Your First Banjo Chords: G, C and D7

With just three chords you can already accompany lots of songs on the banjo. The best part: you don’t even have to fret the first one.

1. G major – no fingers needed

Because the banjo is tuned to open G, G rings out as soon as you play all strings open. Try it: brush your thumb across all the strings.

G

2. C major

For C you need three fingers. From string 4 to string 1: string 4 at the 2nd fret, string 3 open, string 2 at the 1st fret, string 1 at the 2nd fret. String 5 just rings open.

C213

3. D7

D7 almost always leads back to G – it sounds like “coming home”. The diagram shows where your fingers go. Once D7 feels good, you can learn D as well: string 4 open, string 3 at fret 2, string 2 at fret 3, string 1 at fret 4.

D7214D123

Your first chord change: G → C

  1. Play G (open) and count slowly to four.
  2. On “four”, already start placing your fingers for C.
  3. Play C and count to four again. Then lift your fingers – back to G.
  4. Repeat until it works without a pause. Only then speed up.

First songs

Many songs work with just two chords, for example Oh My Darling, Clementine or Skip to My Lou. With three chords you can play Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. If a song is in a different key, transposing helps.

Play songs

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