The fifth string gives the banjo a reentrant tuning, a feature that existed in instruments of the ancient Greeks. The high-pitched, thumb or drone string (the chanterelle, the fifth on a modern banjo) is seen on surviving 18th-century four-string banjos, and in banjo illustrations that long pre-date Sweeney's heyday.
That would provide more melodic and harmonic expression, as the quote suggests. Many people assume Sweeney's "fifth string" is the drone string-the chanterelle-but if Sweeney did really add a fifth string, it would have been another, lower string. These claims are part of an effort, beginning in the nineteenth century, to divorce the banjo from its African American origins." "Outlandish claims have been made about Sweeney, from his being the "inventor" of the banjo to his being the first white man to play the banjo. He supposedly added the fifth string because he was "allegedly unhappy with the limited rhythm and melodic variation of the four-string banjos popularly in use." In fact, there is no proof that Sweeney introduced either innovation. He has also been credited with adding the banjo's fifth string, which according to legend was for an instrument he created for his niece between 18. Whereas the instrument's resonating chamber had formerly been constructed from a gourd (like the banjo's African ancestors and cousins), Sweeney popularized the use of a drum-like resonating chamber (legend has it that he adapted a cheese box for this purpose). Aside from his important role in popularizing the instrument, he has often been credited with advancing the physical development of the modern five-string banjo. He is the earliest known person to have played the banjo on stage. He is known for popularizing the playing of the banjo and has often been credited with advancing the physical development of the modern five-string banjo.īorn to a farming family in Appomattox County, Virginia, he claimed to have learned to play the banjo from local enslaved Africans. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 – October 29, 1860), also known as Joe Sweeney, was an American musician and early blackface minstrel performer.
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