Banjo

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/banjo

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the instrument classification?String instrument with a membrane resonator
2. What is the resonator construction?Modern membranes are typically plastic; historical membranes were made from animal skins
3. What is a banjo and what does it sound like?A banjo is a stringed instrument with a round body and a skin head. It makes a bright, happy sound when you strum or pick its strings.
4. Where did the banjo come from?The banjo started in West Africa with instruments like the akonting. Enslaved Africans brought the idea to America and made new banjos from gourds and animal hides.

Antecedents: Things that came before and influenced something else.
Mass Production: Making large quantities of an item, often in a factory.
Virtuoso: A person with exceptional technical ability in a particular art or field, especially music.