On Jun 5, 2007, at 6:28 PM, John Howell wrote:
At 1:58 PM +0200 6/5/07, shirling & neueweise wrote:
can anyone tell me if the banjo is written transposed?
Interesting question. Most often, of course, it is only written in
chord symbols,
Hi John,
That is usually true, in my limited experience with this instrument,
and what you suggest below, that the notation is transposed like the
guitar, is also logical. The tenor banjo (for which this part is
surely written) is tuned like the viola, though guitar doublers
sometimes find ways to substitute strings and tune it like the top
four strings of a guitar. I believe there are even hybrid
instruments with six strings, tuned like a guitar, but with banjo
bodies, built for use by guitarists. (Guitjos? Bantars?)
Chuck
but we just got the music for our community summer musical ("Bye
Bye Birdie") and I went through the books this afternoon. There is
a single short passage for banjo in No. 1 "Overture A." The
notation is from c' (Helmholz notation for middle C) up to d''. I
suspect that this does sound an octave lower, just as the guitar
does. It just doesn't sound right to my inner ear at pitch.
Of course one assumes that this would be the tenor banjo and not
the common 5-string bluegrass banjo, and I suspect the tuning and
possibly the notation would be different.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
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http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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Chuck Israels
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