Beginning Bluegrass Banjo

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One of the best-kept secrets in country music and bluegrass is that you need to learn only three chords to play most songs. Amazing! Moreover, banjo players have an edge over guitarists because the banjo is usually tuned in G, which means that a G chord is produced by playing all the strings open, together. No fretting! What could be easier?

The other two chords you'll need while playing in G tuning are C and D7.

C Chord: The C chord is played by fretting the second string at the first fret with your left index finger and the first string at the second fret with your ring finger. Here's a picture of it:

Occasionally you may want to play a fuller C chord by adding a note: Fret the fourth string at the second fret with your middle finger. For most songs, though, the simple C chord we tried above will suffice.

D7 Chord: This chord is produced by leaving your index finger where it was for the C chord: on the second string at the first fret. Now lift up your other finger or fingers, and push your middle finger down on the third string at the second fret. That's your D7 chord. It looks like this:

Chording tips. Now you know your G, C, and D7 chords; using them, you can play an almost endless number of favorite songs. The catch, though, is that you have to learn to play your chords quickly. A song won't wait around for you to change to the next chord, and neither will your picking buddies. So here are some hints to help you develop speed.

[1] On D7 and C, which normally involve fretting just two strings, practice pushing both your fingers down at the same time. Lift them up at the same time, too. [2] Since using your left hand to prop up the neck of the banjo will slow your chord changes, make sure you're holding your instrument properly. [3] Practice, practice, practice! Drill yourself repeatedly to see how fast you can change from G to C to D7 and back to C.

A NEW ROLL

With your G, C, and D7 ready for action, we can try a new roll to go with them. First, though, you'll need to practice just your righthand technique; play all the strings open, or unfretted, for now.

Here's the roll: Play the second string with your thumb, the first string with your middle finger, the fifth string with your thumb, and, finally, the first string with your middle finger. In tablature, it looks like this:

Play the roll over and over: 2, 1, 5, 1. The first of these four notes is your melody note; the other three are all fill-ins. You can also play the melody on the third or fourth strings. Just remember to play your fill-in notes (1, 5, 1) after each melody note. So, a third-string melody would be 3, 1, 5, 1, and a fourth-string melody would be 4, 1, 5, 1. Practice alternating your thumb between the second, third, and fourth strings while keeping a continuous flow of fill-in notes.

This four-note pattern—played by alternating thumb, middle finger, thumb, middle finger—is a good, versatile, rhythmic banjo roll. All the notes have the same time value, so they keep a constant beat going. Think of a clock ticking. Your four notes would sound like "tick-a, tock-a." Here they are in tablature:

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