How many people actually play this style?

[Austin]

I'm curious. How many people even know about it? It seems rare to find someone who does.

[Austin]

Liszt already existed and I don't feel very attracted to the piano. The banjo is my home.

Richard William Ineson said:

You are right Ian, he's flogging a dead horse, he needs to move on to an instrument with more of a future and less of a past.

IAN SALTER said:

I think that my post was poorly considered. It was intended to suggest to Austin, that his stated aims might be better realised on instruments other than a banjo.

[Ethan Schwartz]

Drift is right. The original question has been answered (more or less), and the reasoning behind that answer has been provided. We don't need to invent further explanations -- like instruments not being used to their "full potential," whatever that means -- when we can simply look at the historical facts. 

nick Kelly said:

I am struggling to see a connection between some guy tapping an electric guitar and how many people play in this banjo style, must be what is called thread drift !

Austin said:

Because they wear picks. But right hand tapping is more of a gimmick or party trick.

Ethan Schwartz said:

You don't see people doing fast two-handed tapping on banjo, and there's a reason. You need very low action and the right combination of string gauge/tension to get a clear and even sound. Electric instruments have the advantage here because you can play gently and just boost the output (some compresion/reverb doesn't hurt, either). Instruments like the Chapman Stick and Marcodi Harpejji are designed with these principles in mind. You can tap on acoustic guitar but it takes more force and thus is less agile. 

Jody Stecher said:

Strings and frets are strings and frets. Banjos have em, just like electric guitars. Left hand tapping can be done on any stringed instrument. I still maintain that the banjo has limits but I don't see how this repertoire and its techniques can't be done on most types of banjos.  Not that I would ever want to.

IAN SALTER said:

I should have used an example performed on an acoustic instrument. However, the point is that I cannot imagine a banjo being used for such advanced musical expression.

[IAN SALTER]

Irrespective of what it may be called, I am very content playing only pre 1900 jigs, hornpipes, schottiches, waltzes and marches on my pre 1900 banjos. 

[Joel Hooks]

I have to admit, I did not listen to the guitar tapping video-- I saw it but did not turn on the sound.

The "classical guitar" world is replete with new composition.  The problem is, and this is just my opinion, 99% (of what I have heard) is unlistenable. 

The whole 12 tone or atonal thing is just beyond my understanding.  It is not fun. It is not good music.

There was some of this 12 tone stuff on the Black Tie Banjo CD recorded by Geoff Freed.  I deleted it off of my phone so that it would not play by accident.  It sounds like random clicks and plunks and bleeps. Oh... but it is taking music to "higher levels"! Bah!

For me, I was attracted to classic banjo by the "historical" printed music.  Give me a military march, polka, rag, waltz, jig, reel, minor jig, characteristic piece, etc.. 

Compose good fun music, with melody and harmony, that lands easy on the fingerboard and I'll be all about it.  Use difficult time with hard to play atonal chords and no melody to speak of... well, I'll go back to George Lansing and Thomas Armstrong. 

[Richard William Ineson]

I feel exactly the same Joel, Cammeyer's attempts at introducing 'modern' harmonies and no melody in his work, pieces such as 'La Caresse' were completely baffling to everyone I suspect, like much 'avant garde' music in other fields. I have tried to listen to what I term, 'What time does the tune start?' music and it just makes me feel queasy. The guitar tapping video sounds, to me, like the muzak which is now played as background on many UK TV adverts, composed, if that is the right term, especially for the job and to avoid paying any fees to the Performing Rights Society for music written by composers who were/are more traditional in their approach to music.

Joel Hooks said:

I have to admit, I did not listen to the guitar tapping video-- I saw it but did not turn on the sound.

The "classical guitar" world is replete with new composition.  The problem is, and this is just my opinion, 99% (of what I have heard) is unlistenable. 

The whole 12 tone or atonal thing is just beyond my understanding.  It is not fun. It is not good music.

There was some of this 12 tone stuff on the Black Tie Banjo CD recorded by Geoff Freed.  I deleted it off of my phone so that it would not play by accident.  It sounds like random clicks and plunks and bleeps. Oh... but it is taking music to "higher levels"! Bah!

For me, I was attracted to classic banjo by the "historical" printed music.  Give me a military march, polka, rag, waltz, jig, reel, minor jig, characteristic piece, etc.. 

Compose good fun music, with melody and harmony, that lands easy on the fingerboard and I'll be all about it.  Use difficult time with hard to play atonal chords and no melody to speak of... well, I'll go back to George Lansing and Thomas Armstrong. 

[nick Kelly]

I have always just played any tune that I enjoy ,my audience seem to enjoy it too, I make no attempt to push anything to a higher level like others have said, such attempts to do so I have found to be unlistenable. I like Scott Joplin, George Gershwin and a slew of other composers of their ilk, if anybody wants to push barriers and explore new genres using their banjo then good for them but, dont be surprised if most people just ignore you,its only a banjo, just play it !

Richard William Ineson said:

I feel exactly the same Joel, Cammeyer's attempts at introducing 'modern' harmonies and no melody in his work, pieces such as 'La Caresse' were completely baffling to everyone I suspect, like much 'avant garde' music in other fields. I have tried to listen to what I term, 'What time does the tune start?' music and it just makes me feel queasy. The guitar tapping video sounds, to me, like the muzak which is now played as background on many UK TV adverts, composed, if that is the right term, especially for the job and to avoid paying any fees to the Performing Rights Society for music written by composers who were/are more traditional in their approach to music.

Joel Hooks said:

I have to admit, I did not listen to the guitar tapping video-- I saw it but did not turn on the sound.

The "classical guitar" world is replete with new composition.  The problem is, and this is just my opinion, 99% (of what I have heard) is unlistenable. 

The whole 12 tone or atonal thing is just beyond my understanding.  It is not fun. It is not good music.

There was some of this 12 tone stuff on the Black Tie Banjo CD recorded by Geoff Freed.  I deleted it off of my phone so that it would not play by accident.  It sounds like random clicks and plunks and bleeps. Oh... but it is taking music to "higher levels"! Bah!

For me, I was attracted to classic banjo by the "historical" printed music.  Give me a military march, polka, rag, waltz, jig, reel, minor jig, characteristic piece, etc.. 

Compose good fun music, with melody and harmony, that lands easy on the fingerboard and I'll be all about it.  Use difficult time with hard to play atonal chords and no melody to speak of... well, I'll go back to George Lansing and Thomas Armstrong.