Some Basic 5 String Banjo Chords

The five string banjo was developed from other types of banjos from Europe but the addition of the 5th string was unique to America. The banjo made a great instrument to take along on the trail west as the wagon trains moved across our vast country. The settlers would purchase all of their supplies before setting out on the trip and some would purchase an instrument to play along the trail. The banjo was a lightweight and relatively easy to play instrument and made a natural addition to the supplies. It is likely that the banjo was purchased in a standard tuning and additional strings were probably purchased at the same time to replace damaged, broken, or old strings along the way. The settler may already have known how to play and tune an instrument but accurate electronic tuners were certainly not around at that time. They may have had a tuning fork or some kind of “pitch pipe”, but the lack of tuning ability quickly became evident. A covered wagon is not a smooth ride and changes in temperature, from the day to night was often extreme. Instruments would go out of tune quickly. As a result banjo players would tune their instrument the best they could and sometimes it was not in a “standard” tuning. There are over 25 common ways to tune a 5 string banjo and many less common ways.

The 5th string is so high in pitch that it is technically at “pedal point” which means that if this string is hit often it is hard to tell if it is in tune with the other notes played before or after it is played. In many forms of picking the 5 string banjo this note is hit about 1/3 of the time. Because it is not actually fingered many times this leaves only four strings to possibly place fingers behind the frets. A 5 string banjo can be made as a “long-neck” or standard neck. The long-neck version gives you more frets at the top end to allow the player to use a capo at more locations and this can change the key played quickly to another key while keeping the fingering the same.

I play some 5 string banjo, but not as much as I play the guitar. The finger picking patterns I use on the guitar only partially transfer directly to the patterns usually played on the banjo. The syncopation of the banjo is also a bit different. The music theory is directly related on the guitar and banjo. There is a special capo that can be used on the 5th string of a 5 string banjo. I used to test a music store to see how good they were by asking them if they had a 5th string banjo capo. If they even knew about it they were pretty good, if they had one they were great. One time when I was in Denver Colorado I went to a small music store and I asked the question and they said “Yes, we have two different kinds – which kind would you like.” I was surprised. Eventually I actually took some guitar lessons there, played on stage there, and had a great time.

The graphic shows some of the most common 5 string banjo chords. Hope they are useful.