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Schweiz (Deutsch)experienced guitarists/banjoists! need advice within....
experienced guitarists/banjoists! need advice within....
Posted: Monday, August 24, 2009 - 00:45
as some of you may know, i recently purchased a banjo. i have almost no musical background, but i to know how to read tabs and whatnot.
my question is, can i somehow use guitar tabs to learn a particular song on banjo?
like this one.... http://home.roadrunner.com/~the4edwards/Avett%20Brothers/Four%20Theives%...
where would the capo be on a banjo? how do i know which strings to move some of the notes to? are there charts or anything to explain this?
i apologize if this question is super vague. i would gladly appreciate even a link to a site that could help me convert them or learn how to.
thanks in advance. 
Replies for this Board Topic
go to www.musicmoose.org. It should be very helpful!
If you're trying to learn the banjo, attempting to transcribe from guitar tabs is not the route to go. I would browse the net for banjo specific tabs. There's also a free download of TablEdit out there, which is very helpful for newbies learning the banjo. A lot of the banjo tabs are in that format anyway. I will say that if you just want to strum the chords, then there are alot of Avett chord/lyric pages out there which would work. Just get a banjo chord chart to figure out the fingerings and strum away.
i would try to learn songs by ear. its frustrating and overwhelming at first, but once you get it down, it's a lot of fun and can really open some songs to you.
I think that if you are at least shown the way early (in the form of tabs and chords) it will help develop your ear. I would argue that the next step would be figuring some songs out by ear. Some form of documented notes will also give you a feeling of how complex a song is. In the guitar equivalent, you would learn some power chords before trying to jump in and play a Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jimi Hendrix solo.
My first double post.
Are you trying to learn a style, like clawhammer or the Scrugg's roll?
I recommend starting to learn how to play bum ditty for the clawhammer style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWaW4C5z_Ek
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"The words you wish your head didn't say are the ones their heart will hold onto the longest." -- Bill Mallonee
remember that you have three strings tuned like a guitar already. Your top D string. Your G string and Your B string. The same exact tuning as on guitar where you have e-a-D-G-B-e. to make things easier for transitioning guitar tab you might consider looking at your bottom D string (the thin one), as a guitar E string (again the bottom thin one) tuned two frets down. Making any guitar tab for that string actually two frets up. (Quite obviously for instance, your 8th high e string tab on guitar would need to be moved up to the 10th fret to hit the same note on banjo)
At first i would have to agree with the above posts. Try to play by ear. And really learn the banjo chords and picking really well. Cover your basics. Start out with songs like