Chords for You Are My Sunshine- Basic Banjo Lesson!

Tempo:
103.4 bpm
Chords used:

G

D

B

C

A

Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Show Tuner
You Are My Sunshine- Basic Banjo Lesson! chords
Start Jamming...
[B] [G]
[C] [G]
[C] [G]
[C] [G]
Howdy, welcome to BanjoBenClark.com.
I'm Banjo Ben here in a brand new year, 2014.
Happy New Year to you.
I've got a great song to teach you today.
This is, oh gosh, who knows how old this song is.
I love it.
I always thought that it was a happy song growing up because it talks about sunshine
and the melody is all chipper.
But it's actually a sad love song of a love gone wrong.
Okay, but you are my sunshine.
That's what we're going to learn today.
It's a great basic version, so if you're looking for a banjo tune to learn that everybody's
going to like, learn this one.
Okay, we're going to dive into it here in a little while.
I've got the tab for you here.
I'll have the tab on the bottom of the screen.
If you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, here in a little while I'll ask you to go
over to my website that I'm very proud of, [N] BanjoBenClark.com.
There you can join as a Gold Pick member and you can have access to these videos that I
put out each and every week.
Now for You Are My Sunshine, I've got about a 10 or 12 minute instructional video where
I teach you how to play every note.
And then I've got another video where I play it very slowly from start to finish so that
you can learn along with me.
And then we've got four different rhythm tracks that I play over there on guitar.
So I gradually speed it up.
You have the tab to download in both PDF and TEF file formats.
There's nothing else you could need.
So come on sunshine, let's jump into this one.
You Are My Sunshine on banjo.
We're in the key of G and this is a fairly basic version.
We don't have a lot of tough stuff going on here.
But even though it's basic, I love to play it.
It's a lot of fun to play.
Don't forget that beneath each one of your right hand notes there, I have your right hand fingerings.
So you see the first three notes there, measure one, those are all Ts.
So that just stands for our thumb.
[D] So we're going to use our thumb.
When we want to use our index finger, there's going to be a number one in a circle.
And the number two in a circle [Gm] will be your [D] middle finger.
Like I said, the song's in 4-4.
That means four beats per measure.
We're going to start off, well the whole song's going to stick pretty close to the melody.
But we're going to start off just right close to the melody with these little pickup notes.
[G] You are my sunshine.
So we're going to start on the second beat of measure one.
I'll [D] just start on that open D string down there.
So one, [G] two, three, [D] four.
We're going to go open [G] D, open G, and then the second [D] fret of the G string.
And then leave that down because we're going to go into [Bm] a series of forward rolls in measure two.
And we're going to start it out by sliding, so sixteenth note slide, from that second
fret on the G string to the fourth fret.
And the reason why [G] I say sixteenth note, the reason why that's important is because I want
the slide to happen [B] before you play that second note on the open B [A] string.
[Bm] And we're just going to continue to do some [A] forward rolls.
[G]
So let's [D] just do measures one and two slowly.
One, two, [G] [Dm] [G]
good.
On into measure three, the first beat's finishing up that forward roll.
Then we have three quarter notes at the end of measure three on just the open [B] B string.
Second fret again on the G string.
You [A] [B] are my [G]
sunshine.
Okay?
So that's a pretty simple measure three.
One and two, three, four.
Measure four is going to start with a quarter note on that G string.
And then we're going to do another sixteenth note slide with our ring finger from the fourth
to fifth fret on that low D string.
Okay?
[F#] And we're going to start a forward roll whenever we do that.
[G]
[E] If you want to slide from lower, like the second [G] to fifth fret, that'd sound fine too.
Just like it from the fourth fret for my version.
Let's play the whole [D] first line slowly.
One, [G] two, three, [D] four.
[G]
[A] [B]
[G]
Good.
When we get into the second [C] line
[Am] [G] [C]
[G]
[N]
Key:  
G
2131
D
1321
B
12341112
C
3211
A
1231
G
2131
D
1321
B
12341112
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_ [B] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Howdy, welcome to BanjoBenClark.com.
I'm Banjo Ben here in a brand new year, 2014.
Happy New Year to you.
I've got a great song to teach you today.
This is, oh gosh, who knows how old this song is.
I love it.
I always thought that it was a happy song growing up because it talks about sunshine
and the melody is all chipper.
But it's actually a sad love song of a love gone wrong.
Okay, but you are my sunshine.
That's what we're going to learn today.
It's a great basic version, so if you're looking for a banjo tune to learn that everybody's
going to like, learn this one.
Okay, we're going to dive into it here in a little while.
I've got the tab for you here.
I'll have the tab on the bottom of the screen.
If you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, here in a little while I'll ask you to go
over to my website that I'm very proud of, [N] BanjoBenClark.com.
There you can join as a Gold Pick member and you can have access to these videos that I
put out each and every week.
Now for You Are My Sunshine, I've got about a 10 or 12 minute instructional video where
I teach you how to play every note.
And then I've got another video where I play it very slowly from start to finish so that
you can learn along with me.
And then we've got four different rhythm tracks that I play over there on guitar.
So I gradually speed it up.
You have the tab to download in both PDF and TEF file formats.
There's nothing else you could need.
So come on sunshine, let's jump into this one.
You Are My Sunshine on banjo.
We're in the key of G and this is a fairly basic version.
We don't have a lot of tough stuff going on here.
But even though it's basic, I love to play it.
It's a lot of fun to play.
Don't forget that beneath each one of your right hand notes there, I have your right hand fingerings.
So you see the first three notes there, measure one, those are all Ts.
So that just stands for our thumb.
[D] So we're going to use our thumb.
When we want to use our index finger, there's going to be a number one in a circle.
And the number two in a circle [Gm] will be your [D] middle finger.
Like I said, the song's in 4-4.
That means four beats per measure.
We're going to start off, _ well the whole song's going to stick pretty close to the melody.
But we're going to start off just right close to the melody with these little pickup notes.
[G] You are my sunshine.
_ So we're going to start on the second beat of measure one.
I'll [D] just start on that open D string down there.
So one, _ [G] two, three, [D] four.
We're going to go open [G] D, open G, and then the second [D] fret of the G string.
And then leave that down because we're going to go into [Bm] a series of forward rolls in measure two.
And we're going to start it out by sliding, so sixteenth note slide, from that second
fret on the G string to the fourth fret.
_ _ And the reason why [G] I say sixteenth note, the reason why that's important is because I want
the slide to happen [B] before you play that second note on the open B [A] string.
[Bm] And _ _ _ _ _ we're just going to continue to do some [A] forward rolls.
[G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ So let's [D] just do measures one and two slowly.
One, two, [G] _ _ [Dm] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ good.
On into measure three, the first beat's finishing up that forward roll.
Then we have three quarter notes at the end of measure three on just the open [B] B string.
Second fret again on the G string.
You [A] [B] are my [G]
sunshine.
Okay?
So that's a pretty simple measure three.
One and two, three, four.
Measure four is going to start with a quarter note on that G string.
And then we're going to do another sixteenth note slide with our ring finger from the fourth
to fifth fret on that low D string.
_ Okay?
[F#] And we're going to start a forward roll whenever we do that.
[G] _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] If you want to slide from lower, like the second [G] to fifth fret, that'd sound fine too.
_ _ _ _ Just like it from the fourth fret for my version. _ _ _ _
Let's play the whole [D] first line slowly.
One, [G] two, three, [D] four.
[G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [B] _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Good.
_ When we get into the second [C] line_ _
_ [Am] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _

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