A Word About Fingerings

Fingerings are never “written in stone,” but it is generally a good idea to select one and stick with it for a given scale pattern.

Positional Fingering

Positional fingering is a good starting point. This means that each finger gets one fret and plays all notes in that fret. The position number is the fret number of the first, or index finger. For example, the scale shown at the bottom of the previous page (A minor pentatonic) is in fifth position. The C major scale shown at the bottom of the following page is in seventh position. One special case is open position which is synonymous with first position.

Position is not always the lowest fret used in a pattern, but rather the lowest fret of the majority of notes in the pattern. So if all notes are in eighth position except one note on one string which lies on the seventh fret, the pattern is in eighth position, not seventh position. Simply stretch your index finger back one fret when required.

“Blues” Fingering

An alternate fingering approach common to pentatonic-based styles which incorporate a lot of string bending (such as blues and rock) favors fingers 1 and 3, or the index and ring fingers. This often requires an extra stretch here or there, and can be viewed as a modification to the positional approach.

Shifting-Type Fingering

Some scale patterns will require sliding, or shifting, the hand position, so that two different notes on the same string are played with the same finger. Specific directions will indicate how this can be best achieved for each pattern on an individual basis. Additionally, other scales may involve the use of a “floating position” where the pattern begins in one position, then on a particular string, the position shifts into a different position. This happens, for example, in diatonic three-note-per-string patterns.