Tune Your Banjo: Open G (gDGBD)

Five-string banjo lives in open-G tuning: the strings are gDGBD, and strumming all five open sounds a ready-made G major chord — no fingers required. From the fourth string up: D (the lowest note on the instrument), G, B, D, and then the short fifth string's high g, written lower-case because it is the odd one out.

Notice the trap: pitch order is not physical order. The string nearest your chin — the short fifth — is the highest note, and the lowest note is the fourth string right beside it. Keep that straight when a tuner tells you a string is far off. Tune with the free in-browser tuner — it has a 5-string open-G preset — working 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, then the fifth string at its own peg partway up the neck. Always tune up to the note: if a string reads sharp, drop below the target and come back up so it holds. The how-to-tune guide covers the same discipline, plus the by-ear method for when there is no tuner in reach.

Banjos drift more than most instruments: the head is a drum skin that breathes with the weather, and when the floating bridge shifts, every string moves with it. So make a ten-second tuning check the first thing you do every session. Everything in this path assumes real open G — a nearly-in-tune banjo quietly sabotages your ear.