Andy Chase

In Progress
Originally uploaded by Usonian.

I've been working up a Christmas carol for 5-String banjo. It's usually performed in a minor key that doesn't lend itself all that well to banjo, so I decided to use G minor tuning (GDGB?D) on the instrument and transpose the tune to G minor.

I've never done anything in G minor tuning before, which means learning some new chord forms and getting used to the dark (yes, banjo can sound dark) sound the instrument has when tuned to an open minor chord.

None of these things is particularly impressive, but each one is useful reinforcement of the music theory I've been accumulating over the last couple of years. It's fashionable to blow off music theory on the Banjo Hangout forums; You don't need do know anything beyond the G, C, and D/D7 chords to vamp along with quite a few oldtime/bluegrass standards, and if you learn the rest from tab you don't need to worry about which note falls where on which string.

Personally, I like being able to hack the musical source code, even if it's only to come up with my own tab to memorize so I don't have to worry about which note falls where on which string.

Tagged:

• banjo
• musictheory