The invention of the five string banjo

Thank you Laurie54 for this week’s monomonday. It’s not exactly from a date in the 18th century but has evolved over that time period. This morning our friends from Paris gave us some tunes!

Where did the Banjo Originally Come From?

The Banjo was inspired by instruments that originated in West Africa from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and were brought over by slaves from those regions. These instruments, the ngoni and the xalam, are both hide covered stringed instruments that bear resemblance to the modern banjo. The earliest known prototypes appeared around the seventeenth century in the Caribbean region and showed striking resemblances to western stringed instruments in the form of fingerboards and tuning pegs.

Who Invented the Banjo

By the 1830’s, credit for inventing the modern banjo goes to minstrel musician, Joel Sweeney. Often called Joe, he is credited with designing and promoting the current 5 string banjo in the form we know it today.
By the 1850s, pupils of Sweeney created training programs and books on how to play the instrument.
This period could have also led to the start of modern Bluegrass as the fiddlers and drummers of the time formed bands with banjo players.