Banjo Reel

BANJO REEL. American, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. The banjo was extremely popular in the mid to latter 19th century, propelled by the popularity of the ubiquitous minstrel show and the many virtuosic performers on the instrument. When Ryan's collection was first published in 1883, the banjo was at its peak as a popular instrument. Mark Twain did not often write about music, although did so occasionally. One of his best quotes on music comes from a piece he wrote for the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle (June 23, 1865) called "Enthusiastic Eloquence," wherein he states: "When you want genuine music—music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose—when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!"

Printed source: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 3. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; pg. 25.

X:1
T:Banjo Reel
M:C|
L:1/8
R:Reel
S:Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:G
({F}G2)|G,2 z2z2 ({F}G2)|G,2 z2z2 AB|cABG AFGA|1 BGAF G2A:|2 BGAF G2||
|:AB|cABG AFGA|BGAF GFED|cABG AFGA|BGAF G2:||