Talk:Joel Sweeney

A fact from Joel Sweeney appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 21 October 2005. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that after Joel Sweeney (pictured) popularized the banjo in the United States he did the same in Europe as a member of the Virginia Minstrels?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2005/October.

Wikipedia

Biography: Musicians

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians.

Virginia Low‑importance

	Virginia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Virginia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Virginia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.VirginiaWikipedia:WikiProject VirginiaTemplate:WikiProject VirginiaVirginia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Added string

I was told by an old-time banjo player in New Zealand that Sweeney did not add the high fifth string but the low fourth string – and that (as this article states) the short string was already in use. Can anyone shed any light here? Koro Neil (talk) 16:27, 25 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I heard the same thing. One of my professors at Appalachian State University, who wrote the book on banjos (African Echos of the Banjo in Appalachia) also told me that Sweeney added the low fourth. She pointed out that the high fifth string existed on African instruments like the Akonting already. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.221.29.81 (talk) 14:20, 9 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]