The Banjo History Essay

Many Americans believe that the banjo originated in the United States. Believe it or not, that is not true. Captured slaves in the Caribbean first brought the banjo to America. The banjo was originally known as the banjar by these African Americans, but its name slowly evolved into what we now call the banjo. Since the 17th century, the banjo has been strummed to many different types of music; “country, ragtime, jazz, Dixieland, Irish, and many other traditional music” (Edmondson 100) genres. This unique instrument was originally constructed similar to the instruments found in the Savannah regions of West Africa (“Folk Music”). The original banjo was made out of a hollowed gourd and its strings were made from silk or dried bird guts (“Folk
They were the ones who started the Minstrelsy, or the Blackface performance; the European Americans painted their face black and wore exaggerate clothing and wigs (Edmondson). During the 19th century, the banjo flew around the world and met with many Englishmen, Japanese(s), Australians and South Africans. England saw the banjo from a different perspective and innovated this instrument with additional bass strings, short thumb strings and building materials (Edmondson). For a moment of time in the 1870s, many Europeans even saw the banjo as a women parlor instrument. In Europe, people sat in seats in a concert or clubs, shushing people so they could listen to the harmonic sounds that came out of the banjo. By 1850, a voyager named Matthew Perry introduced this banjo to Japan with a blackface performance and in 1865, South Africa also saw the blackface performance (Edmondson). It wasn’t until the late 19th century, when manufactures started to make the banjo out of both wood and metal. During this time, the banjo’s face was made with cheese box hoops and was shaped into the shape of a frying pan (“Folk Music”). By the end of the 19th century, banjos were made to reflect the sounds of bass, cello, piccolo and the ukulele (Edmondson