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Basic chords in GDgd tuning of Irish tenor banjo


In the GDgd tuning you can play in the key of G. The basic chords in the key G major are
G: 0000
C: 0202 or 5502
D: 2020

For G minor key:
Gm: 0000 (the same voicing as for G)
Cm: 0101
D or Dm: 2020 (the same voicing)

Practice these chords similarly as in case of ADad chords.

Here is the chord progression in G major key with simple walking bass connecting the chords: 
   G                                   C
d------0-------0---|-----0-----------|-----2-------2---|-----2-----------|
g------0-------0---|-----0-----------|-----0-------0---|-----0-----------|
D----------0-------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
G--0---------------|-0-------2---4---|-5-------0-------|-5-------4---2---|
   |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |
   T   M   T   M     T   M   T   T     T   M   T   M     T   M   T   T
       I       I         I                 I       I         I

   G                                   D
d------0-------0---|-----0-----------|-----0-------0---|-----0-----------|
g------0-------0---|-----0-----------|-----2-------2---|-----2-----------|
D----------0-------|-----------------|-0---------------|-0---------------|
G--0---------------|-0-------4---5---|---------2-------|---------4---2---|
   |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |
   T   M   T   M     T   M   T   T     T   M   T   M     T   M   T   T
       I       I         I                 I       I         I

Closed chord shapes

Up the neck there are used mainly two shapes, derived from G chord and D chord voicings: 
barre shape
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1 1 1 1  barre by index finger
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D shape
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1 1 1 1  barre by index finger
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3 | 4 |  added ring and little fingers
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The root of the chord is highlighted in bold and red.


Relationship between voicings on GDgd and ADad tunings of Irish tenor banjo

Note the symetry of chords between the GDgd and ADad tunings. If you switch some chord voicing from ADad tuning upside down in the bass-treble direction, you will receive the same chord of the same scale degree in GDgd tuning.

For example the B7 (dominant seventh chord rooted on sixth degree of D major scale) has the 2401 voicing in D tuning ADAd. The voicing 1042 in G tuning GDgd is E7 - again dominant seventh chord on sixth degree, but now of G scale.

This should give you basic idea of creating more chord voicings and trading them between both tuning. Note sometimes the result will sound unsatisfactory as in one tuning e.g. the root and fifth is in the bass pair of strings and in the another tuning the third and seventh is there. You can solve this problem by switching the bass pair with the treble one. Example in G tuning: E7 = 1042 = 4210

If you compare the last voicing 4210 with the B7 voicing we started with (2401 in D tuning), you can see that we actually traded the numbers in two deeper strings (24 -> 42) and in two higher strings (01 -> 10).

To increase the mess, here is the third idea of transfering chord voicings between GDgd and ADad tunings:
The three finger chords where some outer string is not played (e.g. X754) can be simply switched to the other three string for the other tuning:

X754 in D tuning is D major chord
754X in G tuning is G major chord

X523 in D tuning is G7 (4th degree)
523X in G tuning is C7 (also 4th degree)

etc.

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