Sawmill Tuning Banjo Chord Chart

ByJody

One of the most popular tunings for old time banjo is sawmill tuning. This is where you raise the 2nd string up to C instead of B.

g D G C D

The problem with this is if you want to play chords, all of your chords now look different. You’ll need to adjust the fingerings by one fret on the 2nd string to play your usual chords.

I’m going to make this easier for you, so you don’t have to sit and calculate all of your new chord shapes. This is, of course, not all of them; however, I chose the ones I thought you would want to use the most as sawmill tuning is typically for limited amounts of modal type tunes.

Here are a list of some common chords in sawmill tuning:

Chord Chart for Sawmill Tuning

banjo chord chart with C and F major in sawmill tuning
banjo chord chart with G7 and D7 major in sawmill tuning
banjo chord chart with Cm and Fmin sawmill tuning
banjo chord chart with Bb and D min sawmill tuning
banjo chord chart with Am and D major in sawmill tuning
banjo chord chart with E7 and A major in sawmill tuning
Em7 chord chart for banjo in sawmill tuning

Check out my Beginner Clawhammer Songbook, you can find it over on my Etsy page. Cluck Ole Hen is in Sawmill tuning, the TAB is in the book.

clawhammer banjo songbook

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Need some good clawhammer banjo strings?  I’m using these Ernie Ball frailing strings on my Romero open back.  Slightly heavier, stay in tune, and sound great.  Click on the picture to purchase from Amazon (I’m an Amazon affiliate and earn a commission on anything purchased via this link).

Ernie ball frailing banjo string package
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Professional musician and educator of 27 years. I've played Banjo and Acoustic Guitar on the stages of Carnegie Hall, The Grand Ole Opry, and The Ryman Auditorium. 4X winner of the Georgia State banjo and flatpick guitar competitions. My banjo playing was featured in the "A Waltons Thanksgiving" movie.

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