The Recorded Plectrum Banjo

If nothing else, I hope you have noticed by now that I take the four-string banjo very seriously! Yes, I do have a life away from the banjo, and I even know how to let down my hair—such as it is—and have fun! The banjo was left simmering on the back burner for too many years though while I was doing that adult thing called “paying bills” (I’m too smart to try to make a living as a musician!); now that I am retired and find myself with “too much time on my hands,” the confounded thing has kind of taken over.

At any rate, I have become determined to make a difference in what I see as a dying world; the world of the four-string banjo. Please take my blogs in that light; they are meant to inspire discussion and forward movement, not argument. I don’t mean to come off as argumentative; that’s just my youthful enthusiasm and idealism showing through.

I have long lamented the unfortunate lack of known plectrum banjo recordings from the instrument’s heyday of the 1920’s. Without sufficient source material for guidance, how can we really know how the plectrum banjo was played “back in the day,” and thereby make an informed judgement as to what is historically-correct (or possible) today? These are the kinds of thoughts that prevail in the over-active brain of a banjo nerd like me. With this thought in mind, let me ask an innocent what-if question: ‘What if Harry Reser had recorded with the plectrum banjo?’

Can you imagine the impact this—if it were known to be true—would have on the players of today (you and me)? Say, if Cat and Dog, or Crazy ‘Jo were proven to be actually on plectrum—and not tenor? Makes one think, doesn’t it? Simple Chord Melody would not be the sacred-cow, only-game-in-town “gold standard” of plectrum banjo technique; good old-fashioned scale-based knowledge and technique—the things that help an instrument evolve with the times (which the banjo clearly has not done)—would be much more important; in short, we would be conceptualizing and playing the plectrum much differently today if that kind of music had been our major role model for the last 90 years.

I know Reser was the “greatest” tenor banjoist (and the biggest tenor hero)—I’m not trying to “steal” him away to the dark (plectrum) side of the moon—but I happen to believe he may have also been the greatest plectrum banjoist, a fact hidden by the lack of recordings. If any of his recordings were on that instrument, I would argue them as proof.

Of course, this is not even a question for tunes like Lollypops, Flapperette, Fair and Warmer, Old Town Pump, Heebie Jeebies, or Crackerjack; those are quite obviously tenor banjo (though there are those among us who can play them on either). But Easy Goin’, Pickins’, The Clock and The Banjo, Frosted Chocolate, Kitten on The Keys—wow, those could just as easily be plectrum; at any rate, they’re certainly playable—note-for-note—on plectrum!

Of course, there are the lesser-known recordings (thank you Juergen Kulus, for bringing them—and this idea—to my attention)—An Island Made for Two, Calling, Collette, Sugar Blues, Tamiami Trail, Ukulele Lady, When The Robert E. Lee Comes to Town—those sure sound like plectrum to me! At any rate, they’re not famous enough to cause argument one way or the other, so let’s just say they were (why not?). In that lesser-known group are Page Paderewski, Symphonola, and Trainin’ the Fingers—those are obviously tenor, but then again, Harry Reser was a musical genius who probably could have recorded any of them on a toy guitar if he had wanted to!

This is an important distinction to me because of the sheer comparative difficulty of the music. No judgement call here; if true, these would not be “better” than the other popular role model, just more difficult—as in requiring more scale-based knowledge and technique (on an instrument not known for it today) on the part of the player, and a bit more sophisticated listening skills on the part of the listener (“too many notes” is the major comment I hear today regarding Reser, which is “proof of his greatness,” to me). We know of course from promo pictures and his 1936 movie short that Reser played plectrum (and boy, he sure played a lot of notes in that one, didn’t he? Positively “tenoresque”—yet, there’s that pesky plectrum in his hands. . .).

Here’s my point (at long last): Marketing Reser as strictly a tenor player (though we know that he played plectrum too) has inferred all this time that only the tenor is capable of playing this style—allowing the simpler Chord Melody style to reign as the characteristic “proper place” for the plectrum, and convincing unknowing new/young banjoists—which I was once—that this is “how you play the banjo!” Wouldn’t it be a shame to find out—almost a full century later—that he recorded on the plectrum also, that silly human pride has kept it hidden from view, and more importantly, that we could have been playing—and evolving/advancing—from that style all along?

At any rate, there is no written evidence one way or the other—only conjecture based on my ear (and Juergen’s and a few others) and a couple of obscure anecdotes; I would be overjoyed to discuss this, and offer my “proof” (which you are free to believe or not). Are there any other banjo nerds out there who take it as seriously as I do? I certainly hope so!

I have another related point to make here: I am aware that there is a bit of animosity between tenor and plectrum advocates; I know that most of it is in fun, but still. . . Much of this is traceable to the old Reser/tenor/East Coast vs. Peabody/plectrum/West Coast argument. If my last statement (regarding the marketing of Reser) is true, then we have once again been the victims of good old-fashioned American salesmanship! Somebody somewhere—back when the banjo was still a viable cash-cow (comparable to the guitar today)—saw a way to make more money, and we’re stuck with the resulting biases!

Though I specialize in the plectrum, I play—and like—tenor also; when I advocate for the “preservation, promotion, and advancement” of the four-string banjo (read my bio), I mean both. I think it is silly and counterproductive beyond belief to prefer one to the point of deriding the other, whether in fun or not.