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Using a tuner or another instrument: Reference tuning

      

Access the audio tracks and video clips at www.dummies.com/go/banjo

      Question: “What's the difference between a banjo and a motorcycle?”

      Answer: “You can tune a motorcycle.”

      This unfortunate but frequently recited banjo joke speaks to a greater truth: The banjo can be one of the most difficult and frustrating of all stringed instruments to tune. One of the first steps to becoming a great player is getting tuned in and staying that way throughout a practice or playing session.

      With just a bit of practice, using this section as a guide, you can master this all-important but sometimes elusive skill, making it possible for you to play at home without driving your loved ones insane. And when it's time to play with other musicians in a jam session, they'll be so grateful that you took the time to figure out how to tune your banjo that they just might let you play “Cripple Creek” with them twice at a slow speed.

      To tune the banjo, you raise or lower the amount of tension of each string to match the sound of another banjo string or to match a reference note provided by another instrument or an electronic tuner. You adjust each string by turning its corresponding tuning peg. In this section, you get familiar with several different methods to tune your banjo, so you have absolutely no excuse but to tune in and pick on!

Like all other elements of banjo playing, tuning is a skill that gets easier with practice and the passage of time. Being able to distinguish one note from another isn't a mysterious psychic ability that you either are or aren't born with — tuning is a learned skill. Keep actively listening to how the sounds of the strings change as you turn the pegs. Don't be afraid to ask others for advice if you're unsure about whether a string is in tune, even when playing with others in a jam session. Other musicians want you to be in tune just as much as you want to be!

G Tuning: Getting Your Strings in Order

      Although banjo players use a variety of tunings to play different kinds of songs and to create different moods on their instrument, the most frequently used tuning is called G tuning (which is also the type of tuning that's used in most of this book with the exception of many of the old-time tunes covered in Chapter 8). With this tuning, the five open strings of the banjo are tuned to the notes of a G major chord (a chord is a collection of three or more notes played together; I talk more about chords in Chapter 3).

      Here are the pitches used for each string in G tuning:

       5th string: G

       4th string: D

       3rd string: G

       2nd string: B

       1st string: D

      Note that only three different pitches are used in G tuning: G, B, and D. These three notes make up the G major chord. The 1st-string D and 5th-string G are one octave higher in pitch than their 4th- and 3rd-string counterparts. Your ears hear the two D notes and the two G notes as being essentially the same, but you can also hear that the 1st and 5th strings are higher in pitch. Musicians long ago decided to assign the same letter name to pitches that you hear in this way, but they also recognized that the two D's and the two G's aren't exactly the same pitch. They're one octave apart, with the octave being the point where that same note is repeated again but at a higher pitch.

Figure 2-1 shows the pitches of each string in G tuning along with a fretboard image summarizing the relative tuning relationships between the strings (which I cover in the next section). You can check out Audio Track 1 to hear the pitch of each banjo string in G tuning.

      Illustration by Wiley, Composition Services Graphics

FIGURE 2-1: To tune the banjo in G tuning using relative tuning, you fret a string as shown to match the pitch of the next highest open string.

Relative Tuning: Tuning the Banjo to Itself

      Relative tuning involves using one string as a reference to tune the other strings of your banjo. That string doesn't really have to be in tune with any outside source, because in this case, you're just getting the banjo strings in tune with one another so that you can play by yourself.

      With each new string you tune in relative tuning, you then fret that string to create a new reference note that you use to tune the next highest string. Relative tuning is the most useful way to tune the banjo, because you need nothing but your banjo and your ears to get your instrument in tune. You have a banjo; now you can get to work on training your ears!

      

Even pro players follow up on their initial pass at relative tuning by trying different pairs of strings to hear what they sound like together and tuning the adjacent pairs of strings a second time. If one or more strings are severely out of tune to begin with, you definitely need to repeat the processes I describe in the following sections once or twice until the banjo is in good tune.

When tuning from low to high, you begin with the lowest-pitched 4th string and work your way up to the 5th string, the highest-pitched string. Using the following instructions, you tune the remaining four strings up from the 4th string, using the left-hand middle finger to fret each reference note. For now, try striking (or picking) each string with a downward motion of your right-hand thumb. You can watch me demonstrate relative tuning from low to high in Video Clip 1. I name and play all the open strings on the banjo in G tuning.

      

When you're comparing the pitches of two strings as you work through the following steps, your goal is to match the pitch of the open string to the fretted string that you pick. If the open string sounds higher in pitch, that string is sharp, and you want to adjust the tuning peg for that string in the direction that brings its pitch down (usually clockwise for the 3rd and 4th strings; counterclockwise for the 1st and 2nd strings). If the open string is lower in pitch, that string is flat; in this case, you rotate the peg in the direction that causes the pitch of the string to rise (usually counterclockwise for the 3rd and 4th strings; clockwise for the 1st and 2nd strings).

      1 Pick the 4th string fretted at the 5th fret and compare its pitch to the open 3rd string.You may need to strike the fretted 4th string first, wait a moment to hear its pitch, and then strike the 3rd string to listen to its pitch. Does the 3rd string (the second note you play) sound higher or lower than the 4th string? Try singing the two pitches to feel whether the pitch rises or falls.

      2 Using the tuning peg, adjust the pitch of the 3rd string up or down until it matches the pitch of the fretted 4th string.When the pitches of the two strings match each other, the 4th and 3rd strings of your banjo are in tune.

      3 Pick the 3rd string fretted at the 4th fret and match the open 2nd string to this sound.After these