The notes of a banjo
The standard tuning of a five-string banjo is open G, written gDGBD. Strummed with nothing fretted, it plays a G major chord. The small g at the start is the fifth string: the short one, whose peg sits partway up the neck.
That short string is the thing to understand. It is in the position a bass string would occupy — nearest your thumb — but it is the highest-pitched of the five, tuned to the G above middle C. So the strings go: high g, then down to D, and up through G and B to D. In both bluegrass and clawhammer playing it is a drone, picked with the thumb and almost never fretted.
Tap a string to hear its target pitch, then match your own to it.
String notes and frequencies
The exact pitch of each open string at concert pitch, A = 440 Hz — the numbers a strobe or a frequency counter would show. The tuner above works from the same targets.
| String | Note | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 5th | G4 | 392.00 Hz |
| 4th | D3 | 146.83 Hz |
| 3rd | G3 | 196.00 Hz |
| 2nd | B3 | 246.94 Hz |
| 1st | D4 | 293.66 Hz |
Tuning a banjo to open G
- Start with the 4th string, D. It is the lowest note on the instrument: D3, the D below middle C.
- Tune the 3rd string to G, the 2nd to B and the 1st to D. Each higher than the last. The 1st string is an octave above the 4th.
- Tune the short 5th string to the high G. It should be exactly an octave above the 3rd string, and the same pitch as the 1st string fretted at the 5th fret.
- Check again after the head settles. A banjo’s bridge stands on a skin head that moves with temperature and humidity, so a banjo drifts as a whole more than a guitar does.
Where the notes are
The first five frets of every string in this tuning. Each fret is one semitone, so this is also how to check a string against its neighbour: find the fret where the lower string plays the higher string’s open note.
| String | Open | Fret 1 | Fret 2 | Fret 3 | Fret 4 | Fret 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | D | D♯ | E | F | F♯ | G |
| 2nd | B | C | C♯ | D | D♯ | E |
| 3rd | G | G♯ | A | A♯ | B | C |
| 4th | D | D♯ | E | F | F♯ | G |
| 5th | G | G♯ | A | A♯ | B | C |
Frequently asked questions
What does gDGBD mean?
It lists the strings from the 5th to the 1st: g, D, G, B, D. The lower-case g marks the short fifth string, which is higher in pitch than the string next to it. In full the notes are G4, D3, G3, B3 and D4.
Why is the fifth string shorter and higher?
It is a drone string. Being short and high, it rings above the melody as a constant G that the thumb picks between the other notes — the sound that makes a banjo a banjo. It is not normally fretted.
Is a 4-string banjo tuned the same?
No. A tenor banjo is usually tuned in fifths, C–G–D–A, or G–D–A–E for Irish music, and a plectrum banjo C–G–B–D. Open G as shown here is the five-string’s tuning.
What chords are easy in open G?
G is the open strings. C and D7 are small shapes inside the first two frets, and any straight barre is a major chord: the 5th fret is C and the 7th is D.
For everything else about tuning the instrument itself — strings that slip, pegs, and what the dial is telling you — see the banjo tuner.
Common chord shapes in Banjo Open G tuning
Where the everyday chords fall on a banjo tuned this way. Each shape is found by searching this tuning’s own strings for the frets that sound the chord — nothing here is copied from a standard-tuning chart — and each plays when you press it.
- G0000
- C2012
- D0234
- D70214
- Em2002
- Am2212
- F3213
Shapes are for the four long strings. The short 5th string is not fretted: it rings open as a drone over whichever chord is held.