Banjitars!

 Taylor Swift delivers a song with a great message of hope to a lot of young people using her Deering banjitar. (Ever notice how Deering is so popular with  Nashville artists?)  Recommended

 Keith Urban has been one of the biggest stars to prominently feature the banjitar is their music. He also favors the Deering Boston model, which is one of the upper-tier instruments in the banjitar world.  Recommendation

 Here's a fun song from Eric Church where he plays a banjitar. The 6-string banjo fits in there great doesn't it! Looks like he's playing a Deering Boston model. 

 You may be familiar with guitar shredder extraordinaire, Joe Satriani. Satriani opened his album "Flying in a Blue Dream" with a performance on a Deering 6-string banjo. In an interview, he said he had ordered it and it was delivered to him while he was in the studio. He said he tuned it up and sat down on the floor to just play around on it a little. The engineer was so excited by the sound of Satriani's improvisations, he ran and got a microphone and recorded it on the spot. The improvisation became a piece titled, "The Feeling." Here in a 1990s MTV performance, we get to see "Satch" perform it live.

Why would anyone want to play a 6-string banjo or banjitar? What does it offer that a 5-string banjo can't? What are some of the advantages the instrument has? Let's address some of those questions today. Tuning The first reason a person might pick up the banjitar is the fact that it is tuned like a guitar, with six strings. Lots of people strum the guitar, which is tuned E-A-D-G-B-E from low to high. This means that the chords you learned on the guitar will work on the banjitar. The fingerpicking patterns you know can convert over easily. Although the banjitar requires some adjustment of technique, you don't have to totally learn a new instrument. If you are just an occasional player or if you are a pro who just wants a change of tone color during your set, the banjitar is a good option. Playing in Different Keys On stringed instruments, it's easier to play in some keys than in others. For example, it's a lot easier to play in the key of E-minor than it is to play