Three simple banjo chord shapes on the banjo unlock the majority of bluegrass songs. They also allow you to play all major chords up and down the banjo neck. It really is quite amazing given that it only requires these three shapes. You will be able to play ALL MAJOR chords on the banjo. Including flats and sharps (not that you'll need those to play the vast majority of bluegrass songs on the banjo). 

I've been compiling a list of Bluegrass songs and marking which use minor chords. I'm not done, so I don't know the percentage of bluegrass songs that only use major chords, but I'd guess it to be over 75%. 

I'd also guess that over 75% of country songs only use major chords. So with these three banjo chord shapes, you'll be able to play hundreds of songs on the banjo.

In our intermediate skills course, you'll see how to group these shapes to quickly play a song in multiple positions on the neck, giving your chords different voicings and helping you start to sound like an advanced banjo player. Let's dive in!

The banjo chord shapes are:

The Bar Shape

The bar shape is played by fretting all four strings on a single fret (typically with one finger like a bar spreading across all four strings). The first chord the bar shape is typically used to play is the A chord on the 2nd fret. 

Slide the bar shape up two frets to the fourth fret, and you have a B chord on the banjo. Slide it one more fret up to the fifth fre,t and you have a C chord on the banjo.

The banjo is tuned to "open G" which means when you strum the four strings without fretting any string, you have a G chord. This is because the nut (the end of the fretboard up near the tuning pegs) acts as a bar chord. Then, as you fret all four strings with one finger (like a bar) it resembles the nut. So in a way, the first bar shape is open G. But since you are not fretting, technically, the first bar shape most commonly used on the banjo is the A on the 2nd fret. 

Before we move on to the other two shapes you should know this (or watch the video as it's much easier to understand):

In the G scale (remember the banjo is tuned to open G) you move the bar chord up the following number of frets between each chord

Open G - two frets up to bar the 2nd fret = A

Then two frets up to the 4th fret = B

Then one fret up to the 5th fret = C

Then two frets up to the 7th fret = D

Then two frets up to the 9th fret = E

Then ONE fret up to 10th fret = F

Then two frets up to the 12th fret = G...and we've gone full circle from G to G.

So the pattern of how many frets up you move is two frets between all chords except from B->C and from E->F.

If you are interested in music theory two frets equals a whole step and one fret equals a half step on the banjo when you're sliding these chord shapes up and down.

Again, the pattern would look like G (2) A (2) B (1) C (2) D (2) E (1) F (2) G. The numbers in that pattern equal the number of frets you move the shape up.

That is true of the following two shapes as well. Again, with these three shapes you unlock the majority of bluegrass songs on the banjo.

The F Shape

The F shape is created by fretting the first string on the 3rd fret (with your pinky), the 2nd string on the first fret (with your index finger), the 3rd string on the 2nd fret (with your middle finger) and the fourth string on the 3rd fret (with your ring finger). Watch the video for a visual explanation. 

This is called the F shape because the first instance it appears is as an F chord, which you can see above. But...as we saw from the pattern described above...you can slide this shape up two frets and it becomes a G chord. The F-shaped G is how we would refer to that. Slide it up two more frets, and you now have an F-shaped A chord and so on, according to the pattern we spelled out earlier.

This takes you to the third shape...

The D Shape

This shape works exactly as the F shape, except you reverse the pointer and middle finger, and you start on the 2nd fret instead of the first. Thus the F shape is created by fretting the first string on the 4rd fret (with your pinky), the 2nd string on the 3rd fret (with your middle finger), the 3rd string on the 2nd fret (with your index finger) and the fourth string on the 4th fret (with your ring finger). Watch the video for a visual explanation.

Similar to the other two shapes, you can slide this D shape up the corresponding frets to create other chords. So the D shape starts on the 2nd fret as a D chord. Slide it up two frets, and it is a D-shaped E chord. Slide it up one fret and it's a D-shaped F chord. Slide it up two frets from there, and it's a D-shaped G chord, and so on.

So you can see that each shape can play every major chord (including the sharps and flats of those chords). 

In text form, this concept might seem tricky, but if you watch the video, you will see that these three shapes are incredibly simple and unlock all major chords on the banjo and thus unlock the majority of bluegrass, country, and many pop songs. 

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