Several tenor and plectrum banjo players were a little upset that the T V special called " Give Me The Banjo" showed very little about their types of banjos. The program concentrated nearly entirely on 5 string banjos.

Now to be fair to the producer, the correct name for a 5 string banjo is " banjo" and always has been. If you go into a music store and ask for banjo strings, you will be sold strings for a 5 string banjo. A more experienced clerk might ask "what kind of banjo"?

The proper way of advertising any type of banjo for sale is to use the correct name, which is banjo, tenor banjo, plectrum banjo, banjo ukelele, etc., etc. Recently I saw an ad reading " 4 string tenor bluegrass banjo for sale".

If the producers of the TV special purposely named the show " Give Me the Banjo" because they wanted to feature the 5 string banjo exclusively, they named the show correctly. However, they may have slipped up when they sneaked in one gentleman playing a "tenor banjo".

How often have you been asked " Remember George Formby, he was a great banjo player!" No, he was a great banjo ukelele player. Remember Maurice Bolyer, he was a great banjo player"! No, he was a great tenor banjo player. "Remember Earl Scruggs, he was a great banjo player". Yes, he was a great banjo player!

Nearly everyone uses the term "banjo" when talking about their type of banjo, but I just wanted to comment on the T V special titled " Give Me The Banjo".