Written for The Cadenza.

By F. L. Keates.

Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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The banjo has quite long enough been regarded as an instrument easily mastered.  No doubt with the view of attracting such people as are desirous of learning to play on "something easy," this belief is encouraged, more of less, by teachers.  The result is to my mind not commendable.  Of course, it is recognized that teachers must look to business.  Judging from this point of view, perhaps the end sometimes justifies the means; but it is not good for the banjo at its present tender age, inasmuch as some will say an instrument easily mastered cannot amount to much.  Human Nature must be humored.  If you can humor it with the truth, so much the better.  If you impart to it the unvarnished fact that the banjo is a difficult instrument to master, Human Nature will respect it highly, and the fruit thereof will be good.  Give Human Nature to understand that some particular brilliant act, or performance, is, despite appearances, a very easy matter, and its appreciation will wane.  Reverse the assertion, and Human Nature will fittingly respond, for, as with a woman, a little honest coaxing sometimes works wonders.

Many people smile when they hear the term "student" applied to a learner of the banjo, but when it is pointed out that the banjo is a more difficult instrument than the piano, the term does not seem out of place.  On which instrument--banjo or piano--do you think the "Gypsy Rondo," or "William Tell" overture is more difficult to play?  I say, the banjo, decidedly.  And so on, in many cases.  Even the violin is not more difficult than the banjo, though the violin's superior capabilities of expression place it on a high plane, which the banjo does not reach, except, perhaps, in a few extraordinary cases where genius is allied with the capacity for an immense amount of the closest application, and encouraged by a superior instrument of remarkable sympathy and power.  Such cases are phenomenons, and unhappily, like the poles, few and far between.

There is nothing to be gained by lowering the standard of the banjo in order to entice would-be players who are lazily looking a "royal road."  The instrument is not of the jewsharp--mouthorgan--autoharp--accordion species.  To try and conceal the fact that the banjo is not easy to manipulate commendably is in many ways foolish.  Though not of any great difficulty in the early stages to those who have aptitude for such accomplishments, it certainly becomes so in the advanced stage, a fact we should not regret, as easy tasks carry no weight, and an instrument whose capabilities are quickly exhausted is one on which even very ordinary music cannot be performed.  There is one fact which must not be overlooked.  The beginner draws satisfaction from the banjo in a much shorter time than he or she would from either the violin or the piano.  This, no doubt, is why it has erroneously been termed an easy instrument.  Under any other conditions that the present, it might be in many ways advantageous to dub it so, but considering its youthfulness and the advancement we desire for it in the public eye, we may do well to consider whether we cheapen it by representing it in that light.

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from The Cadenza, pub. Kansas City, Mo., July-August 1898. 

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