Banjos come in a variety of different styles. The type of banjo you choose is almost entirely dependent on what sort of music you'd like to play. Although the two most popular types of banjos are four-string banjos and five-string banjos, there are variations within each category that make a certain banjo more conducive to a certain style of music.
Five-String Bluegrass
Five-string banjos used primarily for playing bluegrass music include a resonator. The style of playing is rather loud and aggressive. You use three finger picks on your right hand, while your left hand frets notes and chords. This is one of the most common types of banjos. Earl Scruggs popularized the bluegrass banjo style.
Other Five-String Styles
Additional methods of playing the five-string banjo include clawhammer, folk and classical. Clawhammer is a very traditional banjo style and is ideally played on a banjo without a resonator. You use the nail of the middle finger to strum the strings, followed by the thumb stroking the fifth string. Folk style typically requires a long-neck banjo with a lower tuning. You can play classical banjo with or without a resonator. You play all three of these styles without finger picks.
Four-String Tenor Banjos
The most popular styles of four-string banjos are the tenor and the Irish tenor. The tenor banjo has 19 frets, while the Irish tenor only has 17. You strum both of these banjo types with a pick. Tenor banjos are commonly used in jazz music, especially New Orleans jazz. You fret chords more rapidly with tenor banjos, though strumming is more common than single-string picking. Typically, Irish tenor banjos do not require a resonator.
Plectrum Banjo
The plectrum banjo features the same scale as a five-string banjo, despite being a four-string instrument. A resonator is optional, and chords are typically less complicated than those fretted on a tenor. Though the plectrum banjo is not the most popular type of banjo, some areas of the United States still hold it in high regard.
Other Banjo Types
There are plenty of more obscure types of banjos, including the six-string, banjo mandolin, ukelele banjo, dobro banjo and the bass banjo. These generally consist of a banjo body with the neck and tunings of the instruments they emulate.
