Standard Tuning for 5-String Banjo

Open G (5-String) runs G4, D3, G3, B3, D4, in playing order. The lowest-pitched string is D3 (146.83 Hz) and the highest is G4 (392.00 Hz), measured against A4 = 440 Hz. Those are the exact target frequencies the tuner on this page listens for.

Nothing to change — this is the reference tuning for Banjo. If your instrument is already in tune, you're there.

Open G, so the strings ring a G major chord untouched. The fifth string is the short drone that starts at the fifth fret and is pitched above its neighbours — the reason banjo tab is written the way it is and why rolls sound the way they do.

D3 is 146.83 Hz at concert pitch (A4 = 440 Hz). That's the fundamental — the string also produces harmonics above it, which is why a tuner reading the wrong octave usually means it locked onto a harmonic rather than the fundamental. This is the lowest string in this banjo tuning.

The strings ring an open G major, and the fifth string is the anomaly that shapes everything about the instrument. It starts at the fifth fret rather than the nut and is pitched higher than its immediate neighbours, so it functions as a fixed drone rather than a bass string. Rolls — the repeating right-hand patterns that define bluegrass banjo — exist because that drone recurs naturally within any sequence of adjacent strings. Tablature lists it first by convention despite it being the highest sounding open string, which is a persistent source of confusion for players arriving from guitar.

The listed order is fifth string first. It is a high G despite being the string closest to your thumb.