4-String Banjo tuner – Tenor Standard (CGDA)
C-G-D-A · Standard
Press “Start tuner” – the browser will ask for microphone access. Sound is analysed on this device and never uploaded.
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your 4-String Banjo is to Tenor Standard (CGDA) tuning (C-G-D-A). Play a string, watch the needle, and turn the peg until the meter glows green. If you prefer tuning by ear, tap any string card to hear its reference tone.
About Tenor Standard (CGDA) tuning
Tenor Standard (CGDA) is the reference tuning for the 4-String Banjo – the pitch the instrument normally ships at, and the starting point every other tuning on this page is measured from.
Played open, the strings sound C-G-D-A – from C3 at the bottom to A4 at the top, a span of 1 octave and 9 semitones. Step by step across the neck the intervals are a fifth, a fifth, a fifth, and that is what decides how chord shapes fall under the hand.
Tenor banjo standard tuning, CGDA, is the viola's tuning: all fifths. The four-string tenor came out of the dance bands of the 1910s and 20s, where it had to cut through a horn section with chords played on the beat.
Fifths tuning means wide stretches and no open-chord shortcuts, but it also means melodies lie in one place rather than crossing strings constantly – which is why the instrument crossed so easily into Irish traditional music.
History
4-String Banjo
Four-string banjos grew out of the ragtime and dance-band boom of the 1910s. The plectrum banjo is simply a five-string without the short drone string, played with a pick; the tenor banjo, with a shorter neck and a tuning in fifths borrowed from the mandola, followed around 1915 and quickly became the rhythm instrument of early jazz and the dance orchestras of the 1920s.
When the guitar took over the rhythm chair in the 1930s, the tenor banjo found a second life in Irish traditional music. Barney McKenna of the Dubliners, who tuned it an octave below the fiddle, made it a fixture of Irish sessions from the 1960s onward. Dixieland revival bands and players such as Eddie Peabody kept the plectrum banjo alive in America.
Where the Tenor Standard (CGDA) tuning comes from
C-G-D-A, the tenor banjo tuning, is borrowed from the mandola and viola. It emerged around 1915 with the tenor banjo itself, which became the rhythm instrument of jazz and dance bands in the 1920s.
Other 4-String Banjo tunings
Standard
Chords for this tuning
How do I tune my 4-String Banjo to Tenor Standard (CGDA)?
Allow microphone access, pluck a string, and the tuner will detect it automatically. The needle shows whether the string is flat or sharp – adjust until the reading is within ±5 cents (C-G-D-A).
Which notes are used in Tenor Standard (CGDA) tuning?
Tenor Standard (CGDA) tuning for 4-String Banjo uses the notes C-G-D-A, listed from the lowest string to the highest.
Can I tune without a microphone?
Yes. Every string card plays a reference tone – tap it and match your string to the sound by ear.