Research

I've been doing some research involving both listening to techniques themselves and reading/listening about the history of the banjo. Mr. McMahon gave me a bunch of links, one from a documentary made about tracing the banjo's roots. They had an awesome jam session in a little village and showed the similarity in sound between the banjo and the thumb piano. I also listened to Richie Sterns a lot and am fascinated with his technique and songwriting ability.

Next I wanted to know more about the origin of the banjo so I found this clip on NPR about the investigation of a Gambian man who came to college in America.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139880625/the-banjos-roots-reconsidered

He actually got his research funded and looked at similarities between different instruments from his home country and he banjo to determine where it came from.

Basically one of the main points I took out is that the banjo (or ancestors of it) came over with the slaves. It's amazing to me how many parts of American culture are influenced by African culture without us even knowing. If you asked me before this project where the banjo came from I would probably tell you Nashville, which is probably a classic American answer. I'm never saying that slavery was a good thing but I am grateful that so many aspects of African culture can be seen in our culture today, especially in music. If the banjo is from Africa that probably means that country music or folk music came from the same roots. We already know that jazz came from spirituals and flourished during the Harlem renaissance and then rap/hip hop came from jazz. Lesson of the day: it all starts in Africa.