Tenor Banjo Tabs
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Pop And Rock Mandolin And Banjo Sheet Music Tabs

​Why Are There Pop, Country And Rock Songs On A Banjo Site ?
Most people, including musicians associate certain musical instruments with the playing of a particular genre of song. The reason is beyond me. I can't see any reason why any genre of music can't be played on a mandolin / banjo.
Over the years there have being some pop singers who included the mandolin on their songs, such as Rod Stewart with Maggie May and REM with Losing My Religion and you'll often hear mandolin players playing these songs, but it's as if famous singers have to record a song that includes the mandolin before they'll play that song.

Over on my other website for tin whistle, I included over a hundred pop songs and since I did the musicians who go there no longer only play folk songs on their tin whistle but now include a rake of good pop songs.
That's one of the things I want to accomplish on this site.
tenor banjo tabs
Another Brick In The Wall
Pink Floyd
A Sky Full Of Stars
Coldplay
Another Day In Paradise
Phil Collins
All I Have To Do Is Dream Dream Dream
The Everly Brothers

All My Loving
The Beatles
And I Love You So
​
Don Mclean
And Then I Kissed Her
A Good Heart
​
Fergal Sharkey
A Thing Called Love
​Folsome prison blues 
Annie's Song
A Teenager In Love
Bad Bad Leroy Brown
Beautiful Sunday
The Boxer
Blackboard Of My Heart
Blue Side Of Lonesome
Brown Eyed Girl
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Bright Eyes
Bring It On Home To Me
Bittersweet Symphony
Bye Bye Love
Congratulations
Cotton Fields
Crying In The Rain
Crying Time Again
Cum On Feel The Noise
Clare By Gilbert O'Sullivan
Dancing In The Dark -Bruce Springsteen
Don't Look Back In Anger
Do Wah Diddy Diddy
Fun Fun Fun By The Beach Boys
Get Me To The Church On Time
Galileo /Someone Like You
Gentle On My Mind
Go Your Own Way By Fleetwood Mac
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
​Hallelujah
Heartbeat
Harvest Moon 
I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore
I Don't Wanna Talk About It
I Love You Because
I Love Rock N' Roll
I Feel Fine - The Beatles
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
I've Just Gotta Get A Message To You
In The Summertime [ Mongo Jerry ]
Johnny Be Goode
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Knock Three Times [ Dawn ]
Love Me For A Reason
Love Me Tender
Long Black Veil By Johnny Cash
Make You Feel My Love
Mr. Tambourine Man
Me And You And A Dog Named Bo
My Way By Frank Sinatra
The Mighty Quinn
Never Gonna Give You Up
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Oh What A Beautiful Morning
Only The Lonely
Oh Carol
One Day At A Time
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly
Proud Mary
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Return To Sender
The Rose
The River
San Francisco [ Flowers In Your Hair ]
Sunny Afternoon
Seven Spanish Angels
Seasons In The Sun
Silence Is Golden
Singing The Blues
Shine On Harvest Moon
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay
Otis Redding
Strangers In The Night
Shotgun By George Ezra
Summer Of 69' by Brian Adams
Stand By Me
Ten Guitars
Una paloma blanca
Vincent / Starry Starry Night
The Sound Of Silence
Tennessee Whiskey
Tears In Heaven By Eric Clapton
Take These Chains From My Heart
The Twelfth Of Never
Theme Tunes From Movies And Television
Top Of The World
Uptown Girl By Billy Joel
Where Do You Go To My Lovely
What A Wonderful World
Words The Bee Gees
Wouldn't It Be Nice
With A Little Help From My Friends
The Wild Side Of Life
The Wonder Of You
The Wind Beneath My Wings
The Young Ones
Cliff Richards And The Shadows 
You'll Never Walk Alone
You're Sixteen [ Ringo Starr ]
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Your Cheatin' Heart
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Procol Harum
500 Miles
The Proclaimers
Act Naturally
A Groovy Kind Of Love
Phil Collins
A Rainy Night In Soho
​The Pogues
Are You Lonesome Tonight
Baby I Love You
The Ramones
Baby Can I Hold You By Tracy Chapman
Back Home Again By John Denver
Bad Moon Rising
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Behind Closed Doors
Blueberry Hill
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
Can't Help Falling In Love With You
Country Roads
California Dreamin'
Daydream Believer
Da Do Ron Ron
Da Doo Ron Ron Is The Easiest Song Ever
Don't Forget To Remember Me By The Bee Gees
Eleanor Rigby By The Beatles
For The Good Times
Fisherman's Blues
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Garden Party By Ricky Nelson
Get Back By The Beatles
Gimme All Your Lovin'
ZZ Top
The Gambler 
Kenny Rogers
The Green Green Grass Of Home
Heart Of Gold
He'll Have To Go
Jim Reeves
Here Comes The Sun
Homeward Bound
Hungry Heart By Bruce Springsteen
I Just Can't Help Believin'
I Have A Dream
I Can See Clearly Now By Johnny Nash
I Can't Help Myself / Sugar Pie Honey Bunch
I Can't Stop Loving You
I Fought The Law
I'd Love You To Want Me
I Walk The Line
I Recall A Gypsy Woman
I Won't Back Down By Tom Petty
I Wanna' Hold Your Hand By The Beatles
Is this the way to Amarillo
I'm A Believer
It's Four In The Morning
Jackson - Johnny Cash
Jambalaya / On The Bayou  
Keep The Sunny Side Up
Killing Me Softly With His Song
Let It Be - The Beatles
Leaving On A Jet Plane By John Denver
Let Your Love Flow
Little Old Wine Drinker Me
Lyin' Eyes by The Eagles
Lost Without Your Love
David Gates
The Last Farewell
Marie's The Name Of His Latest Flame
Medley Of Pop Songs
Nights In White Satin
Maniac
My Heart Will Go On
Moon River
New York Mining Disaster
The Bee Gees
Only You
Only Sixteen
Oh Boy - Buddy Holly
Paper Roses
Please Release Me
Ring Of Fire
Rhinestone Cowboy
Ruby Tuesday 
San Quentin By Johnny Cash
Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On
Spirit In The Sky
Something Stupid
Summertime
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Stone In Love With You
Smoky Mountain High
Sweet Home Alabama
Sweet Caroline Tab By Neil Diamond
Take It To The Limit
Take It Easy Tab By The Eagles
There Goes My Everything
There's A Kind Of Hush
Try A Little Kindness
The White Rose Of Athens
The Way Old Friends Do By Abba
Unchained Melody
We Can Work It Out By The Beatles
We'll Meet Again Mandolin Tab By Vera Lynn
Walk Right Back
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Wonderful Tonight
Wooden Heart
When I Fall In Love
When You Say Nothing At All
Without You
Yellow River
You Raise Me Up
Your So Vain
Your My Best Friend Sheet Music By Don Williams
Yesterday
​
All My Loving, Love Me Do and Hey Jude included
4 string banjo and mandolin fretboard
The fretboard on the tenor banjo or mandolin.
Included in this section also are the letter notes which are very handy for those who play recorder or the flute. The banjo chart above says how these notes work. The very low notes with the comma after them are seldom used on this site as I like to keep s many songs as possible mid range.

​I'll continue to add banjo tabs to this section. If you have any requests then please let me know. Most banjo players who arrive at this page are probably surprised to find this kind of music here that's worked out for the mandolin / banjo. That's because a lot of players don't think of playing pop songs on their mandolin or banjo and tend to stick with the same stuff year after year not realising that that musical instrument sitting in the corners is capable of playing millions of songs and tunes in every category of music you can think of, be it pop, country jazz or folk.

Learning songs. Years ago when I first started to learn songs I'd buy song books, no internet in them years, I'd buy loads of sheet music books and flick from one song to the next never really learning how to play many songs off by heart. It's a trap many musicians starting off fall into. My advise is to find a song you like and stick with it until you learn it off by heart before moving to the next song. It's better to know just one tune off by heart than bits and pieces of a hundred songs. And when you do know it inside out, don't just leave it there and say to yourself, ''well at least I know that song now'' , you need to keep in touch with songs and play them regularly or you will forget them.
keep calm and play banjo
​The following helpful tips came from Thomas Quick.

If you tune Irish and finger the bottom two strings with your thumb, the tenor becomes a simple high bass/rhythm instrument for acoustic singaround use. Slide around. Strum with your thumb most of the time. Switch to a pick if you need volume. Played against guitars/mandolins/fiddles you can do things they can’t.

Try this on The Kinks “Tired of Waiting for You” or Setzer’s “Stray Cat Strut” or Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” or Cobain’s “Come as You Are” and see what you get. This is not showy flatpick work, nor is it chopchording. It’s grunt work that drives the group, and is simple enough for me to do the lead singing.

I’m doing this on an Orpheum No 1 with a sock mute under the dowel stick. Without that it’s bright, buzzy and loud. 

All this may sound bogus, but listen to St Cyr playing the tenor as a walking bass on King Oliver’s Canal Street Blues.

​What you're doing when you play open fifth "thumb-bass" this way is vamping. At first it's hard to sing melody while playing an Andalusian or other down cadence (such as in "Sultans of Swing" or "Sunny Afternoon") but it gets simpler with practice. I walked away from "Werewolves of London" for a month, tried again, and it clicked just in time for Halloween.
Drumming on the snare-like head is good accompaniment for a group with lots of string players.. Thumb whacking the rim on the metal tone ring produces a sound like a steel drum.

-Straight-up 5 string fingerpick banjo tunes like Reuben's Train and East Carolina Blues are good on the tenor, even without the drone string. Same goes for Woody Guthrie tunes.

-My new challenge is reggae....I Can See Clearly Now and Down Under....you really need some drums for the rocksteady afterbeat though. Jimmy Buffett tunes fall close to reggae for a Caribbean sound too.

​About six months ago I was watching a Youtube video of Richard Thompson playing She Moves Through the Fair. On the last verse he started striking the guitar strings above the bridge with his fingers, which produced an eerie almost ghostly chord sound....

The effect is entirely different on a tenor banjo. It allows drumming on the head while simultaneously producing quiet chord sounds. This releases the possibility of playing a lot of songs which were tricky or impossible with strumming or picking. Songs like Louie Louie, Can't Explain, Every Day Is A Winding Road, Going Up The Country and Go Your Own Way suddenly "work".

The other area I've enjoyed exploring is the jazz heritage of the tenor banjo. This instrument was created to play 20's standards like It Had To Be You and On The Alamo. It also works well for later jazz standards like I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Alison and I Can't Make You Love Me.

I've also upgraded to an Orpheum No 3. Easier action that the No 1.

Hi, from Dan
I just wanted to thank you for an awesome site. For some reason I decided to learn to play the tenor banjo, and this site makes it so much more fun and rewarding. Finding songs I recognise and want to play, and actually learning them.

Thanks !!
Dan
And thank you Dan for the kind words.
From Chris
Just found your website, I'm of the same mind as yourself regarding trad tunes and like yourself I prefer songs. I also love the same music as yourself.

I play fiddle (not well) and discovered that using mandolin tab in conjunction with some tape on the fiddle neck gives me frets and makes learning tunes much easier than trying to learn music notes.
Anyway mi wanted to say thank you for a great site, for great music the playable way.
Kind regards
Chris
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  • Tenor Banjo Tabs
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