Irish Banjo: The instruments: Banjo setup and mainteneance: Tuning the Irish tenor banjo

Tuning the Irish tenor banjo

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This particular page was created 29/11/2003 and last updated 17/05/2005

Picture from Music123

The Irish tenor banjo is tuned in fifths - G-D-A-E - like the violin or the mandolin only one octave lower:

You can with a digital tuner, with pitch pipes, with a pitch fork, from another instrument or - if your computer has speakers and a midi player program even right here at The Irish Banjo. In an emergency you can also just compare the strings to each other.

Relative tuning

You can tune the strings of the Irish tenor banjo according to each other this way:

7th fret on the 4th string is identical to the open 3rd string
7th fret on the 3rd string is identical to the open 2nd string
7th fret on the 2nd string is identical to the open 1st string

Digital tuners

A simple digital tuner like the

Korg CA-30 doesn't cost much these days (only 20 dollars last time I checked at Musician's Friend). It's by far the easiest way to tune a banjo. Many musicians (me included actually) doesn't like them very much since they don't teach you to listen, but oh well, they are handy.

Pitch pipe

The pitch pipe costs even less than a tuner and gives you the notes you need to tune your instrument. There are no special pitch pipes for the Irish tenor banjo, but a

violin pitch pipe will do. Just remember to tune the banjo one octave lower (you'll probably do that automatically).

Pitch fork

The standard pitch fork is tuned to a high a, identical to the note you have on the 7th fret of the first string on an Irish tenor banjo. Tune the first string from the pitch fork and the other string relative to each other. (I really don't recommend this for a beginner - digital tuners, andpitch pipes are both much easier to deal with.)

Tuning from another instrument

You can simply get the notes from another instrument, of course (as long as that other instrument is tuned of course). On a violin or a mandolin you just use the open strings. On a guitar you'll find the Irish tenor banjo pitches like this:

4th string on the banjo = 3rd fret, 6th string on the guitar
3rd string on the banjo = 4th string on the guitar
2nd string on the banjo = 2nd fret, 3rd string on the guitar
1st string on the banjo = 1st string on the guitar

On a piano or an other keyboard instrument you find the notes here:

(In case you wonder, the numbers are the pitches the strings on an Irish tenor banjo are tuned in.)

Online tuning

Here are midi files for the four strings of the Irish tuned tenor banjo. Play each file and tune the string according to it. Each note is repeated four times. If you need to hear it more, you can just replay the midi.

  String 1 - e'
  String 2 - a
  String 3 - d
  String 4 - G