How To Read A Banjo Chord Diagram

The strings of the chord diagrams on this site go from the high D string of the banjo at the top of the diagram, down to the low D string of the banjo at the bottom of the diagram.  If that sentence makes no sense, please see below:

The crazy vertical lines of the chord diagrams are frets.  If you want to think of the one furthest to the left as the first fret (A.K.A. the “nut”) of the banjo, feel free to do so, but the truth is that they are better thought of as random areas of the neck.  The important thing to note is that the further to the right you go, the higher the note is on a string.  Check out the diagram below:

Then we add some dots. The dots represent places where your fingers should go. It is your responsibility to figure out which fingers should go where. Everyone’s hands are different, so rather than worrying about the “correct” way to do it, please just do whatever works. One thing to realize, though, is that if holding a certain chord feels “wrong” at first, that does not mean that it will always feel wrong to you. With practice, you might find that a certain chord position will start to feel okay, so please try not to give up on any chord position too soon.  

There are a couple of things to realize about the chord diagrams on this site. First, if you ever see a diagram with a string which has no dots on it, that means that you should not play that string. Second, if you see a chord diagram with multiple dots on one string, that means that you can play either note on that string, or better yet you can switch between multiple notes on the string to create the full quality of the chord. To see an example, check out the sus 4 chord diagram below. It is telling you to put your fingers wherever the dots are, but note that you are not supposed to play the fourth string, and you are supposed to switch between two different notes on the thrid string to create the full sound of the chord. Stare at it blankly and nod a little if you don’t feel like thinking about chords right now.