The banjitar is the bastard child of the unnatural union of guitar and banjo. It is an instrument with a history, not just a new fad that someone concocted to sell more product for a music instrument manufacturer. Guitarists find it a novelty because their chords work on it. They don't have to learn to play in a different tuning. Bluegrass five-string banjo players almost universally disrespect it. It's not a "real" banjo to them. Never mind that that it pre-dates the invention of bluegrass as a style by half a century. People who play tenor banjos, which are usually tuned in fifths like a mandolin don't pay us no mind. They have their own thing going on.
The banjitar, also called a ganjo, guitjo, or 6-string banjo can be strummed and played chord-style like a tenor banjo or fingerpicked like a bluegrass banjo. It can be played without picks, with fingerpicks, or with a plectrum. Without picks, it can sound somewhat like a lute, a Renaissance ancestor of the guitar. It can have steel strings or nylon strings, depending on the players' preferences. The low string tension invites guitar players to try new things that they might not have done on an acoustic guitr. The long neck makes all the frets easily reachable. Banjitars have closed-back and open-back models that provide different tones and feel very different to play. The banjitar sounds cool playing classical music as it does folk, rock, or country music.
Whatever your reasons for exploring the banjitar, I welcome you here and hope you find something useful. Come back often to see the new content that will emerge, which I hope will include videos, lessons, reviews of instruments, and reviews of music. Only time will tell how this will evolve. Thanks again for dropping by.
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