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Banjo chords: the 5-string chart
You can play hundreds of songs on a 5-string banjo with just three chords — G, C and D7 in open-G tuning. Here is the full beginner chord chart with clear diagrams, how to read them, and how to string them into your first song by the end of an afternoon.
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The three chords that start it all
The vast majority of beginner banjo songs are built on three chords in the key of G: G, C and D7. Musicians call this the I–IV–V progression, and it is the backbone of folk, old-time, gospel and country. Learn to move between these three cleanly and you unlock an enormous songbook before you ever learn a single roll or lick.
The freebie. In open-G tuning the open strings already make a G chord, so you play all five strings open — nothing fretted at all.
2nd string / 1st fret, 4th string / 2nd fret, 1st string / 2nd fret. Let the 3rd and 5th strings ring open.
3rd string / 2nd fret and 2nd string / 1st fret — the rest ring open. This is the chord that pulls you back home to G.
The rest of the essential chart
Once the big three feel comfortable, these four fill in almost everything else you will meet in a beginner songbook — the full D, a G7 to lead into C, and the two common minors, Em and Am, that colour in bluegrass and folk tunes.
Every diagram is in open-G tuning. Strings read left to right as 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st; a hollow ring means play that string open, a brass dot means fret it, and the short 5th string rings open as a G drone on all of these.
Why open-G tuning makes the chords easy
A 5-string banjo is tuned to open G— the strings from 5th to 1st are g, D, G, B, D. Strummed open, they already ring out a full G chord, which is why your G is “free” and every other shape here is so compact: you are only ever changing a few notes away from a chord the instrument is already sitting on. It also means these are the standard tuning chords for bluegrass and old-time — learn them here and they work at any jam.
How to read a banjo chord diagram
A chord diagram is a small map of the neck. The vertical lines are the strings — the 4th string on the left through the 1st string on the right — and the horizontal lines are the frets, with the nut (the top of the neck) drawn as the thick line across the top. Dots show where to press down.
- A hollow ring above a string means play it open (do not fret it).
- A filled dot sits in the fret you press — count down from the nut.
- The short 5th string is left out of the diagram because it rings open as a G drone on almost every chord.
Press with the very tips of your fingers and arch your knuckles so you do not accidentally mute the open strings next door. If a string buzzes or sounds dead, it is almost always a finger leaning against it — not the chord shape being wrong.
Your first three-chord song
Every shape on this page assumes standard open-G tuning (gDGBD). If the banjo is out of tune, the chords will sound wrong no matter how clean your fingers are. Tune up before you practice.
Press just behind the fret, not on top of it, and use your fingertips so you do not deaden neighboring strings. Strum slowly and check that every string rings clearly before you move on.
The hard part is moving between shapes in time. Drill G → C → G, then G → D7 → G, until the switch is smooth. Speed comes later — clean changes come first.
Put them in order over a steady strum: G for four beats, C for four, D7 for four, back to G. That loop is the backbone of "Boil Them Cabbage Down," "Cripple Creek" and hundreds of old-time and country tunes.
When you are ready to put them to work, our easy banjo songs guides walk through real tunes built on exactly these chords, and our how to play the banjo pillar covers the right-hand rolls that turn chords into bluegrass.
Helpful extras
You do not need much to get started, but two things speed the process up. A beginner banjo chord book gives you diagrams for every common chord in one place, so you are not hunting online each time a song calls for an F or a B minor. And once you can play a few songs, a banjo capo lets you keep using your familiar G, C and D7 shapes while playing in a higher key to match a singer or a jam — no relearning required.