Traditional Banjo Tunings 1 

......................... Relative | Clifton Standard g,D,G,B,D | f,C,F,A,C Moonshiner g,D,G,A,D | f,C,F,G,C German War f#,D,G,A,D | e,C,F,G,C Ruben f#,D,F#,A,D | e,C,E,G,C F Tuning f,D,G,C,D | d#,C,A,Bb,C East Virginia f,F,G,C,D | d#,D#,A,Bb,C I'm not 100% on the last two. I'll have to play with it in the morning. Thanks Clifton. Edit: I added commas to remove the hash tags

The leader of an Irish session I used to sit in on sometimes would get exasperated with everyone and their electronic tuners, and would say, "Why don't ye use da ones on da sides o yer head?" ;-)

Moonshiner tuning: 1:11 German war tuning: 3:00 Rueben tuning: 4:29 F tuning: 5:47 East Virginia tuning: 8:33

Man you are a phenomenal player and singer and a great teacher. Thanks so much for doing this!

I appreciate you so much mr Hicks. You have done so much good with all your videos and working to document and pass this music on. It has been a blessing for me to stumble upon you. You have been just about my soul mentor so to speak in learning about the tradition the music and banjo history. I thank you 🙏 God bless

Opened up a new world of songs and music so glad I came across you channel . Keeping the old ways alive as I've always played in g. The f tuning is haunting sound each tuning bring the emotions of the time and place of yesterdays the songs that tell a story of my mountain heritage much thanks. 👏

If you are interested in the banjo and its history please consider supporting this project here: patreon.com/cliftonhicks

Ha! This is exactly how I tune my banjo! Unless I’m lazy and have to drastically retune the banjo... I also enjoy lowering the key a couple steps as you do.

This is great. I should really have sought this out earlier. When I first discovered your channel I played along with ya' and quite often I was having to use F chord shapes, but watching yer' hands it looked like the 'standard' fingering. Now I know why! Thanks for posting.

That's great! Thanks for being so generous in sharing!

Maybe it would be easier to refer to the string tunings in terms of scale degree so it wouldn't matter what pitch you're actually in. Where the first note of the scale is 1, the second note of the scale is 2, and so on 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (The key of G pitches would be G A B C D E F# G.) If you can sing a major scale you will always be able to tune to whatever tuning you want, no matter what 1, (the first scale degree) actually is. Standard tuning would be 1 5 1 3 5 Ruben would be 3 1 3 5 1 Moonshiner would be 1 5 1 2 5 German War would be 3 1 4 5 1 F Tuning would be 1 6 2 5 6 Est Virginia would be 1 1 2 5 6

Awesome lesson ! Thanks

I would love to know what thr major chords for each of these tunings are so you could play out of them

I tune a half step lower, just my ear

I am having a hard time understanding, how do I get to f,C,F,A,C from g,D,G,B,D?

Awe sucks...that was just damn great! It’s like watching a magician showing how he/she does slight of hand. I’m still a little baffled by the names of the tones that you use but give me the sound nice and slow, I can tune it and remember by my meter, for now. Love the George Gibson stories and Knott (sp?) County stories.

Leroy Troy plays Ghost Chickens in the Sky in the key of C minor what would be the best way to get there?

How do you make other chords in f please

Hello, Clifton! I hope you are doing well. I have a question about F,C,F,A,C standard tuning vrs. G,D,G,B,D standard tuning...are the chords the same for both? Thank you! Have a great day!

What is A Minor tuning?

👍🏽👍🏽