A 4-string banjo that became a popular instrument after about 1910. It has a shorter neck than its standard 4-string and 5-string siblings and is typically plated with a plectrum.

Early models used for melodic picking typically had 17 frets on the neck and a scale length of between 19 and 22 inches. By the mid-1920s, when the instrument was used primarily for strummed chordal accompaniment, 19-fret necks with a scale length of 22 to 23 inches became standard. The usual tuning is the all-fifths tuning C3 G3 D4 A4, in which exactly 7 semitones (a perfect fifth) occur between the open notes of consecutive strings, like that of a viola. Other players (particularly in Irish traditional music) tune the banjo G2 D3 A3 E4 like an octave mandolin, which lets the banjoist duplicate fiddle and mandolin fingering.

The tenor banjo was a common rhythm instrument in early 20th-century dance bands. Its volume and timbre suited early jazz (and jazz-influenced popular music styles) and could both compete with other instruments (such as brass instruments and saxophones) and be heard clearly on acoustic recordings. With the development of the archtop and electric guitar, the tenor banjo largely disappeared from jazz and popular music, although keeping its place in traditional Dixieland jazz. 

Some 1920s Irish banjo players began to pick out the melodies of jigs, reels and hornpipes on tenor banjos. And the rise of ceilidh bands provided a new market for a loud instrument like the tenor banjo. Use of the tenor banjo in Irish music has increased greatly since the folk revival of the 1960s.