Easy / beginner's chords for tenor banjo tuned GDAE - Help !

[Hany Hayek]

I was afraid I would come to that.
The Irish songs / tunes (rigs / reels / waltz) available to play on a tenor banjo tuned GDAE are either rather simple, or difficult because of the finger stretch.
I have so far tried Lord of the dance, Irish rover rather simple
Fiddlers Gardens / The town I loved so well/ the fields of athenry, too slow for the tenor banjo, tried it on the violin was beautiful, also tremolo doesn't sound quite like on the mandolin (probably because of the single string).
Reels like maid behind the bar are ok, but I am still slow.
Are there any simple chord song / melodies available for a beginner.
Can't find any simple chord songs for Tenor Banjo tuned GDAE

[mando.player]

Search the forums for 3 note chords. That should turn up some helpful resources.

[mrmando]

Yes, many mandolin chords can also be played on the tenor banjo, although the stretch makes a few of them too difficult.

However, I don't recall hearing a tenor banjo used in Irish music for anything but melody or single-line accompaniment.

BTW, "Lord of the Dance" is not an Irish tune. It was composed by an American, Elder Joseph Brackett, in 1848 under the title "Simple Gifts." Sydney Carter, an Englishman, wrote the "Lord of the Dance" lyrics to the same tune in 1963.

[James Rankine]

Personally I don't find chords work well on the tenor banjo in Irish tuning. The strings are too floppy and don't ring very well. Works much better in CGDA tuning if chord accopaniment for songs was the main goal. You would need a new set of lighter gauge strings though. You could still play any fiddle/mandolin tunes using the same fingering/fret positions it just comes out in a diffrent key. Something to think about anyway.

[Hany Hayek]

Thanks Mr Mando.
Yes, everywhere it's written that it is mainly melody. However I saw several videos on you tube where tenor banjo tuned GDAE can be used for chord. The chords I found were very complicated to me given the length of the fret board and my hand's size.
That's why I was looking for easy chords. I did read about the 3 note chords system. I'll find it and see how it sounds.
I tried this afternoon a piece called "Johnny Cock thy beaver" posted previously in the "classical" section of the forums by Martin Jonas, it did sound beautiful on the tenor banjo.
I guess when I get used to fret board better, I'll stick only to melody.
I am rather glad to hear that the lord of the dance is not an Irish tune (I remember I read this in the wiki when looking for the meaning of the words).
So after all I can try several types of music on the instrument.

[jfonner]

I highly recommend the Tenor Guitar Chord Bible "A Fretted Friends Publication for Cabot Books." The book provides 2,880 chord diagrams - 3 versions of just about every chord imaginable in both Standard (CGDA) and Irish (GDAE) tunings plus slash chords. It's a British publication but I puchased my copy in the US from Amazon. I've always been able to find a chord version that works for my small hands and/or the song. Here's a current link to order a new copy from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...n=new&sr=&qid=

[mandroid]

re finger assigning the open string G,C,D, and adding a barre,

like, 2245, 2455, 4224..

have worked for me, as Movable chords . once you know which note is the chord 3rd
, then minors are obvious.

.. and span Few frets so, relatively closed fingerings ...