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Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/377481
Tehedir - Posted - 09/01/2021: 08:37:32
Hello. I have a 4-string tenor banjo tuned GDAE and I'm interested in old west sound and tunes, as well as country and western music. Will this tuning work for that, or do I need to change it (as well as strings, if it's necessary)?
thisoldman - Posted - 09/01/2021: 09:13:08
Can't answer your question, but realize that the mandolin is also tuned GDAE and you might find some mando arrangements that might fit your interests.
Ghost Riders would be an example.
Edited by - thisoldman on 09/01/2021 09:15:30
hoodoo - Posted - 09/01/2021: 09:20:37
It might sound odd on a tenor banjo but GDAE is the same as standard fiddle tuning so you can probably figure out a lot of different tunes other than irish
Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 09/01/2021: 09:29:59
A number of western swing groups, including Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies; used tenor banjo. Those players almost always tuned CGDA, but those are the same intervals as GDAE, albeit lower.
So sure, why couldn't it?
5-String Dan - Posted - 09/01/2021: 09:36:25
Yes, what you're proposing will work. I've seen people use both Irish tuning and jazz tuning to play American-style music. However, tenor banjos aren't the type of banjo that is most common in folk, bluegrass or country. When tenor banjos were relatively popular for jazz, they started sort of creeping in here and there, but when Earl Scruggs became a pop culture icon, that basically ended, and people switched back to 5-string banjos (which are now even creeping into jazz!) Guitar banjos are also used sometimes.
However, if a tenor banjo strung for Irish tuning is what you've got (or even just what you'd like to play) it will certainly work just fine! For example, I don't know if Arthur Smith used Irish or jazz tuning, but I can tell you that he really did some good work with it:
youtube.com/watch?v=TmMk9tsCjsc
Knows Picker - Posted - 09/01/2021: 12:25:25
Should work just fine. Get out the old mandolin chord chart and give it a strum in the first position.
90% of that material consists of G,C, D, F and A with a few minors and 7ths for good measure.
The hardest chord is probably the F because you will have to reach over to the fifth fret on the bass string.
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