He was the original author of courses named "Hexatonics", "Intervallics", "Tetratonics", "Superimpositions", "Harps", "Overlaps", "Bitonal Pendulums", "Double Mambos", "Twenty-third Chords", "Tonal Paralypsis", and "Triad Pairs," among others.
[2] His students and musical associates included Alain Caron, Joe Hubbard, Mike Stern,[3] Danilo Perez, Wayne Krantz, Jeff Berlin, Garry Dial, Barry M. Silverman,[4] Gerard D'Angelo, Vic Juris, Hartmut Hillmann, Daryl Rhodes, Stephen Page, Michael Brecker, Jerry Bergonzi, Melissa Kassel, Marilyn Crispell, John Novello,[5] Bruce Arnold, Leni Stern,[6] Rachel Z, Gustavo Assis-Brasil, Jeff Golub, Frank Singer,[7] and classical composer Bruce Wolosoff.
His original concept of dealing with relative-pitch exercises, using cadences and recognition of one tone at a time to the progressing of the recognition of clusters of sounds in a key up to all twelve tones simultaneously, and also the memorization of pitches without reference to a key, was developed to enable musicians to hear equally well in tonal and atonal situations both in improvised situations and in pre-conceived settings.
[2] Banacos performed with Roy Haynes, Teddy Kotick, Charlie Mariano, Harvie S., and Jerry Bergonzi in both jazz and classical idioms.
His students have performed or recorded with Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, David Liebman, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker and Joe Henderson, among others.