My student banjo quartet is improving every month, if these four videos are anything to go by. We are trying to recreate the classic ragtime banjo band of circa 1900. The band is made up of (left to right) Alasdair Dewar (banjorine – a 5-string banjo tuned a fourth higher than normal), Alan Ramsey (regular 5-string classic banjo), Rob MacKillop (regular 5-string classic banjo), and Cat Campbell (4-string cello banjo, tuned like a cello).

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First up, a very popular tune among banjo players of the time, Herman Rowland’s Sunflower Dance:

That Banjo Rag, by A. J. Weidt:

Of course, no ragtime ensemble can ignore this piece, The Entertainer, by Scott Joplin (whose mother played the banjo):

And finally, a wee encore, the silly Polka, Snowdrop: