5-String Banjo for Guitar Players

by David Bandrowski

One of the easiest things about playing the banjo is it’s open tuning. By strumming the banjo with all of the strings open, you play a G chord. Hence, a C chord would be a bar across all of the strings at the 5th fret, a D chord would bar at the 7th, and so on.

To start out with, standard banjo tuning is tuned to an open G chord (chord diagram to the left). The notes are a high G on the short 5th string, then D, G, B on the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings (the same as guitar), and a D on the 1st string instead of an E.

The 2nd, 3rd, & 4th strings of a 5-string banjo (when tuned in standard tuning) are tuned the same as guitar.

The 1st string on a banjo is a D as opposed to an E on a guitar. You can use your guitar shapes on the banjo, but just be sure to move the note on the 1st string up a whole step (2 frets).

Look at the chord shapes below and notice that the only difference is the 1st string is moved up a whole step (2 frets).