G-G-D-G-B-D

• OVERVIEW •

Like ‘normal’ Open G, but with 6str tuned to G rather than D – either upwards or downwards. This takes the open harmony into ‘uninverted’ territory (i.e. the open Gmaj chord now has a G in the bass). Whether set as octaves or unisons, the adjacent Gs (6+5str) beef up the low side without overcomplicating the fretboard’s geometry – offering a ‘double drone’, rich with rhythmic possibilities and subtle phasing effects.

 

This arrangement mimics the standard ‘G-D-G-B-D’ tuning of the banjo, in use on the instrument for many generations. Also, the low-high interval sequence (1-1-5-1-3-1) suggests the first six tones of the harmonic series: you can hear this in how the open strings match the 6str natural harmonic positions at <12fr>, <7fr>, <5fr>, <3.8fr>, and <3.2fr> (well, not all of them match exactly – e.g. the <3.8fr> harmonic rings around 14 cents flatter than the open 2str: more on this in my Overtonal Scales article).

Pattern: 0>7>5>4>3

Harmony: Gmaj | 1-1-5-1-3-5

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

The guitar in Black Eyed Dog (high G6str), one of Nick Drake‘s sparsest songs, comprises only a few lonely, scattered tones. But his use of GGDGBD is ingenious, with the unplucked 1-2-3str acting as sitar-like ‘sympathetic’ strings, activated by the oscillations of the rest (from Chris Healy’s tab: “Make sure the top 3 strings are perfectly in tune…though they are not played; their strong resonance is vital”).

 

Other ‘high G6str’ cases include Pearl Jam (Daughter), Kurt Vile (Peeping Tomboy), John Fahey (Desperate Man Blues), and many Eagles of Death Metal songs (e.g. So Easy, -1). Joni Mitchell used it often, preferring to slacken the 6str to a super-low G rather than raise it (e.g. For the Roses, Electricity, and This Flight Tonight, +1).

 

It also contains Keith Richards’ 5-string layout, which removes the 6str to further focus the sound range (thus forming an even closer banjo match). From his autobiography Life (p.242): “The majesty…is that you’ve only got three notes: the other two are repetitions of each other…you get a drone going…because it’s electric they reverberate…it fills the whole gap between bass and top notes [with] this beautiful resonance and ring….there’s a million places you don’t need to put your fingers”).

 

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• Black Eyed Dog – Nick Drake (~1972):

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“I’m growing old, and I wanna go home,
Black eyed dog, he called at my door…”

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The banjo itself is a underappreciated instrument (I could persuade you with more words, but really, just watch Béla Fleck in action below…). Its main non-guitaristic playing oddity is that the highest and lowest strings are next to each other (a ‘shortened’ G, and a low D on the next: i.e. a ‘re-entrant‘ arrangement).

 

However, it’s the timbre and build that fascinate me most – as a student of the sitar, I can’t help but hear a similarly crisp sparkle in the tones of both instruments (although really, it’s closer to a sarod: in fact, when I interviewed Bengali sarod virtuoso Debasmita Bhattacharya, who played banjo while at university, she called her primary instrument the “fretless devotional banjo”).

 

Part of banjo’s notorious twang comes from the plucking techniques used in it – but much of the character arises from the instrument’s construction. Aside from the tight-set steel strings, the banjo’s main resonator is built more like a drum than a guitar body: a thin membrane is stretched over a circular frame, in similar fashion to snares and tambourines, summoning a sharp, clear texture with high attack and short sustain.

 

It enjoyed great prominence in the pre-amplification era, often supplanting the guitar in styles from bluegrass and country folk to early jazz. In the words of eminent historian Keith Richards, “banjos were the biggest selling instrument. Gibson put out this cheap, really good guitar, and cats would tune it – since they were nearly all banjo players – to a five-string banjo tuning. Also, you didn’t have to pay for the other string!“. Hear how well it cuts through in a live setting:

 

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• Wheels Up – Béla Fleck (2021):

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“I’m from New York, of Eastern European and Russian descent, with no natural connection to folk or bluegrass. So I’m defining myself with music that’s not necessarily my heritage – but being an outsider helps you bring new things to the idiom…Finding a way to insert Indian music or jazz or classical into bluegrass is very satisfying!” (Béla Fleck)

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Despite its guitaristic appearance, the banjo descends from string-drums brought to America from West Africa by enslaved peoples (…whereas the guitar comes from the Arabian oud, via Iberian lutes). As Béla Fleck emphasises, “It’s very ironic that most people think that the banjo is a southern white instrument. It came from Africa – and even for the first years that white people played banjo, they would put on blackface”.

 

The instrument’s capabilities have been advanced by countless innovators through time – notably Joel Sweeney in the 19th century (who improved its stringing and design), Earl Scruggs in the 20th (who pioneered rapid thumb-rolls in his ‘Bluegrass Boys Band’: eventually giving rise to the genre’s name), and Béla Fleck in the 21st (who has taken the instrument around the world, collaborating fruitfully with dozens of global traditions). Learn more in the excellent video below, where a range of historic banjo styles are unpacked by an all-star explanatory trio of Béla, Abigail Washburn, and Nahre Sol (featuring fretless banjos too!):

 

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• Rethinking the Banjo – Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn (2019):

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“Slave masters figured out that if they had a banjo player onboard, playing the music of home, more of the ‘cargo’ would live to the other side. So the origins of the banjo in America are the bitterest of roots…a blend of traditions from Africa, Ireland, and Scotland, when those banjo players from Africa and those fiddlers from Scotland & Ireland started playing plantation dances together…with this actual hope, this hope that ‘I can live’…” (Abigail Washburn)

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For those who still doubt the banjo’s clout: consider the strange tale of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s polar expedition, brought to life in a blog by Dale Jacobsen: “The Endurance had been trapped in pack ice for 10 months when Sir Ernest Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship on 27 October 1915. He allowed each member of the ‘Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition’ to bring 2lbs of personal gear with them…all except meteorologist Leonard Hussey. While Shackleton’s orders were to leave behind everything that was not vital to survival, he knew the effect that music would have on their morale, and instructed Hussey to also save his 12lb Windsor zither-banjo.”

 

Party member Major Thomas Hans Orde-Lees – who “took his bicycle on the expedition [and] frequently took cycling trips on the ice” – described some of these strange sonic experiences in his journal (honestly, this entire scene sounds like a Monty Python sketch): “Hussey the indefatigable with his banjo really does, as Sir Ernest said, supply brain food…During the afternoon three Adélie penguins approached the ship across the floe while Hussey was discoursing sweet music on the banjo. The solemn-looking little birds appeared to appreciate It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, but they fled in horror when Hussey treated them to a little of the music that comes from Scotland.”

 

By contrast, Harry ‘Chippy’ McNeish, the carpenter, wrote (somewhat jestingly) in his diary that “Hussey is at present tormenting [us] with his six known tunes on his banjo”. While we can’t hear what Hussey himself sounded like, we do have Irish-American folk ensemble Solas’ song Vital Mental Medicine, inspired by the energies of the original tale. If the banjo is powerful enough for someone like Shackleton to consider it a literal life-preserver, then maybe we should take it a little more seriously too…

 

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• Vital Mental Medicine/The Pullet – Solas (2008):

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“The voices, accompanied by Hussey’s indispensable banjo, sounded strangely out of place amidst the profound silence of the hummocks – yet it is gratifying to hear that ring of hearty laughter that betokens contentment and harmony, the attributes of excellent leadership and good eating…” (Frank Hurley, the Trans-Antarctic Expedition’s photographer)

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• NUMBERS •

	6str	5str	4str	3str	2str	1str
Note	G	G	D	G	B	D
Alteration	+3	-2	0	0	0	-2
Tension (%)	+41	-21	0	0	0	-21
Freq. (Hz)	98	98	147	196	247	294
Pattern (>)	0	7	5	4	3	–
Semitones	0	0	7	12	16	19
Intervals	1	1	5	1	3	5

• See my Tunings Megatable for further such nerdery: more numbers, intervallic relations, comparative methods, etc. And to any genuine vibratory scientists reading: please critique my DIY analysis!

• RELATED •

—Associated tunings: proximities of shape, concept, context, etc…

• Square-Neck Dobro (this with 5str +4): wound up for lap slide
• Open G (this with 6str -5): the main, inverted form of Gmaj
• Papuan Four-Key: another bass-raiser with 19 semitones

• MORE INFO •

—Further learnings: sources, readings, lessons, other onward links…

• Banjo ancestry: go further into the banjo’s complex history with the SoundField episode above, plus an overview from Joff Lowson and a great On Being interview with Fleck/Washburn – and read the full Shackleton tale in Dale Jacobsen’s article (Hussey’s instrument itself, a “wood, skin and metal zither banjo, inlaid with mother of pearl…was rescued from the ship before she sank, crushed by the ice of the Weddell Sea” [it’s now on display at the National Maritine Museum in Greenwich…just a few minutes walk from where I sit writing this])
• 5-string Keef: watch Keith Richards explain his string-subtracted setup in a video interview with the immortal axeman – and peruse some uplifting discussion on the Banjo Hangout forum (“I loved the way he developed a style that blurs the line between lead and accompaniment playing, especially with Ron Wood: ‘an ancient form of weaving’ is how he describes it. Open G tuning is wonderful: I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had blasting out Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ on my Strat…”)

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Header image: Fleck & Washburn (the ultimate banjo power-couple)