Sawmill Tuning Banjo Chord Chart

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 latest Beginner Clawhammer Book. You can find it here in my product store

or over on my Etsy page (if you wish to pay someway other than paypal), Cluck Ole Hen is in Sawmill tuning, TAB in the book.

Please consider signing up for my BANJO JOURNEY NEWSLETTER. I’ll let know when I post new articles, new TABS, and I also send out free banjo tips from time to time.

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Jody Written by:

Professional Musician of 27 years. I've played Banjo and Acoustic Guitar on the stages of Carnegie Hall, The Grand Ole Opry, and The Ryman Auditorium. I've also played in six different countries.