The English System of Tuning the Banjo, and how it originated.

[Carl Anderton]

Written for The Cadenza, Sept.-Oct. 1895.

By Douglas Sinclair,

(Editor of the "Jo," Bournemouth, England.)

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The English, (and under this head I include the inhabitants of the whole of the British Isles), have rarely of late years been given the credit of excelling as players of the banjo by their American cousins, and much of this is owing I think, to the fact that they have been misunderstood.  The average American banjoist, (I speak of that class who accept doctrine and principals without troubling to fathom their meaning or trace their evolution), cannot understand why the English adopt a different system of tuning to their own, and think with pardonable patriotic pride, that this is a slur on their nation as having founded, fostered and reared to perfection what is undoubtably one of the most popular solo instruments of the present day.

That no such slur exists it will be my pleasure in this article to attempt to prove and I trust my American friends will bear with any apparent patriotism on my own part, when I assure them that my explanation  will be tendered from a genuine motive to increase to bond of good-fellowship which happily at present exists between all classes of players, on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the journal, which I have the honor of editing, the proprietors, (Messrs. Barnes and Mullins of Bournemouth, England), who are, by the way, thorough representatives of the banjo as a classical solo instrument in England, have always advocated that it is brotherhood rather than rivalry which is going to help along our cause and they have carefully avoided all petty national jealousies, which unfortunately are too apt to arise on all subjects directed in common by two or more nations.

When the banjo was first introduced into England it was tuned according to the American system, and for some little time American banjo music was the only music to be obtained for the instrument.  Now the cause of its introduction was undoubtably owing to the rapid strides it was making in the States at the time, and here I think I shall have an opportunity of proving half my case by an attempt to trace the reason why the American system was adopted in America, which reason is to me clearly apparent and easily traced.  I have said that at the time of its introduction into England it was booming in America and I don't think I am far wrong in surmising that this very "revival" was answerable for the peculiar system of tuning.  The banjo was originally an instrument with a much longer arm than at present, and with consequently longer strings which in order to give them proper tone were tuned lower than the shorter ones on the more modern instrument.  As the banjo advanced in favor, musicians began to recognize its merits, and of course began to play from music rather than from ear.  They found that the strings when tuned to their best advantage at the intervals peculiar to the instrument, gave them the notes A, E G sharp, B and E and wrote their music accordingly, the principal keys favored being of course A and E.  Naturally as musicians adopted the banjo, the public interest began to strengthen in its favor, and it soon began to grow popular.  Then, to suit the smaller hands and less dexterous fingers of the amateur, the arm was gradually shortened until at last the present standard was adopted with more or less unanimity.  Now the banjo up to this period was still an instrument of itself, and one which could and did give satisfaction to its thousands of votaries unassisted by the piano or any other instrument.  In fact its popularity was confined principally to the class who could not afford to indulge their musical taste with expensive instruments.

This, then is the reason I advance, that, though shortened and consequently tuned to a higher pitch to give proper resonance to the strings, the difference in pitch to the original remained unnoticed, until it became fashionable and the piano was requisitioned as an accompanying instrument, by which time there was so much music on the market, and so many players who were all accustomed to call the strings by the old familiar names, that to rename them according to their actual pitch would have been a leviathan task such as no one would have pluck enough to attempt and it would have been absurd on the face of it to have done so.  But there was no reason why the remedy should should not be attempted in a new country where the instrument had rarely been heard and where this very difference in tuning (now that it had become apparent) was one of the principal drawbacks to its success.  The English player not knowing of the metamorphosis worried his brain to find a reason (what agnostics we Englishmen are to be sure) for the difference and one not being forthcoming he turned away in disgust.  Then someone "struck ile" by publishing a tutor for the banjo with the strings properly named and, presto--the thing was done.

I know many people have been tempted to sneer at what they term the "English system" of tuning without troubling to enquire the whys and wherefores.  Had they done so a very little study would have shown them that the "English system" was the system.  The "American system" giving all credit to the Americans as pioneers of the art of banjo playing, may have been the system in years gone by, but as with a change in  pitch the system of tuning remained unchanged they are at present at variance with each other and consequently incomplete.  This remark may pardonably draw down upon me the wrath of some worthy American citizens who may think I am trying to disparage his nation and therefore I will hasten to assure them that I have no such intentions.  All I wish to prove is that the English would have been wrong to have adopted an incomplete system of tuning when the field was quite open for them to correct it.  That the policy of the English was a good one I will go no farther than this to prove.  The English banjoist can play from any music without transposing it and knows that he is in perfect harmony with the piano or other accompaniment, while to arrange a composition for the banjo becomes a comparatively easy matter, which on the other hand would entail a most irksome task especially if the would-be arranger has the misfortune to be anything but a good copyist.

By the introduction of the banjeaurine, the English have been induced to follow the example of America and banjeaurine music is transposed to suit the different pitch of the instrument.  This is, I personally think, a pity, but as the banjeaurine is but little used except in banjo bands it is a point to which I am prepared to waive my opinion, with the hope that should it show signs of becoming as popular as its parent, something will be done to prevent the misnomers now existing, whereby the octave string is tuned to C yet the player plays on that string only when he sees G in the music (this of course would be E in America).

On other occasions I propose with the permission of the editor of the Cadenza, to give short papers on other English customs relative to the banjo which I think if better understood would be the means of dispelling much of the prejudice which exists in the minds of many as to English banjoists and their fads and fancies.

[Joel Hooks]

I was quick with my comment. I see now that altering the pitch and intervals of banjo strings is a important and necessary part of the oral history of the banjo and all of the handed down traditional styles. It makes sense as well that the tunings must be changed for wire strings (something I have very limited knowledge of) to ring in harmony in the keys that the song is played in.

I find all of that theory fascinating, the obsession with changing tunings on banjo. The other "instrument" I play, the harmonica, has a similar but exactly opposite mania attached to it by the modern community. The current school is to play in the most keys possible using a single richter harmonica, a practice that causes damage to the reeds and destroys the instrument in short order.

I play harmonicas straight, just like the banjo.

I have a hard enough time with the intervals of standard tuning.

I'll leave the patent clamps to the bluegrass folk and give them lots of room as I value my hearing and wish not to subject it to "sonic atmospheres."


(most of this was written tongue in cheek.)