IMSLP Forums

I went to the Banjo section of IMSLP, and I did not see much Banjo music, and one Banjo piece looked like it could be derogatory (Minstrel, etc).

Supposedly in the USA, 90% of the people that try to learn the Banjo quit because it is difficult to learn, and the Banjo has the possibility of more than 5,000 chords. Often, here in the USA, the Banjo is taught just in tabs. I actually found the regular formal Banjo scales on a British music website. I purchased several Banjo music pieces in music stores here in the City in the USA--nice stuff like "Crippled Creek Ferry" (variations exist of this title) and "Boil them Cabbage Down." However, these two tunes I like a lot, and the others were different and not as much to my fancy. I want to find more simple, country/bluegrass Banjo tunes that have the various ornaments. They do not seem easy to find. I actually do not know that much about the Banjo, and I am just starting with it, but I do know that nice Banjo music is difficult to find. "Dueling Banjos" is a popular Banjo piece, but that is more advanced. So, in trying to improve my Banjo playing, I am practicing the Banjo with Mozart's variations of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (originally written for the keyboard) and it is taking me foreverererererereer. Though, I am not complaining because I am looking forward to playing that well.

I'm going to guess that most banjo music, at least in a style like bluegrass, is not going to be able to be uploaded here due to copyright reasons. I had a look on WorldCat for the piece you mentioned, Dueling Banjos, and found that it doesn't appear to have been published at all earlier than the 1970s, and mainly in modern-style compilations of traditional (and possibly some newly written) works for the instrument. The reason I added "in a style like bluegrass" is that I'm assuming that for the majority of its history, it was not notated, so any actual editions of one of these works will be edited transcriptions of what is seen as a 'standard' version of it, quite possibly (almost certainly in student-oriented editions) with fingerings, suggested alternative figurations or passages, etc. What I'm saying is basically that probably almost any modernized edition of this music is going to be heavily edited, falling afoul of what is known as the 'threshold of originality', and therefore cannot be uploaded here.

If there are exceptions, of course, anyone is welcome to upload them

We have published a couple of 19th century banjo items you might find of interest:

Winner's Eureka method for the banjo (1892) http://hdl.handle.net/1802/22597
S.S. Stewart’s banjo and guitar journal (1884-1900) http://hdl.handle.net/1802/2586
The Black Hercules, or The adventures of a banjo player (1884) http://hdl.handle.net/1802/2133

We have a handful more that are in the process of being digitized.