Music · Banjo

Banjo

Five strings, open G tuning, and two ways to play: three-finger rolls for bluegrass and clawhammer for old-time music. Short chapters, tab that plays, and Appalachian tunes along the way.

Each chapter takes about ten minutes. Read a little, then try it: on your own banjo, or on the diagrams and fretboards here, which play when you press them. Tune up first with the tuner, and look up any chord in the chord finder.

Your progress stays in this browser, and a check mark shows each chapter you’ve finished.

The chapters

  1. Chapter 1: Meet the 5-String BanjoThe parts of a 5-string banjo, open-back and resonator banjos, how the strings are numbered, and the short 5th string that gives the banjo its sound.
  2. Chapter 2: Where the Banjo Comes FromA short, plain history of the banjo: its West African roots, the instruments made by enslaved Africans in the Americas, the minstrel stage, old-time string bands and bluegrass.
  3. Chapter 3: Holding the BanjoHow to sit with a banjo, use a strap, place the fretting hand, and set up the picking hand for three-finger style (with picks) and for clawhammer (without).
  4. Chapter 4: Tuning to Open GOpen G tuning (g D G B D), tuning with the microphone tuner or by ear, the 5th-fret method that checks each string against the next, and tips that keep a banjo in tune.
  5. Chapter 5: Reading Banjo TabHow banjo tablature works: five lines for five strings, fret numbers, the 5th string’s numbers, rhythm under the tab, the picking letters T I M and S D T, and the marks for hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides.
  6. Chapter 6: Your First Chords: G, C, D7 and DReading a banjo chord diagram, the open G chord, and the C, D7 and D shapes that go with it, with an exercise for changing between them.
  7. Chapter 7: Three-Finger Picking: Thumb, Index, MiddleThe picking hand for bluegrass banjo: thumb pick and finger picks, which finger plays which string, anchoring, single notes and pinches, slowly and evenly.
  8. Chapter 8: The Forward RollThe most important pattern in bluegrass banjo: thumb, index, middle over and over, eight notes to a bar, on G, C and D7.
  9. Chapter 9: Backward, Alternating-Thumb and Forward-Reverse RollsThree more rolls every bluegrass banjo player uses: the backward roll, the alternating-thumb roll and the forward-reverse roll, with a practice piece that mixes them.
  10. Chapter 10: Melody Inside the RollHow Scruggs-style banjo carries a tune: the melody notes sit inside the rolls, and the other notes ring around them. Your first full tune with rolls, Boil Them Cabbage Down.
  11. Chapter 11: Clawhammer: The Bum-DittyThe old-time downstroke style: hand shape, the strike with the back of the fingernail, the brush, the thumb on the 5th string, and the bum-ditty rhythm on G, C and D7.
  12. Chapter 12: Clawhammer Melody: Your First TuneAiming the clawhammer strike at the melody note, letting the brush carry the next beat, and Boil Them Cabbage Down in clawhammer from start to finish.
  13. Chapter 13: Hammer-Ons, Pull-Offs and SlidesNotes made by the fretting hand alone: the hammer-on, the pull-off and the slide, how they are written in tab, and how they sound in three-finger and clawhammer playing.
  14. Chapter 14: Licks, Fill-Ins and EndingsShort ready-made phrases for three-finger banjo: the slide lick, hammer-on and pull-off licks, a low-string lick, fill-ins for long melody notes and a lick to end a tune.
  15. Chapter 15: Hymns and Slow TunesPutting rolls, chords and melody together in slow Southern hymn tunes: How Firm a Foundation with the melody on the thumb, and Amazing Grace in 3/4 time.
  16. Chapter 16: Drop-Thumb and Double ThumbingIntermediate clawhammer: double thumbing (the thumb after every strike) and drop-thumb (the thumb dropping onto the inside strings to play melody notes between the beats).
  17. Chapter 17: Double C and Open D TuningsWhy banjo players retune: double C (g C G C D) for tunes in C and D, open D (f♯ D F♯ A D) for tunes in D, how to get there from open G, and the main chords in each.
  18. Chapter 18: The Capo and the 5th StringPlaying in other keys with a capo: which fret for which key, what to do with the short 5th string (retuning, spikes, a 5th-string capo), and how tab and chord names are counted from the capo.
  19. Chapter 19: More Chords and Moveable ShapesEm, Am, A, E7, F and Bm in open G tuning, then the three moveable chord shapes (barre, F shape and D shape) that let you play any major chord anywhere on the neck.
  20. Chapter 20: Scales and the FretboardThe G major scale in first position on the banjo, the notes on each string, the G major pentatonic scale that so many Southern tunes use, and the D major scale for fiddle tunes in D.
  21. Chapter 21: Up the NeckLeaving first position: the D shape at the 7th fret, finding melody notes higher on the neck, and playing the B part of Fisher’s Hornpipe there.
  22. Chapter 22: Fiddle Tunes on the BanjoHow old-time and bluegrass fiddle tunes are built (A and B parts, each played twice), the keys fiddlers use and which banjo tuning or capo fits each, and how to learn a tune by ear.
  23. Chapter 23: Backup, Jamming and PracticePlaying behind a singer or another instrument: bluegrass vamping with closed chords, rolls as backup, clawhammer backup, how a jam works, and a simple practice plan.

Keep going with the banjo tunes, from beginner to intermediate. Banjo songs →

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