Lesson #004, Fingerpicks and Tuning the Banjo

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Lesson #004, Fingerpicks and Tuning the Banjo

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to the Moose. The fingerpicks are used to pick/play the banjo. They consist of a thumbpick for your thumb and two fingerpicks for the index and middle fingers of your right hand. The standard tuning of the banjo used largely in bluegrass is called open G-tuning. It consists of tuning the first string to D, the second string to B, the third string to G, the fourth string to D( an octave lower in pitch than the first string which I'll be explaining in the next segment), and the fifth string tuned to G ( and octave higher in pitch than the third string). The first string is located on the lower end of the banjo head as it is sitting in your lap. You can also hear the tuning of the banjo in the video and try to tune the banjo to either the sound of the video, or an electronic tuner.

Thanks again for joining me and we'll see you next time right here.

Sincerely,

David Cavage