If you've worked your way through the previous lessons, you have reached the stage where you need to think in more detail about the fingering for your fretboard hand. That's the focus of this lesson.
Play these 4 notes:
1 E |--1--2--3--4---------------
You could have played all 4 notes by using just your first finger and moving your hand sideways for each note. But a better fingering is to play them with all four fingers, keeping your hand steady, as below.
1 E |--1--2--3--4---------------
finger 1 2 3 4
Your hand at this point is said to be in first position, because the first finger is playing the note on fret 1.
Now play these notes.
1 E |--2--3--4--5---------------
Again, the best fingering is to use all four fingers and keep your hand steady:
1 E |--2--3--4--5---------------
finger 1 2 3 4
In this case your hand is in second position, because your first finger is playing the second fret note. Both sets of notes are identical in terms of finger movements and patterns. The only difference is the positioning of your hand.
In the scales that follow I will add the hand position and fingerings that I use. Feel free to use them or not as you wish.
We are now ready to learn the complete set of patterns that allows us to play a scale no matter where we are, up or down the fret board. This is the focus of our next lesson.
(Need help interpreting the guitar tab symbols used throughout this site? Click here)