My instrument is the "Buttercup Banjo". This is how I made it (with some help from my Dad and brother.). First I went into my barn and got a piece of wood for the neck of my banjo. Then I measured and marked the wood with a pencil for my big brother to cut. After my brother cut the wood I got an empty butter dish. My Dad used a razor knfe to cut two slots that I measured (one on each side of the butter dish.) I sanded the wood for the neck. Then I painted the butter dish and neck and put some designs on it with glitter-glue gel. After the paint and glitter-glue gel dried I pushed the board through the slots in the butter dish. I put two nails in each end of the banjo and two in the other. Then I tied some fishing line to the nails on both ends for the strings. Sound is produced when someone strums it. You can strum or pluck it with your finger, thumb, or a pick. I think a pick is the easiest to use. I think this because my fingers get caught between the strings.

This is how you can change the sound characteristics, dynamics, and pitch. To change the dynamics strum harder for a louder sound and more gently for a softer sound. To change the pitch hold down part of the string whild you strum it. The timbre of my banjo is twangy. Banjos had an important place in jazz bands in the early 1900's. They were first played on southern plantations around 1825. Some people believe that Africans brought the banjo to the United States from West Africa.