Banjo Basics

The banjo isn’t the first instrument one would associate with Irish music. It wasn’t until the early ‘60s that the banjo really found its own among the traditional music community when Barney McKenna, founding member of The Dubliners, took it to greater heights and across the globe. Barney retuned the instrument one fourth lower to coincide with fiddle tuning (GDAE) and developed a technique that would be suitable for traditional tunes. The good news is that this course, Banjo Basics, is for absolute beginners to music and the banjo, so it’s never to late to join in the great fun that is banjo playing.

By the end of the course you will have a repertoire of fifteen popular Irish session tunes. The course has 18 lessons, broken into 3 to 4 tutorials each, where tunes are taught phrase by phrase.

Start Your Free Trial

Course Structure

This course is aimed at the absolute beginner tenor banjo player. It’s for a four-string tenor banjo tuned to GDAE. Lessons cover how to hold the instrument and plectrum, how to tune the strings and the proper hand and finger positions. There is a progressive study of scales and ornamentation throughout the course. Trebles, triplets and the use of double stops will feature, particularly in the later lessons.  A wide variety of tune types and keys are taught, phrase by phrase.

Here are the popular Irish traditional tunes that are taught in this course:

Sheet Music and Mp3s available to Download for each Tune

Learn The Kerry Polka in this free sample lesson:

Sample Sheet Music

Download The Kerry Polka ABC Sheet Music.
Download The Kerry Polka Standard Notation Sheet Music.
Download The Kerry Polka TAB.

Sample mp3 of The Kerry Polka

Download The Kerry Polka mp3.

Recommended Tenor Banjo for Beginners

17 fret (short neck) 4 string tenor banjo tuned to GDAE is recommended for these lessons and Irish music in general. Entry level banjos can be bought from Gold Tone which are fairly good for beginners and improvers but better quality vintage instruments can be got within the same price range with some shopping around.
Start Your Free Trial

Advice Starting Out with the Tenor Banjo

Enjoy the journey, the process of learning, and don’t be too focused on the end goal, be patient. It is highly recommended to be familiar with any tune you are learning before learning how to play it, so download the mp3 file and listen to it frequently first before picking up your instrument. Watch and listen to the tutor and try to copy the notes she is playing exactly. After a while you will be familiar with the notes and how they should sound, meaning you will have trained your ear, to hear if you are playing correctly. This is how Irish music has been traditionally handed down through generations.