One big difference is that, on the typical five-string banjo, the highest-pitched string is where the lowest pitched string would be on a guitar, i.e., the fifth string is the highest-pitched string. The rest of the strings proceed in (from a guitar player’s point of view) normal order. It’s kind of weird when you pick up a banjo (if you’re a guitar player).
As an aside, if you learn how to do banjo rolls (with thumb and two fingers picking, or a flatpick and the second and third fingers doing the picking), you can do really cool country stuff on an electric guitar.
Lots of good info in this thread. I own a banjo and lots of guitars, the biggest differences to me are the already-mentioned facts that the strings on the banjo are under lower tension and therefore easier to fret, and the banjo is capable of much more volume acoustically. It’s really easy to play a banjo loud, and much more difficult to play it quietly. It’s not quite a harpsichord, because you can vary the volume, but it gets loud with very little effort. You have to work to keep it quiet. Think of it like a snare drum, since that’s basically what it is, a pitch controllable snare drum. I wouldn’t think of practicing with my closed-back banjo or my drum kit while someone sleeps on the other end of the house, but I’d do it with any of my acoustic guitars.
I learned guitar before banjo, but in my experience, the guitar is easier to learn. All of the strings on a guitar ascend in pitch, it’s a fairly easy pattern, and it’s easy to transpose on. The 5-string banjo has its weird short string that you have to work in, re-tune or ignore depending on what key you’re in and how you feel. It makes transposing weird, at least. I don’t own a four string banjo, but it seems like it’d be easier to learn than either.
And remember: it’s not only eighth note rolls, there’s also clawhammer banjo. I can’t play that way worth a damn, but lots of folks find it easier than doing rolls.
Appropos of nothing, I remember reading Doc Watson said he had a Banjo, that his dad had put together. The drum was made with cat skin, of a kittie they had that died. He said it had the best tone of any Banjo he’d ever heard. Not sure how one can tell.
Doc sure could play guitar though. It’s really difficult to coax the proper tone out of a guitar at speed and maintain a travis style alternating bass line. He was amazing. The guitar sounds infinitely more versatile to my ears with all the different styles.
I don’t know if Gary Larson is a musician, but if he is he follows the pattern. One Far Side cartoon suggests that a recently deceased classical music conductor, just arrived in Hell, will find himself spending eternity in a roomful of snub-nosed kids in glasses playing banjos. “Your room’s right in here” , says the devil, graciously gesturing towards the door.