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Tunings

Old time banjo players use several different tunings and usually retune to play in various keys. The most popular tunings are in G, G-modal (also called “mountain modal”) and double-C.  With a capo, these tunings allow you to play most, if not all, old time tunes in the keys of G, G-modal, A, A-modal and D.

Open G           g D G B D       A:                    Capo 2 and return high g to a

G-modal         g D G C D       A-modal:         Capo 2 and return high g to a

Double-C        g C G C D       Double-D:       Capo 2 and return high g to a

Open C           g C G B D

Open D           f# D F# A D