Lot Essay
David Gilmour acquired this banjo in the early 1970s and kept it at home for private use. Gilmour can be seen playing the banjo in the 2015 BBC documentary David Gilmour: Wider Horizons.
Gilmour told us: I’ve always loved the 5-string banjo. I do like to learn a little bit of everything. When you pick up an instrument that you really have no idea how to play, it forces your hands to not go to familiar patterns that you’ve done a thousand times before, so new pieces of writing sometimes come out of lack of familiarity with the instrument that you’re on. Pieces of music just present themselves usually.
Gilmour told us: I’ve always loved the 5-string banjo. I do like to learn a little bit of everything. When you pick up an instrument that you really have no idea how to play, it forces your hands to not go to familiar patterns that you’ve done a thousand times before, so new pieces of writing sometimes come out of lack of familiarity with the instrument that you’re on. Pieces of music just present themselves usually.