VIDEO: 11-Year-Old Sits Down to Play the Banjo

11-year-old Willow Osborne was born and raised in Tennessee. Ever since she was little, she’s always had a great affinity for singing and for music in general. When she was 3 years old, she attended a live banjo concert and immediately fell in love with the instrument. Her passion has only strengthened since then and that becomes crystal clear when she starts playing. Willow recently enrolled in online school so that she has more time to pursue her passion. Without a doubt, she is one of the most talented musicians her age and I am confident that she will reach her goals. She has a wonderful journey ahead of her! Just listen to her, you’ll be taken aback! But do not try to watch her fingers pluck the strings of the instrument, as she moves them so fast your eyes won’t be able to keep up. Willow currently focuses on bluegrass-style music, but she wants to expand her horizons and explore other genres.

You might think the banjo is a weird instrument for a young girl to fall in love with, but it is actually a very interesting one.

According to SoftSchools.com, the banjo is a musical instrument from the string family. It emerged among African slaves in the 1600s in America, likely an adaptation of the stringed instruments that existed in Africa for centuries called plucked lutes. Plucked lutes date back over 6000 years. The banjo became popular in the 1800s in blackface variety acts and then in old-timey music. It is commonly used in folk, bluegrass, and country music today and appears in other genres as well. Modern banjos come with four or five strings but a six string version has emerged and is gaining popularity as well.

Here are 10 fun facts about the banjo, provided by Sarah Rahman.

1. The banjo was in use among West African slaves since as early as the 17th century.

2. Recent research in West African music shows more than 60 plucked lute instruments, all of which, to a degree, show some resemblance to the banjo, and so are likely precursors to the banjo.

3. The earliest evidence of plucked lutes comes from Mesopotamia around 6000 years ago.

4. The first definitive description of an early banjo is from a 1687 journal entry by Sir Hans Sloane, an English physician visiting Jamaica, who called this Afro-Caribbean instrument a “strum strump”.

5. The banjo had been referred to in 19 different spellings, from “banza” to “bonjoe” by the early 19th century.

6. The earliest reference to the banjo in North America appeared in John Peter Zenger’s The New-York Weekly Journal in 1736.

7. William Boucher (1822-1899) was the earliest commercial manufacturer of banjos. The Smithsonian Institution has three of his banjos from the years 1845-7. Boucher won several medals for his violins, drums, and banjos in the 1850s.

8. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810-1860) was the first professional banjoist to learn directly from African Americans, and the first clearly documented white banjo player.

9. After the 1850s, the banjo was increasingly used in the United States and England as a genteel parlor instrument for popular music performances.

10. The “Jazz Age” created a new society craze for the four-string version of the banjo. Around the 1940s, the four-string banjo was being replaced by the guitar.

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