Banjo · Chapter 5 of 23

Reading Banjo Tab

Tab shows where to put your fingers: one line for each string and a number for each fret. With the rhythm and the picking letters under it, it’s all you need to play every tune here.

Banjo music is almost always written in tablature, or tab. It doesn’t show the notes’ names; it shows the strings and frets. You can learn to read it in a few minutes.

Five lines, five strings

Each line is a string. The top line is the 1st string (the thin D nearest the floor); the bottom line is the 5th string.
A number on a line is the fret to press on that string. 0 means play the string open.
Read from left to right. Numbers stacked one above another are played together.
The 5th string starts at the 5th fret, so on its line you’ll see 0 (open) or numbers from 6 up, counted from the full neck like the other strings.

Press play and watch the numbers light up: the open strings one at a time, then all together.

Rhythm and the picking hand

Under the tab, small stems show the rhythm, as in ordinary music: a quarter note (one beat) has a plain stem, two eighth notes share a beam, a half note is held for two beats. The counts under them (1 & 2 &…) tell you where the beats fall.

Under that, a letter for each note tells your picking hand what to do:

Three-finger

T thumb, I index, M middle. T+M means thumb and middle together: a pinch.

Clawhammer

S strike one string with the fingernail, D brush down across several strings, T thumb (usually the 5th string).

Fretted notes

Here are the notes of the G major scale from the low D to the high D, then a G chord. The 2 on the 4th string means: press the 4th string just behind the 2nd fret.

With Notation on, the player shows the same notes on a staff above the tab. Banjo music is written an octave higher than it sounds (the small 8 under the clef), so it fits on the staff. You don’t need to read notation to use this course; it’s there if you do.

Marks for the left hand

Some notes are played by the fretting hand alone. In the tab they carry a small mark, and they have no picking letter:

h hammer-on: pick a note, then bring a finger down hard on a higher fret so the string keeps sounding.
p pull-off: with two fingers down, pick, then pull the higher finger off sideways so it plucks the string.
sl slide: pick, then slide the finger along the string to the next fret number.

There is a whole chapter on these later. For now, just notice them when they appear.

Left-handed? Tab reads the same for everyone: the top line is always the 1st string, the string nearest the floor. The left-handed view mirrors the chord diagrams and fretboards, so they look like your own banjo, but tab never changes.

Try it. Play the two short tabs above along with the player. Start with the open strings, then the scale. Use the tempo control to slow down if you need to.

Remember

Top line = 1st string, bottom line = 5th string. Numbers are frets; 0 is open.
Stems under the tab give the rhythm; letters give the picking hand: T I M, or S D T for clawhammer.
h, p and sl are hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides, played by the fretting hand.