About a year ago, I started using a banjo on a few tunes with a duo I'm currently playing in. We're both guitar players, and I was really missing some timber variety after our first few gigs, so I figured some simple clawhammer could make for a nice change.¹

Now banjo often requires the use of a capo, which in turn requires adjusting that damn 5th string. Nothing like an out of tune drone to ruin everything.

Up until now, all the songs I use it on have been in keys that allowed me to simply ignore the problem and leave the drone as it was, but yesterday we started working on a tune in A, and that constant ringing G was just awful. And since my friend plays the song on a diatonic accordion², we can't simply switch it to C or G.

I know many people would simply tune the string up to A. It's only one step, so it should be fine, but not being that familiar with the instrument, I'm still wary of messing with the tuning directly. I tried it anyway, and found out the string didn't hold its pitch. It would sound fine for few bars and quickly drop down to some random note between G and A, which was even worse than simply leaving it untouched.³

I got away by tuning the drone down to an E. It worked, but the drone got lost in the overall mix, which kind of defeats its purpose.

I got home and cut up a pen cap to turn it into a fifth string capo. It's not great, but it does the job for now.⁴

Unexpected harmonies

This reminded me of something interesting that happened when I first started incorporating the banjo into the set.

Out of the five tunes I already (try to) frail on, 3 of them are in good old G, so no problem here. Another one is in D minor, which I play with a capo on the seventh fret,⁵ so I can simply grab the fifth string along and not worry about it any further.

The last one is in E flat, though. It's a cover of Mississippi John Hurt's Pallet on your floor, and the key was chosen to fit my voice. I already played it on guitar out of C with a capo on the third fret. As I got started trying it on the banjo, I fully expected that drone to sound awful.

But it didn't.

Turns out the G is the third of the scale, which sounds less neutral that the tonic or the fifth but is still part of the chord and opens up the overall sound. I don't think it would fit any tune, but here it works just fine.

The real magic happens on the IV chord, though. I think of it as an F, but it's actually a A flat. Which means the G drone is now the major seventh of the current chord.

I have a kind of love/hate relationship with major senventh chords. They can be beautiful, but they can also make for the cheesiest sounds I can think of.

I read some introduction to jazz years ago that basically recommended turning every major chord into a 7th,⁶ which horrified me. If the mood you're aiming for is easy-listening soup, I guess that's a good way to go, but otherwise, this approach make me want to puke rainbows.

I had noticed a while ago that I tended to like them better when they fell on IV chords, though, which is exactly what's happening here.

Have a listen. Here's a version of the melody using my makeshift, pen cap capo to raise the drone to a B flat (ie the fifth of the scale) (sorry for the dead strings tone. Getting a fresh set is high on my to-do list, but it ain't here yet):

Hear what I meant when I said this version sounded kind of neutral ? That's not a bad thing. It sounds fine, really, and there wouldn't be anything wrong with choosing to play the song that way.

Now here it is without the capo. I tried to emphasize the drone to make it a bit more obvious and sang a chorus to hear the harmony in context.

I just love the color the tune takes with the second version, which happens to perfectly fit the John Hurt mood. The first one almost sounds bland in comparison.

(Also, note the sixth on the V chord at the end. That's another harmonic color I love (and probably tend to overuse, to be honest)).

Embracing mistakes

The reason I like this arrangement so much and felt like writing about it is that it happened entirely by accident. Remember: I just slapped on the capo, noticed the fifth string wasn't tuned "properly" and went for it anyway, despite being convinced it was going to sound terrible. None of the harmony shenanigans I described above were planned. They were just the result of what was technically a mistake, and I only started to figure them out after noticing I liked what I was hearing.

Had I had a decent way to deal with the drone handy, I might have just set it up "the right way" and would never have thought of fancying things up.

It is often said that many great ideas are born out of mistakes, and I'm still amazed at how true that saying is. Most, if not all, of the lines I'm proud of came out of me messing something up. Landing on a note ouf the key. Playing the wrong chords. Hitting an unwanted string that "should" have ruined a lick but didn't.⁷

The more it happens to you, the more you realize how pointless it is to worry about screwing up. Sadly, building up the confidence to truly get rid of that fear is still a long way ahead. But each new fumble hopefully gets me a little closer to that goal.

That's what they mean when they say there are no wrong notes. So if there's one thing to learn from this story, here it is: mess around, try random things and embrace falling flat on your face. I know that's easier said than done, but this is how you'll grow.

Learn to notice when something cool turns up among the noise and enjoy the ride in the meantime.

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While looking up the name of the sawmill banjo tuning, I stumbled upon this website. If you thought Jimi Hendrix playing with his teeth was impressive, wait until you meet Fred. I wish this had been captured on video.

Oh, and one more link while I'm at it. Mentionning and playing pallet on your floor made me want to hear it again, and I found this version. I forget why, but my initial reaction was a pretty strong "meh". 20 seconds later I was in love. I'll definitely check those guys out.

See y'all, keep picking, and enjoy every mistake you make !