  Whatever!:rolleyes:  â...The instrumentation included the banjo, introduced by the African slaves via the minstrel shows, the Scottish fiddle (the poor man's violin, simplified so that the fiddler could also sing) and the Spanish guitar (an instrument that became popular in the South only around 1910). Ironically, as more and more blacks abandoned the banjo and adopted the guitar, the banjo ended up being identified with white music, while the guitar ended up being identified as black music. For example, Hobart Smith learned to play from black bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson, but went on to play the banjo while Jefferson played the guitar... â ================================================== ============= â...Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The use of blue notes and the prominence of call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of African influence. The blues influenced later American and Western popular music, as it became the roots of jazz, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, heavy metal music, hip-hop, and other popular music forms...â  Please stop referring to articles from the Black Panther and Nation of Islam web pages. Blues did not influence country and bluegrass it is the opposite. Yeah blues comes from African shouting and chanting.....uh huh. Sure sounds like it. :rolleyes: There isn't one SERIOUS music historian that would deny any degree of White influence over the beginnings of the Blues, and Jazz both. They would never have been possible at all, a buncha slave ranting and chanting doesen't do the trick. And when it comes to Rock N' Roll I don't hardly notice any blues influence on early rockers like Elvis in the first place, it sounds much more similar to country, folk, and honky tonk/boogie woogie styles to me. I didn't hear a big blues influence on White rock music until later on in the Psychadelic rock of the late 60s, then you start hearing a few real bluesy sounding songs from groups like Led Zeppelin,Black Sabbath, the Rolling Stones and in the later days of the band, The Doors, etc....     As for the banjo , the stories of the banjo being a black instrument are very very vague and shady. I think there is some level of truth to this because the word banjo sounds sort of African. But....I think most likely what happened is the slaves had some sort of instrument similar to a banjo, but it wasn't really what we today would recognize as a banjo. It was just some primitive banjo prototype, a White guy seen it and was intrigued by it. And went to work making changes, tweeking it, perfecting it, into what we now recognize as a banjo. I don't think blacks invented a banjo at all, more like gave Whites the idea to make a banjo and the name stuck. Sort of like Whites didn't invent the blues or jazz necessarily, just gave Blacks the idea to play it. Laid the groundwork for it. Thanks for (possibly) giving us the idea to create the banjo guys, now where is your gratitude for Whites laying the groundwork for your black blues and jazz. And in the case of jazz...I can't leave out any jewish influence either, jews had quite a hand in the beginning of jazz too. And even today jews tend to be very involved in jazz, most of the better known smooth jazz musicians are jews, like Kenny G.    PS- I was just looking at some of the links about the banjo that Diogenes posted, interesting. But look at this part:  [BThe ultimate origin of the banjo is unknown. It may be an adaptation of a Portuguese guitar, the banza, brought to West Africa in the 1600s. But whatever its beginnings, in the hands of Africans who brought it to North America, it became the basis for distinctively energetic and distinctively American music, instrumental in the later development of forms as diverse as  Jazz (1913) and Bluegrass (1750).[/B]   unregistere....you said Blues influenced Bluegrass and Country, I told you the truth that it did not at all, it was the other way around. Country and Bluegrass were around long before Blues. You see...Bluegrass has been around since the 18th century.... So I don't see how it's creation was influenced by Blues...odd.   http://www.answers.com/topic/banjo?cat=entertainment