The best way to learn tenor banjo as an adult beginner is a little every day, in the right order: tune up, learn the D major scale, then play simple session tunes and pick up phrases by ear. This free seven-step course is the order William starts his own adult students in: about a week a step, ten or fifteen minutes a day.
Tenor banjo for complete beginners. Never played a note? Here’s where to start — seven steps from tuning up to your first session tunes, using free tools you can open right here. No sign-up needed.
A note from William
I teach tenor banjo and Irish trad, and this is the order I start a new adult student in. Take each step at your own pace — a week each is about right — and don’t rush past the slow bits. Ten or fifteen minutes a day does more than an hour on a Sunday.
You’ll need a tenor banjo tuned G D A E (the Irish tuning — the same notes as a fiddle or mandolin, an octave lower) and a plectrum. Some of the tools listen to you through the microphone, so a phone or laptop with a mic is ideal.
Week one · every time you pick it up
Everything sounds wrong on a banjo that’s out of tune, so this comes first, every time. The four strings, low to high, are G D A E. Use the tuner to get each one right, then train your ear to hear it for yourself.
Week one to two
D major is the key of more session tunes than any other, so it’s the scale to know first: open D string, then up across the A and E strings. In first position almost everything sits on the open strings and the first five frets.
Week two to four
A polka — short, bouncy, and sitting right inside that D major scale, which is why it’s the classic first tune. Open it in the Melody Trainer: it shows the tune on the stave and waits for you to play each note on your banjo before it moves on, so you can go as slowly as you need.
Week four to six · a waltz
Now something with more room in it. Sí Bheag Sí Mhór (“little fairy hill, big fairy hill”) is said to be the first tune the harper Turlough O’Carolan wrote, three hundred years ago, and it’s still played at nearly every session. It’s in D, so your scale already has every note.
It’s a waltz: three beats in every bar instead of the polka’s two. Count it ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three, leaning on the first beat of each bar, and let it sway rather than bounce. Waltzes are played slowly and smoothly, which gives you time to make each note ring clearly and to keep the pick moving evenly — the habits that make the faster tunes work later.
Week six to seven
You’ve been playing notes by shape; now learn their names, so you can find any note without thinking. Start with D major only, then open it up to every note up to fret 5.
Week seven to nine
G major is the other big session key — the same idea as D, starting from the open G string. Then try your first jig: jigs go in threes (“di-dle-dy, di-dle-dy”), a new feel after the polkas.
From here on
Trad is learned by ear as much as off the page — at a session, someone plays a phrase and you play it back. Practise exactly that: hear a few notes, then find them on your banjo. A few minutes a day makes picking up tunes far easier. When D and G feel at home, the minor keys come next — E minor and A minor turn up in a great many reels.
G D A E, low to high. That’s the same notes as a fiddle or mandolin, an octave lower, so tunes and fingerings carry straight across.
At about a week a step, you’ll be playing your first polka in weeks two to four and a jig by around week nine. Ten or fifteen minutes a day does more than an hour on a Sunday.
The Britches Full of Stitches, a short, bouncy polka that sits inside the D major scale. After that, John Ryan’s Polka, then the waltz Sí Bheag Sí Mhór.
You can make a real start. The tools here tune you up, wait for each note you play, and listen through the microphone. But a teacher can hear why it doesn’t sound like the recording yet, which a tool can’t.
A tool can tell you the right note — a teacher can tell you why it doesn’t sound like the recording yet. If you’d like lessons, get in touch.
Lessons with William →