Banjo

At a glance

Role

Harmony — it can carry the chords on its own

Range

G3 – D6

Tuning

G4D3G3B3D4▶ all

previewed with the nylon guitar voice

Sits well in

GDAC

Open G tuning: G and D are the home keys, and the drone string only agrees with those.

How it works

The bridge sits on a stretched membrane instead of a wooden top, so the attack is enormous and the sustain is short. The fifth string is a short drone that starts at the fifth fret.

On the neck

Drills 2

A session's worth. Each one has a single point — do that, not the whole list.

1. Forward roll6 min

   The eight-note right-hand pattern everything else is built on.

   1. Thumb–index–middle, thumb–index–middle, thumb–thumb, on open strings.
   2. Sixty bpm, two rolls per bar, for two minutes without a break.
   3. Only then add a left-hand chord.
2. Rolls over a chord change6 min

   Keeping the roll going while the left hand moves.

   1. G to C to D, one bar each, forward roll throughout.
   2. The right hand must not pause for the left. If it does, slow down.
   3. Add a hammer-on into the first note of each new chord.

Tips

• Picks change everything: a thumbpick and two fingerpicks are not optional for bluegrass tone.
• The head is tunable. If the sound is dull or the action rises, the head has slackened.
• Capo the fifth string too, or it will fight every key but G.

Heard on 0

Nothing linked yet. The pipeline never measures who plays what, so this list is human-curated: add recordings to the 🎙️ Recordings relation on this instrument's row in 🎻 MUSIC INSTRUMENTS [DB] and they show up here.

Worth practising on it

Suggested from what the pipeline measured — key, meter, tempo and the chords as played. Each one says why it is here.