01
Five string banjo
Open G tuning, a short drone string that starts at the fifth fret, and two completely different right hands sharing one instrument.
Complete guide
Acoustic roots music, from the ground up
Bluegrass and old time, one string at a time
Guides to the banjo, fiddle, mandolin and resonator guitar for people who are still working it out: how the things are tuned, what the right hand is actually doing, what to buy first, and where the festivals land in the year.
Four ways in
The instruments that make the noise
A string band is four or five people covering rhythm, melody and drive at the same time, with nobody keeping time but each other. Each of these pages starts at the beginning: what the instrument is, how it is tuned, and what the first six months look like.
02
Fiddle
The same box as a violin, a different job. Bowing patterns, shuffle rhythms, and why the Irish and Appalachian traditions sound related but never identical.
Complete guide
03
Mandolin
Eight strings in four courses, tuned like a fiddle. The chop chord that holds the backbeat, plus tremolo, closed shapes and string choice.
Complete guide
04
Resonator guitar
Played flat on the lap with a steel bar and an aluminium cone doing the work. Open G again, slants, and the endless dobro naming confusion.
Complete guide
Read this first
Nothing works until the thing is in tune
Most people who give up on the banjo give up on an instrument that was flat on the fourth string and sharp on the second. Open G is five notes, the fifth string is the odd one out, and once you can check it by ear in twenty seconds the rest of the instrument stops fighting you.
Our tuning guide covers the standard setup, the four alternate tunings you will meet at a session, how to stop new strings drifting, and what to do when the fretted notes go sharp up the neck.
Open G at a glance
- Tuning
- gDGBD
- Fifth string
- Short drone, high g
- Where it starts
- Fifth fret, own peg
- Fourth to first
- D, G, B, D
- Open strings ring
- A G major chord
- Capo at 2
- Key of A, spike the fifth at 7
Technique and theory
Things nobody explains at a session
Short, practical pieces written for the stage of playing where the questions are embarrassing to ask out loud.
Setup
How to tune a five string banjo
Open G note by note, the relative method by ear, alternate tunings, and why new strings will not settle.
9 min read
Right hand
Clawhammer or three finger
Two traditions, one instrument. What each hand physically does, what each one sounds like, and which to learn first.
8 min read
Notation
Reading banjo tablature
Five lines, finger marks under the notes, and the timing information that tab quietly leaves out.
7 min read
Kit
Using a capo, and the fifth string problem
Why a normal capo only solves four fifths of the job, and the three fixes: spikes, a sliding capo, or retuning.
6 min read
Guitar
Flatpicking guitar from scratch
Bass runs, alternating picking, and how the guitar keeps a whole band honest without ever playing the tune.
8 min read
Etiquette
How a bluegrass jam actually works
The circle, the nod, the key, the tempo, and the six unwritten rules that keep everyone welcome.
7 min read
Gear, without the sales talk
What is worth the money, and what is not
We do not sell instruments and we do not take a cut of anything you buy. That makes it easy to say the unpopular part out loud: a decent setup on a modest instrument beats an expensive one that nobody has adjusted, and strings are the cheapest upgrade you will ever make.
The diary
Where the year goes
The bluegrass and old time circuit in Ireland and Britain runs on a handful of long standing weekends, most of them built around campsites, workshops and car park jams rather than big stages.
| Weekend | Where | Usually | Shape of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sore Fingers Summer School | Oxfordshire, England | Easter | A week of tutored classes rather than a stage festival |
| Westport Festival of Music | County Mayo, Ireland | Early summer | Folk and bluegrass across pub venues in the town |
| Athy Bluegrass Festival | County Kildare, Ireland | Midsummer | Long running Irish bluegrass weekend with camping |
| Omagh Bluegrass Festival | County Tyrone, Northern Ireland | Early September | The largest gathering on the island, folk park setting |
| Didmarton Bluegrass Festival | Gloucestershire, England | Early September | Field, campsite and a famously busy jam tent |
The house rules
A notebook, not a shopfront
Written by people who play badly
Everything here is written from the learner's side of the problem, because that is where we are standing. If a technique took us a year to understand, the page says so.
No affiliate links anywhere
Nothing on this site earns a commission when you buy an instrument, a string set or a festival ticket. Recommendations cost us nothing and gain us nothing.
Corrections beat pride
Tradition is argued about for a living. Where players disagree, we say who disagrees and why, rather than picking a winner and pretending it is settled.