Agentdooper - Posted - 10/19/2011:  12:58:41

My brother and I were talking and the question came up: "Can tenor banjo be tuned like a Uke?". It seems to us that all you would have to do is switch the C and the G strings and tune the D string a note higher. Would this actually be doable though? or would I just get strange looks from other Banjo players?

Fathand - Posted - 10/19/2011:  13:02:07

A Plectrum Banjo can be tuned like a Uke, they call it Chicago Tuning, DGBE. Everything will be a 5th higher, Your Uke C Chord becomes a G Chord etc.

tdennis - Posted - 10/19/2011:  13:21:30

By tuning a tenor like a uke do you mean the same pitch as a uke, or do you mean uke style tuning ( i.e. tuning the 4th string up an octave) ?   I have several tenor banjos set up in tenor pitch,  w/ a 4th string tuned up an octave. (I just replace the 4th string w/ an appropriate gauge).   I think you will find that by just switching 3rd & 4th strings, that your new  G note will be  difficult to attain w/  the gauge of the  C string.   I really enjoy this tuning, because it allows me to use songs I've composed on the uke ,   to transfer to my banjo.   The recumbent  tuning seems to make easy jazz chords,  fingerpicking, & gives a unique voice.   ( there is some sacrifice, though,  The sound is a bit thin, w/  the loss of bass). 

Edited by - tdennis on 10/19/2011 13:35:53

mike gregory - Posted - 10/19/2011:  17:12:38

Kid, it's YOUR banjo.

String it, tune it, play it, any way you want.

Jim Yates - Posted - 10/19/2011:  19:53:06

I have a short neck Tango banjo that I tune gCEA with nylgut strings and play like a uke.  Love it.

Edited by - Jim Yates on 10/19/2011 19:54:20

mike gregory - Posted - 10/20/2011:  14:55:02

And while we're on the subject:

WHY is the song that ukers tune to

"My Dog Has Fleas"???

Only two of those letters are musical notes, and, unless you're tuning A D F# B, only one of those notes lands on the string you're tuning.

G C E A  lends itself nicely to

.

.

Grab Crazy Elephant Ass

And it's just as easy to sing.

alfiedog - Posted - 10/20/2011:  15:31:01

I Strum my Tenor Tuned DGBD and use standard 5 String Chords. Its called Chicargo Tuning (i think) It Sounds Great !

tdennis - Posted - 10/20/2011:  16:26:04

"Chicago" tuning is tuning the strings like the last four strings on a guitar, DGBE.  It is commonly used on plectrum banjos, but is also nice on the tenor. 

alfiedog - Posted - 10/20/2011:  16:28:54

Yep, you are Dead right Dennis. I play a Guitar as well as a Banjo, so i try to stick with the same Tunings.

Jim Yates - Posted - 10/20/2011:  21:05:38

Chicago tuning is actually the first four strings of the guitar.

Dick Parker - Posted - 10/21/2011:  09:25:40

I refer to them as the first four, too, or the top four, but have been in conversations where someone speaking of those same strings calls 'em the last four. In any case, I play Chicago tuning mainly because I didn't know any better when I started 50 years ago; I'd been playing uke and then got a $10 guitar in a pawn shop, then bought a banjo. I'd had experience at failure in musical education -- piano lessons and trombone in band -- and figured I had a learning disability or was too much of a maverick to learn the "right" way when I discovered that banjos were tuned in a variety of other ways. Now I've got several tenors and a couple plectrums (plectra?) all tuned like Rahm Emanuel's baritone uke, although I may yet try to learn the respective prevailing tunings, but I feel lucky to be able to play them. A plug for my sound-file postings here: If you want to hear me playing in Chicago tuning, just click on my name. (The picture shows my now-33-year-old daughter on my lap as I played in Chicago tuning in 1981 on the B&D Super I got for $50 in 1962.)

Edited by - Dick Parker on 10/21/2011 09:27:30

tdennis - Posted - 10/21/2011:  10:32:37

Dick,  Thanks for uploading that history of your music going back to 1963 (The Strickly People).   (BTW, Chicago tuning is the first 4 strings on the guitar, I must have been thinking of the "last" 4 to be strummed.)  .