Hey guys, you might have seen this one already. "The Banjo Lesson" by impressionist Mary Cassatt, an American painter who lived most of her life in Paris..

http://vmfa.museum/collections/art/banjo-lesson/

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Comment by Jody Stecher on March 7, 2016 at 0:21

I've always found this painting to be disturbing. Care was taken in the colors, and the faces are so nuanced they look like particular people. The trusting intimacy between adult and child are beautifully portrayed. But the banjo and the way of playing it is hideous. The banjo is held at an impossible angle to play any music, the neck of the banjo cradled in the crook of the arm, the drum held parallel to the sky. Playing like this would hurt like hell.  Impressionism? I get the impression of tendonitis. 

Comment by Ilan Moss on March 7, 2016 at 0:54

Haha, yeah it looks real painful. Nice colors though, but I guess that's pretty run-of-the-mill for impressionists. Was also curious as this was painted in Paris, I never did find any info on classic banjo there... But you guys probably have much more, I'm new to this!  

Comment by Trapdoor2 on March 7, 2016 at 15:58

Have you never twisted the banjo around to show your fingering to someone? I don't see this as a playing position, I see it as a teaching moment...sort of a 'snapshot'.

I got to sit right in front of Walt Koken on Saturday during his group class. He did much the same thing, keeping his LH position but twisting the banjo around so that everybody sitting in the semi-circle around him could see his exact chord formation.

I have often screwed the banjo around to odd positions to clarify a point with students...even playing short bits, etc. I can't say I've ever had someone looking over my shoulder like that...but I can see how one might do so.

Comment by Jody Stecher on March 7, 2016 at 17:04

I would think the normal way of holding the banjo neck would be the best position for anyone seated anywhere in the semicircle in front of the player to see a chord formation. For someone standing behind and leaning over the player's shoulder, yes, I see how this would be good. But have you tried laying the banjo neck in the crook of your arm? I tried last night. The only way my fingers or any part of my hand could possibly touch the fingerboard would be to break all the bones in my wrist. It cannot be done. This anatomical impossibility is part of what makes this painting to disturbing to me.  

Walt Koken, eh? The guy's a banjo genius. One of a kind. And did you notice that he mostly plays in the two common classic banjo tunings? 

Comment by Trapdoor2 on March 7, 2016 at 22:03

Well, I do think that Miz Cassatt got the perspective of the banjo neck vs the LH off just a bit...just like she got the rim crooked. The painting is about the people, not the banjo...so I can easily forgive that.


Walt is a hoot. I was all tuned up into gCGBD and waiting...until he dragged his old Orpheum out and it was capoed into "open A" (aEAC#E). Go figure.


I was mentally unprepared for capo2...and lost my way a lot when he would call out a fret number...my brain just wouldn't adjust. He'd say 'move to the 7th fret...and I'd go to the uncapoed 7th and wonder for a moment why my chord sounded different than his.

Comment by Brian Kimerer on March 8, 2016 at 2:29

A lot of Mary Cassatt's paintings are vignetted like that. She painted the face in almost photo-realistic detail, and then just scribbled in the background. It focuses the eye on the center of attention in the painting. Find her on the Wiki and step through the paintings. It is a pattern in her work. Check out "The Pink Sash", which is a child sitting in a chair. The child's face is perfectly drawn and executed, but the chair she sits in and the dress she wears is a scribble. The child's face - important. The chair - meh.

So, the banjo and the left hand in this painting are just scribbled in. It's like she is saying, "Banjo? Meh".

Comment by Jody Stecher on March 8, 2016 at 3:09

Sure the banjo's a mess. That's a given. It's the broken bones that give me the creeps. 

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