Get Ready
1Meet Your Friendly Banjo
Done ✓
Teaching tip for grown-ups
Say: “Let’s find each part on the real banjo. Where’s the drum? Where’s the neck? Can you touch the tuning pegs?”
The bridge: It isn’t glued down: the strings hold it in place. Make it a rule together: we don’t move the bridge, unless it’s to put it back on the pencil lines.
Be gentle with the bridge
- The bridge is the little wooden piece on the drum.
- It holds the strings up so they can ring when you strum.
- It isn’t glued down. The strings hold it in place, so don’t push it or slide it.
2Tune Up
Done ✓
Teaching tip for grown-ups
Who tunes: For young children, tuning is usually a grown-up’s job. Let your child know they can come to you for help tuning anytime. It’s one more chance to play banjo together!
How would you like to tune your banjo?
Either tuning works the same with all of our Play-By-Color tablatures, and you can switch anytime.
Are you a righty or a lefty?
This sets which way your banjo’s strings are tuned, and which hand does the fretting and which does the strumming. Usually the hand you write with is your dominant hand in music, too.
Lay the banjo flat on your lap
- Your left hand turns the tuning peg.
- Your right hand plucks the string.
Tip: Turn the peg while you keep plucking the string, and listen as the pitch changes. The tuner will tell you to go tighter or looser. You make sure it lands on the right note.
Are you ready? Let’s tune your banjo!
Tuning trouble? Common questions
The peg is too stiff to turn. On top of each tuning peg is a small screw. Loosen it a little with a Phillips head screwdriver.
A string keeps unwinding, or the peg slips. Tighten that small screw a little. A tighter screw also makes the peg harder for little hands to turn.
A string keeps going out of tune. That’s perfectly normal for a new banjo in its first few days. Keep tuning, and the string will stretch and hold its tune.
Not sure if your banjo is in G or A? Pick either one. The tuner will tell you which tuning it hears.
3Hold It
Done ✓
Teaching tip for grown-ups
The Belly Button Method: The drum sits right over your child’s belly button. Tell them the music comes out of the back of the banjo and goes straight into their belly button! If the banjo slides out of place, say: “Uh oh, the music is escaping your belly button!” It’s silly, but it works.
If they hold it wrong: Tell them the music is escaping! The music is for them.
Is that your final answer?
- Sit up tall on a chair or on the floor.
- Drum rests on your lap, standing up against your tummy, right in front of your belly button. The strings face out.
- Neck points out to the side, a little higher than the drum: to the left for righties, to the right for lefties.
4Strum Your Banjo
Done ✓
Teaching tip for grown-ups
Start off the banjo: Have your child hold the palm of their non-strumming hand out like a little platform, then brush the fly off it with their strumming hand.
Ask: “Can you feel your fingernails on your palm when you brush off the fly?” Try it gentle, then rough. The right strum is in between: just enough to feel their fingernails.
Try it on your hand first
- Hold one hand out flat, like a little platform.
- Pretend a fly landed on it.
- Brush it off with the fingernails of your other hand. Feel your nails brush across your palm? That’s how you strum your banjo!
Now grab your banjo
- Hold the drum in front of your belly button.
- Hold the neck gently, fingers off the strings.
- Make a soft claw and brush your fingernails down across all three strings, right over the drum, just like you did on your hand.
Not too soft, not too hard: just enough to feel your fingernails on the strings.
Shoo the flies!
When the game starts, ten flies land on your banjo. Every time you strum your banjo, one buzzes away.
Turn on the microphone so the game can hear your banjo. No microphone? Strum your banjo, then tap the button or swipe down on the picture.
Level 1 complete! 🎉
You can tune your banjo, hold it, and strum it. Next, you’ll learn to read the tabs that turn those strums into songs.
Go to Level 2: Meet the Tablature →