G-string

Page Stephens hpst at EARTHLINK.NET
Fri May 9 17:59:45 UTC 2003


It is unlikely that G-string came from either the violin aka fiddle or even
the banjo or guitar in the context of the frontier. The reason for this is
that most old time fiddle and banjo players did not always play in standard
tuning and in many cases they would not have tuned any string to G.

The problem with the guitar is that it was a very rare instrument on the
frontier, and in addition they also tuned it in different ways.

Times have changed but even today while the standard tuning for the banjo in
bluegrass is the key of G, ie. G (fifth string) DGBD it is by no means
universal and those who like to play "old time" music use a variety of
tunings when they "frame" or "frail" their instruments which essentially
means that they use their right hand to play it backwards by leading with
their fingernails on the downstroke in order to get a percussive effect they
quite often use unusual tunings. When I occasionally play the 5-string banjo
if I play it at all which is rare for example I normally tune it to G DGCD
in order to get the effect I want while frailing.

What I guess the point I am getting to is that it dangerous to take as given
contemporary ideas about musical instruments in order to suggest that
everyone has always used them in the way that art musicians did even back
150 or so years ago. GDAE, the standard tuning for the violin/fiddle was
common even then but not universal. Among the various stringed instruments I
play are the tenor banjo and the ukelele, pronounced "ook" not "youk". For
the past few months I have tuned my tenor banjo not to standard tuning but
down to Irish tuning which is GDAE since it is easier to play for those who
were trained on the violin. Unfortunately most people are unaware of this
problem and as a result try to read back into history their own ideas on the
subject which are quite often naively wrong.

Best,

Page Stephens



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