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Playing chords on the banjo, clearly and quickly takes practice. If you take the time to really understand how each chord is formed, you will advance much faster than you would by rushing ahead.

Try a C chord:

First place your index finger (I) on the second string - first fret of your banjo. Your fingertip should be just behind the fret bar and not touching the strings next to it. Your thumb should be near the middle of the neck of the banjo, opposite your index finger. You don’t have to push down too hard on the strings, just enough pressure to keep the string ringing nice and clear. If the string makes a buzzing sound - check your position and be sure to press down firmly.

Next place your ring finger (R) on the first string - second fret. The third string is played open (not fretted). Now strum the third, second and first strings. If each string can be heard clearly we’ll add the next finger if not, lets see whats wrong. Play each string one at a time, if it buzzes or sounds bad, check your finger position and pressure.

Lets add the last finger, the middle finger (M) on the fourth string - second fret. Now strum all of the strings together. Each string should be heard clearly and your fingers should only touch their intended string.

Hear a C Chord:

For your reference, here is a diagram of the C Chord:

Practice forming this chord until you can do it without hesitation. The C chord is made up of three notes; C, E and G. The fourth string is an E; the third string is G; the second string is C and the first string is another E. The fifth string, which is a G, can be played with this chord.

What You Should Know.

• How to play a C Chord on a banjo.
• C, E and G are the notes of a C Chord

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The first chord you need to know on the banjo is G. This is the simplest chord on the banjo and is played by strumming the banjo open, which means you don’t lay a finger on the neck. Go ahead, try it out. The first chord is easy but it gets a little more difficult from here. If you would like to hear the G Chord played on a banjo, just press play on the audio player below.

Next we’ll add a C chord. This chord is played with three fingers and is shown in the following diagram. If you are wondering which fingers you use to form the chord, don’t worry that is indicated in the diagram. I for index, M for middle, R for ring and P for pinky. You can listen to the C Chord, just press play below the C chord diagram

Finally, our third chord, which is D. This chord uses three fingers, just as C did, only this time we need our index, middle and pinky fingers. The D chord is illustrated below, you can also hear the chord by pressing play on the player.

Many songs are played with just these three chords, so practice them. In order to play a song you need to be able to smoothly move from one chord to another. The first step is to learn to play each chord individually.

What you should know.

• G Chord
• C Chord
• D Chord

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Banjos must be in tune to sound good. Music is about harmony and if your banjo is not in tune, it is not in harmony.

Your banjo has five strings and they are numbered one to five. The fifth string is the short one with the tuning key part way up the neck and is tuned to G. Just below the fifth string is the fourth string, it is the lowest pitched string and is tuned to D. The next string is of course the third string and it is tuned to G. The second string is next and is tuned to B. Last but not least, the first string, which is tuned to D.

Most people use a electronic tuner to get in tune, there are many different types to chose from and they are not very expensive. If you don’t have a tuner you can tune the banjo to itself.

The following diagram illustrates the first five frets of the banjo neck with the finger placements for tuning.

Start with the fourth string, place you middle finger just behind the fifth fret and play the string, next play the third string open. Notice that I asked you to play the two notes separately and not at the same time, this makes it easier to tune. Raise or lower the pitch until the notes sound the same. You are playing a G on the fourth string and matching it to the third string open, which is also G.

Next fret the third string at the fourth fret and play the second string open, these notes are both B.

Now we move to the second string at the third fret and match it to the first string open which is a D.

Finally we tune the fifth string by fretting the first string at the fifth fret and playing the fifth open, which is a G.

You can have a listen to a tuned banjo and a G chord right here.

Play all five strings at once. If it doesn’t sound in tune go back to the beginning and check your tuning, and don’t worry it often takes a couple tries to get a banjo in tune. Play all five strings again, ta da, you’ve played your first banjo chord - G .

What you should know.

• The strings are numbered one to five.
• 1st string - D
• 2nd string - B
• 3rd string - G
• 4th string - D
• 5th string - G
• How to tune the banjo with or without a tuner
• Your first chord - G

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