Plectrum or Tenor or Five-String?
Actually the world of banjos is not that difficult to ferret out once you get some basic understandings down. To begin with, the crowd that we usually run around with in a “banjo band”, play four string banjos. There are fundamentally two types of common four-string banjos which can easily be recognized by the length of their neck. The Tenor banjo (well known on the early Riverboats) has 19 frets. It usually is the melody instrument in a banjo band. Its pitch is a little higher and it has a strong sound that can punch out of a band of other instruments. The Plectrum banjo has a longer neck of 22 frets and frequently plays the rhythm section in a banjo band. Either instrument can play either role but together they tend to split into the two parts that I mentioned. The plectrum banjo is often the one of choice for a person who is playing for their own enjoyment or wants to be able to solo and play all parts of a song. It has a slightly larger range of notes, and in particular, can hit so
