Play Along (Jam)
Real tunes flow at you in time — play each note as it lands. Mic-scored.
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Atlas · An Illustrated Method
The Five-String Banjo in open G
The five-string banjo, drawn to a true 26″ neck against an 11″ rim. The short fifth string breaks at the fifth fret to sound its open g drone — the shimmer that defines the instrument. Tuned to open G (gDGBD), it plays a full chord with every string ringing free.
start here · the guided path
Never picked a banjo? Start at the open strings.
A step-by-step course: meet the drone, learn the rolls, find the first chords, and play your first tune. Each lesson teaches one idea, asks you to prove it, then opens the next — progress saved.
the practice rooms
Four ways to get good.
The rolls in your right hand, the chords under your left, real tunes to play, and the whole fingerboard mapped. Drill any of them freely.
Rolls
The five essential right-hand rolls — watch, hear, and set the tempo.
Enter →Chords
Open-G shapes and movable voicings, with finger and degree colours.
Enter →Tunes & Scales
Melodies and scales with notation and the neck lit up as it plays.
Enter →The Map
Every chord and scale across the neck — the whole fingerboard, seen.
Enter →Chords & Intervals (ear study)
Train your ear — hear, name and play every interval and chord quality.
Enter →Watch real lessons
Hand-picked beginner videos from great pickers, tied to the path.
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the method library
In the lineage of the masters.
Built on the foundations of the players who defined the five-string — the drive of Earl Scruggs, the melodic banjo of Bill Keith, the clawhammer tradition, and the standards every picker learns first.
- 01Earl Scruggs · Scruggs-style rolls
- 02Pete Seeger · How to Play the 5-String Banjo
- 03Bill Keith · Melodic / chromatic style
- 04Clawhammer · Old-time frailing
- 05Cripple Creek · The first-tune tradition
- 06Foggy Mtn. · Breakdown & the bluegrass roll