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How to Play Irish Traditional

Music on Tenor Banjo

by Chris Smith

This article provides historical background and a few thoughts on technique for those wishing to play Irish traditional dance tunes on tenor banjo—but the left and right-hand techniques described should also be very useful for players of bouzouki, mandolin, or open-tuned guitar as well.

The repertoire of dance tunes—jigs, reels, polkas, hornpipes, and so on—employed in the Irish tradition stretches back to the late 17th-century, when many social, colonial, and economic shifts in Ireland led to changes in the support system for music, which had always been an important part of the old Gaelic social order. The tunes in the modern repertoire were mostly composed within the last 250 years, and preserved in those parts of Ireland's West and South which maintained the old language and the old culture. In these Gaeltachta, dance and music were a highly-valued social activity, and were carried with expatriate Irish as they relocated around the globe. Prior to the 1930s, most music happened in rural kitchens, at crossroads dances, and at public or parish dance halls. But with the advent of phonograph recording, radio, and the post-World War II boom in Irish working overseas, the music moved outward—until, in the 21st century, we can find sessions of traditional Irish music from Boston to Baku, from Sebastopol to San Francisco.

The banjo originates as an African-American adaptation of a family of West African instruments, known variously as ngoni, doussou'ngoni, xalam, and so forth—all of them skin-faced lutes played with various picking techniques. The version principally employed in Irish traditional music is the four-string 17- or 19- fret version, tuned in fifths, played with a plectrum, and originating in the "tango banjos" developed right around World War I to play in various banjo orchestras and, shortly, in vaudeville and early jazz. During Irish music's "Golden Age" of recording in the 1920s and .30s, players like Mike Flanagan, Michael Gaffney, and Neil Nolan all employed the tenor (usually in the “high-C" tuning of CGDA, a fifth below fiddle) on '78 recordings. Also, various traveling musicians (notably Margaret Barry and Pecker Dunne) recorded songs with 5-string fingerstyle accompaniment. But the widespread use of tenor banjo in Irish trad, played with a plectrum, blasting out tunes along with pipes, flute, and fiddle, can be traced to one primary influence: Barney McKenna, ace instrumentalist with the seminal "ballad group" the Dubliners, who used heavier gauges and tuned down to GDAE, an octave below the fiddle. McKenna.s growly tone on Dubliners LP.s was a strong influence on several generations of Irish tenor players, including Kieran Hanrahan of Stockton.s Wing, Charlie Piggott of De Danann, and Mick Moloney of Green Fields of America. These in turn opened the door for other tenor players including Seamus "East Coast" Egan of Solas (using the high-C tuning), Seamus "West Coast" Egan (a different person, playing GDAE), Gerry O Conner of 4 Men and a Dog (also using high-C), and a host of others. Along with the bouzouki, the tenor banjo has become the instrument of choice amongst plectrum players who want to play Irish dance tunes.

On a comparatively long-scale instrument like banjo, such stretches are more awkward than they are on the fiddle or mandolin, but advantages outweigh the disadvantages: using fiddle fingerings, you will find yourself (in the common trad Irish key areas of G, D, A, and E) naturally falling into accenting or de-emphasizing those same notes a fiddler would. In addition, your fingers are in the right spot to start employing the phrasing, triplets, rolls, and other articulations which a good Irish fiddler uses:

Consistency, reliability, and practice are all tremendously valuable in endeavoring to become really free with your instrument. Especially in Irish music, a tradition carried in the ear and the memory rather than in notation, one wants to be able to concentrate on remembering and playing memorized tunes, not splitting the attention to work out eccentric fingerings on the fly. So standardizing your left-hand technique in the above fashion is a good idea.

As is the case with left-hand fingering technique, in playing Irish trad music on tenor banjo, right-hand picking technique is very important; and, as with all technique relaxation, consistency, and thoughtful, consistent choices are a good idea. These ideas are designed to enhance precision while maintaining relaxation, so that, when playing in a trad Irish session, you can concentrate on remembering and picking up tunes by ear, not having to worry about pick direction or moving across strings.

Aim for a sitting or standing posture which is relaxed and allows free play for your shoulders and arms: a strap which holds the instrument in position is a good idea. We are concentrating on the right hand, and so we will not even try to finger any notes in the left; play all the exercises on open strings. Your right forearm and wrist should float freely over the face of the banjo, not trapped or anchored in a tense position. We use strict picking patterns, in the two commonest beat sub-divisions in Irish music: . For reels, most hornpipes, and other duple tunes, a strict down-up-down-up alternating pattern

D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U etc.

We maintain this alternating pattern no matter what kind of string-crossing is involved. Here's an exercise to do this:

We can add the left-hand back into the process—thus sharpening coordination between the two hands, by working our way up and then back down the fingerboard chromatically:

- For jigs, slip-jigs, some hornpipes, and other triple tunes, we use a strict down-up-down down-up-down repetitive pattern.

D-U-D D-U-D D-U-D D-U-D D-U-D D-U-D etc

Again, we can add the left-hand back into the process—thus sharpening coordination between the two hands— by working our way up and then back down the fingerboard chromatically:

The reason we focus so much on picking technique is because in Irish trad, as in many other melodic dance musics, accent is key: in order for the music to be danceable, to (as the Irish players say) glift the floor,h our melodic lines must have the crucial pulsing accent that brings out the music.s dance aspects. Playing a nonlegato instrument like the banjo, we need to think as consciously and carefully about our picking direction as a fiddle does about the bow or a flute player about the breath. By using the above picking patterns, like the lefthand techniques described earlier, we can more closely replicate the sound of the flute, pipes, or fiddle, which have always shaped the sound of traditional Irish music.

I include two classic Irish session tunes, the jig "Macs Fancy" and the reel "The Silver Spear," for you to try out. Notice that, when the tempo picks up (for example, within the triplets), we maintain the appropriate pick direction for the duple or triple subdivision. This keeps the "pulse" or "swing" which is so crucial to the music.

Acknowledgements

For the basic concept of how to work on right-hand plectrum technique outlined above, I am indebted to my old friend Dean "Toshiro" Magraw, virtuoso bebopper, flatpicker, and Irish-trad accompanist. Check out his recordings!

Recordings

Here is a short, incomplete list of great Irish tenor banjo recordings:
Mike Flanagan: The Tunes We Like to Play on Paddy’s Day
Mick Moloney: Strings Attached
Kieran Hanrahan: Plays the Irish Tenor Banjo
Charlie Piggott with De Danann: Selected Jigs, Reels, and Songs
John Carty & Brian McGrath: The Cat that Ate the Candle
Kevin Griffin: Traditional Irish Music from Doolin, County Clare
Enda Scahill: Pick It Up

Most are readily available on the World Wide Web at www.ossianusa.com or www.celticgrooves.com, both of which vendors specialize in traditional Irish music.

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Christopher J. Smith is Assistant Professor of Music History and Literature at Texas Tech University School of Music. He holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University, serves as Director of the Vernacular Music Center at Texas Tech.

His research interests are in American Music, 20th Century Music, vernacular music and culture, improvisation, and historical performance. He is the author of Celtic Backup for All Instrumentalists and the forthcoming Irish Session Tunes by Ear (both Mel Bay), is the authorized biographer of Irish musician and folklorist Séamus Ennis, and has published articles and presented papers on many topics in jazz, classical, and world musics. His solo CD of traditional Irish music (with fiddler Randal Bays and bouzouki-player Roger Landes) will appear early in 2004.

In addition, he records and tours internationally with Altramar medieval music ensemble, leads the Irish traditional band Last Night’s Fun, and has lectured or performed across North America and in Europe. He directs Irish Session Workshops, a non-profit organization, serves as co-Director of the Symposium of World Musics and on the Steering Committee of the Buddy Holly Symposium, and is a founding staff member of ZoukFest, the world’s only music camp and festival for players of the Irish bouzouki.