Banjo Books

Alan Munde is one of the finest players to ever pick up the five string banjo. From his early days with Jimmy Martin through his tenure with Country Gazette, Alan has continually expanded the breadth of his vision.

Thirty-three gospel favorites written in tablature for G-tuning banjo. Each song has a melody tab and an accompaniment tab.

Counterpoint is a collection of banjo duets, where Miles has taken traditional melodies and created a second banjo part in counterpoint harmony. Counterpoint harmony (vs parallel harmony) has a rhythm and melody of its own, distinct from the main melody. The result is an exquisite sound that enriches these ancient melodies and breathes a revitalized life into them. When Pete Seeger heard it he said, "this is one of the most beautiful recordings I have heard in all my 70 years....it's enough to make me want to learn the banjo all over again."

Transcribed for banjo from the Rounder recording by The Highwoods String Band titled Feed Your Babies Onions.

This book presents more than 70 tunes in the unique highly developed clawhammer style known as "Round Peak" -named after the Blue Ridge Mountain, North Carolina community where it originated. While not intended for the absolute beginner, this book will benefit players at various experience levels.

With the Three-Chord Christmas Songbook you will need only minimal playing skills and three chords–G, C, and D7–to accompany each song in this great book. The jam-packed book is invaluable for all beginning musicians, casual musicians, teachers, family bands, and performers. Melody, lyrics, and chords are included for all songs.

Pete Seeger. The basic manual for banjo players, with melody line, lyrics and banjo accompaniment and solos notated in standard form and tablature.

The Strum Together series enables players of five different instruments – or any combination of them – to “strum together” on dozens of great songs.

This new, easy-to-use format features melody, lyrics, and chord diagrams for five popular folk instruments: standard Ukulele, baritone Ukulele, Guitar, Mandolin, and Banjo.

Learn from the best. Grandpa Jones was a country music legend and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was very well known and respected for his own style of clawhammer banjo.

Alan Munde has long been a major artist in the 5-string banjo world.

Well-known composer, performer, bluegrass and five-string banjo specialist Janet Davis has arranged this fantastic book of Christmas songs for five-string banjo. Selections include material for various levels of ability and offer wide variety of songs for the holiday season. Tablature only with lyrics for each song. The companion Online Audio is included. This is a stereo recording which contains all the music in the book, played slow and up-to-speed. The fast version includes guitar accompaniment.

Ragtime music has a character all its own. While it lends itself ideally to a variety of settings and moods, it always maintains its unique joyful feeling. The banjo is an instrument ideally suited for ragtime. The bright crisp banjo sound truly adds a new dimension to the ragtime feeling.

This beginner's text for the four-string tenor banjo shows tuning, basic chords, and songs to sing and strum. This title is available as a book alone or as a set with its companion Online Audio. Written in standard tenor banjo tuning (CGDA) in standard notation only with chord symbols and lyrics. Tuned for Mandola

This chart shows essential chords and secondary minor chord relationships in all 12 keys for the tenor banjo in C-G-D-A tuning.

Ready to take your Banjo playing up a notch? Renowned teacher Fred Sokolow presents valuable how-to insight from which Banjo players of all styles and levels can benefit.

The text, photos, music, diagrams and accompanying CD provide a terrific, easy-to-use resource for a variety of topics, including techniques, ear training, performance, and much more.

Many folk banjoists draw influence from greats such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, The Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and many others. These folk musicians travelled the country singing the folk songs that many of us now know, some of which are still played in jam sessions. First Lessons Folk Banjo is a great introduction to learning these types of folk songs on this wonderful instrument. Included are lessons on singing and playing backup with the banjo, strumming and picking exercises, and many classic folk songs. The music is written in tablature. Includes access to online audio.

Fred Sokolow takes you from the beginning and shows you, basic strums, useful chords, how to finger correctly, how to read tablature and much more. Also features various styles of banjo playing. Clear diagrams and superb photographs back up the easy to follow explanations. Twenty eight famous folk songs are also included for your enjoyment and a useful discography.

C,G,D,A Tuning ...A very comprehensive collection of chord forms in every key for tenor banjo. The most thorough tenor banjo chord book available.

The definitive text on playing harmonics (chimes) on the 5-string banjo in G tuning! In addition to traditional chiming methods, the author’s new T3N technique for creating banjo harmonics will add new dimensions to your playing. While particularly useful in the three-finger style, T3N can be used in other banjo styles and on other stringed instruments.

This insightful book is about sound perception and execution on the banjo. Its purpose is to shed light on simple aural connections unique to this instrument, including closed-position as well as open-string fingerings found throughout the entire fretboard. In notation and tablature.

After the Civil War, the “up picking” finger style of playing the 5-string banjo came into vogue – eventually finding its way into the Victorian parlor and, later, college glee and music clubs. The original down picking style didn't entirely die out, because throughout the reaminder of the 19th Century, new methods for the banjo often included a number of songs in the older two-finger banjo style of performance. Perhaps the most intricate set of songs to appear in the “original” banjo style were these 34 progressive pieces found in Frank B. Converse's Analytical Banjo Method from 1887. Those songs, presented in this book for clawhammer banjo, offer a nice mix of banjo characteristic pieces, medleys and new compositions from Converse.

Authored by Mac Robertson, Robbie Clement & Will Schmid, this innovative method teaches 5-string, bluegrass style. The method consists of two instruction books and two cross-referenced supplement books that offer the beginner a carefully-paced and interest-keeping approach to the bluegrass style. Covers easy chord strums for the beginner; learning tablature; right-hand rolls characteristic of bluegrass; techniques such as hammer-on, slide and pull-off. The book includes access to audio tracks and video tutorials for download and streaming.

Here is the Lost Heritage of the Irish-American Banjo!

The Irish-style Tenor banjo has become immensely popular of late, yet the roots of Irish influence on American banjo music extends right back to the 1840s, when the legendary Joel Sweeney picked up a gourd banjo from Black American banjo players, and proceeded to perform 'jigs, reels and breakdowns'. Other Irish-Americans played a leading role in the development and popularity of the banjo in America, and Rob MacKillop has collected 27 of their finest pieces in this collection, the first of its kind

Many musicians, including some that are technically quite advanced, never break away from the printed page to learn by simply listening and re-creating. The common name for this process is "playing by ear". With some basic guidelines, any musician with rudimentary skills can teach himself or herself to play by ear, adding a new dimension to their playing skills.