How Do You Tune A Five String (American) Banjo?
• Take a look at your banjo. Hold the “neck” (the long, narrow part with the strings) in your left hand, with the fat part across your stomach, and look at all five strings. • Notice that the string nearest to you does not run all the way up to the top of the fretboard with the rest, but has its tuning knob in the middle of the neck. This strange “5th string” placement is unique to the banjo, is used to give the Banjo that unique “roll” and “bounce” to its sound. • REMEMBER that string through the tuning process, because otherwise you will get confused and turn the wrong knob for the wrong string. The SECOND string your hand plucks will in fact be the FIRST string on the tuning board, and so on. Follow the strings from bottom to top, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. • It’s time to start tuning. The banjo, when tuned, will play an open “G” chord. This means, unlike most string instruments, you can just strum without holding any strings, and it will still make a pleasant, ringing h
