Irish Banjo: Irish banjo technique: Accompaniment: Chord convertion table

Chord convertion table

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This particular page was created 09/12/2003 and last updated 28/08/2004

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If you play both a CGDA tuned (tenor banjo, mandola etc.) and a GDAE tuned (Irish tenor banjo, mandolin etc.) instrument, you probably know that the chord shapes are the same, but for different chords.
A C major chord on a standard tuned tenor banjo is played exactly the same way as a G major chord on an Irish tuned banjo, a G major chord is played on the standard tuning exactly the same way as you would play a D major in Irish tuning, and so on.

If you play instruments in both tunings, this table might be useful to you:

GDAE tuning

CGDA tuning

Just in case you wondered: this table applies to all chords, minor chords, 7th chords and so on, not just to major chords. It even applies to scales.

So which instruments are GDAE tuned and which are CGDA tuned? Here are the most common ones:

GDAE tuned instruments

Octave mandolin/octave mandola

Tenor guitar (low tuning)

Mandolin-banjo/banjolin

Tenor banjo (Irish tuning)

CGDA tuned instruments

Tenor guitar (standard tuning)

Tenor banjo (standard tuning)

Playing with a capo

We can use the same principles for finding chords when we play with a capo:

Capo on fret: