A# maj7b5 — Chicago Tuning Banjo

A# maj7b5 stacks A# – D – E – A. Each chart below places those tones on the Chicago Tuning Banjo's DGBE strings and names the fret and finger holding each one — tap a chart to hear it.

These four open strings are pitch for pitch the top four of a guitar, so guitar fingerings arrive intact. What does not arrive is the sustain: a banjo head answers the pick and stops, which is why the picking hand carries the time here.

Then hand it over: a plectrum banjo lives or dies on the evenness of the stroke, so hold one voicing and play it as steady quarter notes before you let it move anywhere at all.