The banjo was created by enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas — first definitely described in Jamaica in 1687 (Hans Sloane) — and later spread on the plantations of the southern USA. The instrument's roots are the West African akonting and ngoni, which slaves remembered from their homelands and reconstructed from available materials: skin over a gourd, strings of gut.
The modern classical banjo has 5 strings (the fifth is a short “drone string” starting at the fifth fret), a round body with a stretched plastic or leather membrane, and a long fretted neck. The sound is bright and ringing, with a fast attack and short sustain — ideal for rhythmic playing.
Playing styles: clawhammer (the old traditional); Scruggs style (the revolution of Earl Scruggs in the 1940s — three-finger rapid arpeggio, the foundation of bluegrass); the melodic style. Banjo legends: Pete Seeger (folk movement), Béla Fleck (modern jazz banjo), Steve Martin (yes, the actor — a real virtuoso). In Ukraine the banjo arrived via Ukrainian jazz and country bands of the 1990s–2000s.
