The Key of A — Banjo

A major harmonises to A – Bm – C#m – D – E – F#m – G#°; A minor to Am – B° – C – Dm – Em – F – G. Most of the country repertoire in this key lives on three of those chords — the tonic, the subdominant and the dominant — plus the relative minor when a song wants one darker turn.

The banjo chair carries a three-finger roll behind the singer — a steady stream of picked notes through the chord, filling the eighths a two-feel leaves empty. The left hand holds the shape below and the right hand never strums it: thumb, index and middle pick through its strings one at a time, which is why a banjo chord reads as motion rather than as a block.

Learn the tonic-subdominant-dominant grammar in A until your hand goes there without asking, then add the relative minor, and most of the repertoire in this key is already playable.