Tablatures for 5-string banjo
Welcome to banjo-tabs.com, a website offering quality tablatures for 5-string banjo bluegrass style in Tabledit format. For my background as a banjo player/composer/transcriber, see my biographical notes.Banjo tabs are a great way of getting to know and analyzing somebody else's playing style, and getting inspiration from it. Remember, though, not to be a tab slave, that is, feel free to modify any tab to suit your personal anatomy / musical preference. However, all premium tabs on this site are protected by copyright. In case you do modify a FREE tab and redistribute it, please ADD your name to the credits in the tablature's 'notes' field.
All the banjo tabs...
... on this site can be acoustically reviewed before downloading / ordering. Here, you don't buy the cat in the bag. All my 5-string banjo tabs are written for 3-finger picking, mostly in Scruggs style; however, styles may vary and often comprise passages in melodic style. My own arrangements usually contain more than one break, and many of them contain/are an up-the-neck break.Bluegrass banjo tablatures learning tips
If you are a beginner banjo player, I recommend that you start a new song or tune by learning to play the bare melody first, rhythmically on time. For that purpose, you can switch off the banjo track in your Tabledit viewer and play along the rhythm track. Generally, you will find the melody notes in the first position (possibly the 5th as well) in every measure, but since syncopation (that is, shifted melody notes) is so frequent in bluegrass banjo, that rule applies only very loosely. As step #2, add the chords or left-hand fingering as provided by the tab, but still just play the melody. The third step would be adding complete rolls. At that stage you may want to try to play the whole tablature through once or twice to get an idea of what's ahead, but for learning the tab I recommend that you proceed measure by measure, learning each measure by heart and adding it to what you've already memorized, and possibly making mental notes as you go regarding the type of roll, and/or the chord shapes as they change.I hope that...
... you find here what you are looking for. I am offering two types of bluegrass banjo tabs: Free and Premium. Premium tablatures are available at USD 4.00 or USD 5.00 per tab (A few are USD 3.00). Payments are made through PayPal. On finishing the payment you will instantly receive an email with a download link to the purchased tablature. Free banjo tablatures can be downloaded by clicking the Download button.This is the list of banjo tablatures currently available on the tablatures page (to be extended in the coming days/weeks/months):
All the good times are past and gone (w. variations)
Alternating index roll
Alternating thumb roll
Angeline the baker
Arkansas traveler (D - gDGBD tuning)
Ashes of love
Ashokan farewell
Auld lang syne (Bill Keith)
Auld lang syne (up-the-neck)
Back up and push (C capo 5)
Back up and push (C no capo)
Backup patterns 1
Backup patterns 2
Backward roll
Ballad of Jed Clampett
Banjo in the hollow
Banjo signal (Bela Fleck)
Banks of the Ohio (up-the-neck)
Basic backward roll
Basic forward roll
Battle of New Orleans / Eighth of January (twin banjos)
Beaumont rag
Bells of St. Mary
Bill Cheatham
Birth of the blues
Black Mtn. rag
Blackberry blossom
Blue days black nights (Bela Fleck)
Blue moon of Kentucky
Blue tail fly
Bluegrass breakdown
Blueridge Mountain girl (C)
Boil that cabbage down
Boston boy (Bill Keith)
Buffalo gals (C)
Buffalo gals (D)
Buffalo gals (G)
Bury me beneath the willow
Careless love
Cattle in the cane (Jimmy Arnold)
Charmaine
Cherokee shuffle
Chilly winds
Clinch mountain backstep
Coal creek march
Cotton fields
Cripple creek
Cripple creek (up-the-neck)
Cumberland gap
Darcy farrow (Alan Munde)
Dark hollow (D)
Deputy Dalton (Alan Munde)
Devil's dream
Dixie
Dixie breakdown
Dixie hoedown
Doc Harris' hornpipe (Jimmy Arnold)
Dooley
Doug's tune
Eight more miles to Louisville
Eighth of January / Battle of New Orleans (G, twin banjos)
El cumbanchero (D - gCGBD capo 2)
Endings (melodic style)
Fiddler's dream (Bela Fleck)
Fireball
Flop eared mule
Freight train
Gentle on my mind
Going back to old Kentucky
Golden slippers (imitation of twin banjos)
Goldrush
Grandfather's clock
Grassy fiddle blues
Groundhog
Home sweet home (Don Reno)
Hot Corn Cold Corn
I dream of Jeannie theme
I wonder where you are tonight (F & G)
I'll be there
Irish washerwoman
Is the grass any bluer
Jackson's hornpipe
Jesse James (C)
Jesse James (G)
Jingle bells (G)
John Hardy
King of the road
Liberty (Doug Dillard)
Liberty (melodic style)
Little Maggie
Londonderry hornpipe (Jimmy Arnold)
Lonesome road blues
Man of constant sorrow (F, aDGBD capo 3)
Man of constant sorrow (F, fDGBD)
Matterhorn
Molly
Mrs. Robinson (Eddie Adcock)
My little home in West Virginia (Bill Emerson)
Nine-pound hammer
Oh Susanna (C)
Oh Susanna (G)
Oh when the saints
Old Joe Clark
Old Joe Clark (melodic style)
Old love affair
Old train
Out to lunch
Panhandle rag (C)
Pig in a pen
Pinches
Pizzicato polka
Pull-offs
Ragtime Annie
Rainbow ride (Jimmy Arnold)
Red River valley
Red wing
Roanoke (twin banjos)
Rock around the clock
Rollin' in my sweet baby's arms
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Salty dog blues
Salty dog blues (Bill Keith)
San Antonio rose (G)
Shady grove (Am)
Shady grove (Em)
She'll be coming 'round the mountain
Silver Bell
Skip to my Lou (C)
Skip to my Lou (G)
Soldier's joy
Spinning wheel (C)
Spinning wheel (G)
Streets of Laredo
Sunday morning on the lake (Jens Kruger)
Sweet thing (Alison Brown)
Texas barbeque (Bela Fleck)
The grey ghost
This land is your land
Tico tico
Tommy Jarrell (Jimmy Arnold)
Turkey knob
Wabash cannonball
Washington & Lee swing
Wheels
Whiskey before breakfast (D)
Will the circle be unbroken (D)
Will the circle be unbroken (G)
Wooden heart
Worried man blues
Wreck of the old 97
Yakety sax
Yankee doodle (C)
Yellow rose of Texas
You are my sunshine
I hope you'll have fun with these banjo tabs! Please report bugs to me at hans.holzherr[at]bluewin.ch