Hi M'lou,\u00a0 Congratulations on taking the plunge to do it right.<\/p>\n Do a search here, on the Classic Banjo Ning site, as well as the Banjo Hangout for \"A Notation\" or \"American Notation\" or some combination and include my name.\u00a0 I have been a broken record over the years repeating the same explanation over and over about the banjo as a \"transposing instrument.\"<\/p>\n Basically, you will encounter two \"systems\" of notation.\u00a0 Forget the term \"tuning\"-- it does not apply as the intervals between strings are almost always the same.\u00a0 In other words, when one string gets raised, they all get raised equally.\u00a0 The \"old time\" tradition of scordatura is fairly recent in the banjo world, only coming into general use after 1900 as far as is documented.\u00a0 The one exception is \"Bass Elevated,\" that is where the 4th is raised one step.<\/p>\n Standard \"tuning\" was\/is what is now called \"drop-C\" for some reason.\u00a0 This is \"bluegrass G tuning\" with the 4th string lowered one step.<\/p>\n The banjo was pitched with the 4th string to A starting just after the Briggs book was published and that continued on until the late 1870s where it was raised to B flat.\u00a0 By the early to mind 1880s the banjo was commonly pitched to C-- current concert \"drop C\" tuning.<\/p>\n The hobby of \"minstrel banjo,\" being filled with many reenactors, grabbed onto the early lower pitch given in Briggs as it was as far from \"normal\" as possible even though it would be more historically accurate to be pitched in A.\u00a0 But that is what the hobby settled on so that is why we all read A notation and play in G (as opposed to playing in C and reading in A like was done 1884+).<\/p>\n At any rate, try not to think about it too much, toss the tab in the trash, and sit down with Converse's \"Green\" book from 1865.\u00a0 I learned to read A notation using this book...<\/p>\n