Accept Cookies?

Yes Wait Leave

theMandolinPages

Tuning a Tenor Banjo

*Note that the audio on this page uses a flash player. This should work on all modern browsers.

Use this page to play the correctly tuned notes as an aid to tuning your banjo.

For a more comprehensive note on tuning, see the Tuning Guide

There are many tunings for the short scale and standard scale tenor banjo. The tunings most often used are:

• GDAE which is the same tuning as a mandolin and fiddle (but an octave lower of course) - popular in traditional music
• CGDA which is the same tuning as a mandola and viola - standard tenor
• DGBE which is the same tuning as a guitar's top 4 strings - popular for playing chords. Also known as Chicago tuning

String	Irish	Listen
Bottom or Fourth (thickest)	G
Third	D
Second	A
Top or First (lightest)	E

String	Tenor	Listen
Bottom or Fourth (thickest)	C
Third	G
Second	D
Top or First (lightest)	A

String	Chicago	Listen
Bottom or Fourth (thickest)	D
Third	G
Second	B
Top or First (lightest)	E

copyright Paul Slater 2009 contact