5-String Banjo tuner – Standard / Open G (gDGBD)
G-D-G-B-D · Open
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 5-String Banjo is to Standard / Open G (gDGBD) tuning (G-D-G-B-D). 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 Standard / Open G (gDGBD) tuning
Standard / Open G (gDGBD) is the reference tuning for the 5-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 G-D-G-B-D – from D3 at the bottom to G4 at the top, a span of 1 octave and 5 semitones.
Standard / Open G (gDGBD) is re-entrant: the strings do not rise steadily in pitch, so the string nearest your thumb is not the lowest note available. That is deliberate, and it is a large part of why the instrument sounds the way it does.
Strummed open, with nothing fretted, the strings spell G. That is what makes a tuning like this useful for slide playing and drones – a full chord is one straight barre away at any fret. See G shapes in this tuning →
Open G – gDGBD – is the standard tuning of the five-string banjo, and the short fifth string is what makes the instrument what it is. That string runs only from the fifth fret, is tuned higher than three of the others, and is almost never fretted: it is a drone, sounded by the thumb on nearly every beat.
This is the tuning of bluegrass. Earl Scruggs' three-finger rolls are built around the drone staying constant while the other fingers move, and the open G chord means a roll over open strings is already music.
History
5-String Banjo
The banjo descends from West African gourd lutes such as the akonting and the ngoni, rebuilt in the Caribbean and North America by enslaved Africans; descriptions of the “banza” and “banjar” go back to the 17th and 18th centuries. The short fifth string that sits halfway up the neck and plays a high drone already appears on early gourd banjos. The old story that the minstrel performer Joel Walker Sweeney (1810–1860) invented it is not supported by historians, though Sweeney did do much to popularise the instrument.
Through the minstrel shows the banjo reached white America; by the 1880s it had frets, metal tension hoops and a parlour repertoire. In the Appalachians it kept its clawhammer style, and in December 1945 Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys and introduced the rolling three-finger style that made the five-string the defining sound of bluegrass.
Where the Standard / Open G (gDGBD) tuning comes from
Open G (gDGBD) has been the standard five-string banjo tuning since the early 20th century. In 19th-century banjo methods the usual tuning was lower, often called “C tuning” (gCGBD), but G gradually displaced it. Earl Scruggs's bluegrass playing from 1945 made open G inseparable from the sound of the instrument.
Other 5-String Banjo tunings
Chords for this tuning
How do I tune my 5-String Banjo to Standard / Open G (gDGBD)?
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 (G-D-G-B-D).
Which notes are used in Standard / Open G (gDGBD) tuning?
Standard / Open G (gDGBD) tuning for 5-String Banjo uses the notes G-D-G-B-D, 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.