5 String Banjo Music & Song Books

If you're new to the 5-string Banjo, you're probably eager to learn some songs. This book provides easy-to-read Banjo tab, chord symbols and lyrics for the most popular songs beginning Banjo players like to play.

Players with years of experience will also discover tunes never before arranged for Banjo. Explore clawhammer and three-finger-style Banjo in a variety of tunings and capoings with this one-of-a-kind collection of master-crafted arrangements.

Duelling Banjos... Here is the much sought after 'deluxe edition' of banjo & guitar music score for 'Duelling Banjos' written in 'G' banjo music & Tab and guitar music and tab ... also has written guitar chords.

All it takes is the thumb and index finger! This book allows you to explore this traditional, often easier way of playing the banjo: the original two-finger style. It covers thumb lead, up-picking, frailing/clawhammer (stroke style), and drop-thumb variation techniques and is presented in various tunings with easy to read tablature plus accompanying chord symbols and diagrams with audio tracks online for download or streaming. Includes over 50 songs in the bluegrass, old-time, country, folk and gospel styles. Audio is accessed online using the unique code inside the book and can be streamed or downloaded. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right.

Traditional Appalachian banjo tunes in tablature. With tunings and all basic right and left hand techniques: drop-thumbing, the galax lick, pull-offs, slide and plucking. Includes Online-Audio.

Tony Trischka. A thorough survey of the three finger picking classics of the early 1900s, transitional styles of the 1930s and the Scruggs style of the 1940s and beyond. Includes over 75 bluegrass, old-time fiddle and classic tunes in tablature for 5-string banjo.

A collection of irish jogs in melodic style for the 5 string banjo by Ron Hughes

22 favorites from the fab four arranged for 5-string Banjo in notes and tab, including: All My Loving • Can't Buy Me Love • Come Together • Day Tripper • Eleanor Rigby • Here, There and Everywhere • I Want to Hold Your Hand • Let It Be • Michelle • Paperback Writer • Penny Lane • Something • While My Guitar Gently Weeps • Yellow Submarine • Yesterday and more.

Exact transcriptions of 21 tunes and breaks by one of the masters of bluegrass banjo.

A comprehensive repertoire book of fiddle tunes adapted for banjo, in easy to read tablature, by the renowned player and teacher of the 5-String Banjo, Tony Trischka. For the early picker to the advanced player, this book and its companion online audio will enable the player to learn by example and broaden their technical range.

Fiddle tunes have been adapted for Banjo since the early 1850's. The explorations contained here include a large collection of popular American fiddle tunes and a section of Celtic tunes played in the three major Bluegrass Banjo styles. These Bluegrass, Old Time and Celtic banjo traditions will expand the players' knowledge of the instrument, and deepen their understanding of bluegrass and traditional music.

Entertain your friends and fellow pub customers with this collection of rousing Irish folksongs for the Banjo. The pieces in this collection have been sung in pubs for generations but will also sound great when played in the comfort of your own home.

The arrangements in this 35-song collection include the vocal melodies, lyrics, chord diagrams and tabs for the 5-string Banjo. 3-finger picking annotations are also included below the tab. The arrangements can easily be adapted for plectrum use.

This book and online audio set is intended to be a tune repertoire book. It includes over 100 Old-Time festival favorites.

This comprehensive collection features over 100 note-for-note skillfully-crafted clawhammer banjo arrangements of old-time Southern fiddle tunes, in clear tablature - with suggested guitar chords at a wide variety of skill levels. It contains most of the tunes played in concert or recorded by author Ken Perlman and renowned Appalachian-style fiddler Alan Jabbour, plus over 50 more classic tunes from Ed Haley, Edden Hammons, John Salyer and many other iconic roots fiddlers. Also included: Instruction on basic and advanced techniques / Tips on improving your musicianship / How to play syncopated rhythms and melodies in clawhammer style / Frameworks for dealing with crooked tunes and modal tunes. Historical notes and picturesque backstories / Ken Perlman demonstrates all tunes and most musical illustrations on 124 online audio tracks *Online Audio Includes: 24 tracks featuring excerpts from recordings of the author performing with the virtuosic fiddler Alan Jabbour, to whom the book is dedicated.

Early American Banjo by Tim Twiss provides complete banjo tablature transcriptions of the instrumental solos that first appeared in standard notation in Buckley's Banjo Guide of 1868. This modern tablature edition of over 100 mid-19th century jigs, waltzes, polkas, hornpipes and reels provides insight to the transition between the African down-stroke technique, which preceded claw-hammer style and the newer, more refined plucking technique. James Buckley (1803 ' 1872), sometimes referred to as the 'Father of the Classical Banjo,  was one of the most prolific transcribers of early banjo music. His compositions and arrangements were performed on the minstrel stage, andhis scholarly discipline produced a lasting record of banjo music of his era. This repertoire collection includes easy tunes as well as more complex pieces suited for the concert stage. The player will delight in discovering how fresh and unusual some of this music sounds, even today 'all in modern banjo tab. While best experienced on a period reproduction, gut-string fretless banjo in a lower tuning, any 5-string banjo in C tuning (gCGBD) may be used to interpret this collection. Includes access to online audio.

The distinctive sound of the 5-string Banjo is most usually associated with folk, country and bluegrass music...but this instrument can sound at home in lots of popular genres.

In this book you’ll find a superb collection of 20 favourite songs, all specially arranged to show off the adaptability of the Banjo.

Ho Hey and Wagon Wheel are naturals but you’ll also enjoy just how well hits by Ed Sheeran, Adele and The Who sound in 5-string Banjo arrangements.

Whatever your favourites, you’ll find plenty here to help you play, sing and extend your repertoire.

The Banjo Playlist: Blue Book is a fantastic selection of over 30 classic songs to play and sing, specially arranger for the beginner banjo player. Contains classics from Jonny Cash, Woody Guthrie and Bill Monroe, with a handful of more recent hits from Amy McDonald, Paolo Nutini and The Proclaimers. Includes full lyrics, strumming patterns and banjo chord diagrams. Suitable for 5 string banjo.

The versions of the tabs presented here are neither overly simple nor particularly complex. Anyone with basic clawhammer skills should be able to play the tab as written or get close enough so they can create a satisfying version of each tune for themselves. Book with Online Audio Link.

This book presents 31 of the most-loved old-time gospel songs arranged in the three-finger style, complete with musical notation, banjo tablature, chords and lyrics.

50 Tunes Volume 1 for Banjo is one book in a 5-book series. The 50 Tunes series is a collection of Bluegrass, Old Time and Celtic tunes for ensembles, families and individuals.

This Book & CD pack provides the intermediate clawhammer (5-string) banjo player with a fresh repertoire of 21 traditional and 5 original tunes as played by the author with the Boiled Buzzards Old Time String Band. The book briefly addresses clawhammer basics with a few pages of exercises and scales before presenting the tunes.

With its wealth of information on how technique can be tastefully applied, Back-Up Banjo is the definitive book on the subject of banjo accompaniment.

Alan Munde is one of the finest players to ever pick up the five string banjo. From his early days with Jimmy Martin through his tenure with Country Gazette, Alan has continually expanded the breadth of his vision.

A massive collection of transcriptions representing the history of three-finger style five-string banjo playing up to the style’s culmination with Earl Scruggs coming on the scene. This is a one-of-a-kind resource containing 49 transcriptions beginning with some of the style’s earliest forms up through those that approach the fully developed Scruggs style. These solos, written in easy-to-read tablature, are also a great source of beginner to intermediate level arrangements that players will want to learn. Players will gain a deeper understanding of the structure as well as the significance of the Scruggs Style of banjo playing.

Wade Ward - Clawhammer Banjo Master is a collection of clawhammer banjo tablature as played by Wade Ward, with modern interpretations by Bob Carlin and Dan Levenson. This book is the second in a series of transcriptions of tunes from the old masters--in this case, Wade Ward--who gave definition to our style of old time clawhammer banjo playing. The repertoire, presented in tablature, is intended to be a starting point for your journey through the old time music world. As such, each piece is presented in multiple arrangements, both on the page and on the accompanying online audio. The recordings are for the most part played at a learning tempo and are close to the written notation, but not exact in all cases.

Art Rosenbaum is one of America's foremost performers and teachers of traditional five-string Banjo playing. He has a long-time interest in the myriad of old-time tunings that give breadth and richness to mountain and old-time Banjo picking, and has learned first-hand from old-timers in the South and Midwest.