless/mountain banjo is an inherently black instrument. If you cannot understand how 12 tone frets, and a tunable drumhead were a white feature that specifically limit the instrument to being able to only play western music, you may need to read a few more books.
Working there would be a great job!
"Traditional techniques" is flat out absurd. Everything from heated presses, hydraulic frames, hydraulic fret cutters, several specialized lathes, multiple CNC routers, dremels, spray on finish, etc.
The banjos look and sound fine, but they are undeniably *very* modern and have nothing at all in common with traditional banjos.
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None of this looks like traditional techniques
I thought this video would be cool but now I’m just angry. I’m a white man born in the USA, I play music, listen to all different types. Anyone who’s going to say on banjos just got popular during the civil war is insane. Enslaved people brought instruments with them that the white lab was so threatened by, they took their instruments from them because the power of music scared them. Not a single person in this video wants to mention that. I’d cuss but I’m keeping cool for the children.
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