The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, in modern forms usually made of plastic, originally of animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans and had African antecedents. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of the 19th-century minstrel show fad, followed by mass-production and mail-order sales, including instruction method books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but 5-string and 4-string banjos also became popular for home parlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 21st century, the banjo was most frequently associated with folk, bluegrass and country music, but was also used in some rock, pop and even hip-hop music. Among rock bands, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Some famous pickers of the banjo are Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs.
The ukulele, also called a uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The cavaquinho is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings.
Ernest Kaʻai (1881–1962) was considered by many to have been the foremost ukulele authority of his time and is noted by some as being "Hawaii's Greatest Ukulele Player". Kaʻai, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, was said to have been the first musician to play a complete melody with chords. He was the son of Simon Kaloa Kaʻai, a prominent politician during the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Dan Levenson is an American old-time musician, storyteller, writer and educator. Specializing in Appalachian music, he sings, dances, and plays the five-string banjo, fiddle, and guitar.
Leroy Smeck was an American musician. His skill on the banjo, guitar, and ukulele earned him the nickname "The Wizard of the Strings".
George Abel Van Eps was an American swing and mainstream jazz guitarist.
James L. D'Aquisto was an American luthier who concentrated on building and repairing archtop guitars. He served as an apprentice to John D'Angelico beginning in 1952 and later developed his own distinctive style.
Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed "Octopus" because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard.
Rob MacKillop is a Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist, specializing in lute, theorbo, vihuela, banjo, ukulele and both classical and Russian guitar. He is an important performer of Early Music in Scotland. He is also a photographer.
Gene Leis was an American jazz guitarist, teacher, bandleader, composer, producer, and entrepreneur.
Jerry Silverman is an American folksinger, guitar teacher and author of music books. He has had over 200 books published, which have sold in the millions, including folk song collections, anthologies and method books for the guitar, banjo and fiddle. He has taught guitar to hundreds of students. He has presented concerts and lectures at schools, universities and concert halls in the U.S. and abroad.
Mel Bay's Deluxe Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords, also known as the Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords or Deluxe Guitar Chord Encyclopedia is a best-selling encyclopedia of guitar chords, first published by Mel Bay in 1971. It is a staple in the study and teaching of guitar.
Richard Weissman is an American singer, composer, banjo player, author and teacher.
Ralph Oliver Patt was an American jazz guitarist who introduced major-thirds tuning. Patt's tuning simplified the learning of the fretboard and chords by beginners and improvisation by advanced guitarists. He invented major-thirds tuning under the inspiration of first the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg and second the jazz of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.
Samuel Siegel was an American mandolin virtuoso and composer who played mandolin on 29 records for Victor Records, including 9 pieces of his own composition and two that he arranged. Siegel was the first mandolinist to record on Emile Berliner's phonograph disk-records. He was labeled "America's Greatest Mandoline Virtuoso" and "The King of the Mandolin" in the May 1900 Banjo World.
William Foden was an American composer, musician, and teacher. Foden is considered America's premiere classical guitarist during the 1890s and the first decades of the twentieth century.
Nick Manoloff (1898-1969) was a manufacturer of steels/tone bars for stringed instruments to use for the method of steel guitar, an arranger and author of instrument method books and sheet music, and a distributor of musical supplies and publications.
D'Angelico Guitars of America is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in Manhattan, New York. The brand was initially founded by master luthier John D'Angelico in 1932, in Manhattan's Little Italy. In 1999, Steve Pisani, John Ferolito Jr., and Brenden Cohen purchased the D'Angelico Guitars trademark. Cohen serves as the brand's president and CEO. Original D'Angelico guitars are collector's items and have been used by musicians including Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Drake Bell, Bucky Pizzarelli, Chet Atkins, and Chuck Wayne. The D'Angelico Mel Bay New Yorker model was featured on the cover of the Mel Bay Publications' guitar method books for decades.
Ronald Leventhal, known professionally as Ronny Lee, was an American guitarist who wrote method books and taught at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. He wrote popular, classical, and rock guitar arrangements for Hansen Publications, Sam Fox Publishing Company, and Alfred Music. He conducted workshops and seminars for music teachers was a judge at music festivals.
