The banjo is a string instrument, with a long neck and a round soundboard made of parchment, leather or, at present, plastic. This top is firmly strained, and the bridge is placed over it, being pressed by the strings. The instrument is very popular, and it is known as a folklore, ballroom or vaudeville instrument. Its modern shape normally has taller frets and five strings, of which four are generally metal, and a shorter fifth string placed next to the lower string, and tied to a tuning peg located on the fifth fret. The most common tuning is: G3-C3-G2-B2-D2 (on the C key) and G3-D2-G2-B2-D3 (on the G key). There is also the tenor banjo with four strings, played with a plectrum. The older banjos were brought by slaves from Africa to the USA and the Caribbean Islands. The modern instrument was shaped during the first half of the 19th century, especially through the work of musicians like J. W. Sweeney and Dan Emmett. After c.1870, the banjo started to become more and more played in the USA as an elegant ballroom instrument for popular music. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the four strings tenor banjo with frets surpassed the five strings model in popularity, particularly as a rhythm instrument in jazz and in dance bands. At this period, hybrid instruments were also produced, like the four strings ukulele banjo, and banjo clubs were formed, some of them along with universities’ glee clubs (vocal groups singing short songs). The tradition of the five strings banjo was preserved in the south of the USA by musicians such as Pete Steele, and after World War II, it has been retaken by musicians like Peter Seeger and especially Earl Scruggs, who, due to his virtuous three fingers technique, turned the banjo into an important bluegrass instrument.
