G Blues — Chicago Tuning Banjo

G Blues is 6 notes to the octave (blues family), drawn here across the Chicago Tuning Banjo's DGBE strings with every G marked, so home stays visible from anywhere in the pattern.

The minor pentatonic with a b5 "blue note" wedged in — that one extra note adds grit, tension, and a sly, vocal quality. Tough, expressive, and unmistakably bluesy.

Heard in: Blues, rock, jazz, rhythm and blues, and boogie-woogie — Delta and Chicago blues, Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Because these four strings are the guitar's top four, patterns a guitarist already owns land here unchanged. The work is rhythmic rather than geographical: making the pick articulate every note the head refuses to sustain.

Run it against a click at a tempo where every note gets the same weight. On a banjo an uneven scale is audible immediately — the instrument gives you no sustain to hide behind.