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Since we're talking about branching away from C Major, let's also discuss moving away from open position. We've already touched on this with some of our barre chords, but we haven't tried to learn scales or some more intricate chord voicings.
'''5th position ''' is great position to learn after open position for several reasons:
* Most strings are tuned to P4's, which means the 5th fret is the same note as the next-highest open string and follows the same whole-half pattern.
* 5th Position has no overlap with open position, but there are no notes in between the two positions either. It maximizes the power of position-shifting without decoupling from the familiarity of open position.
Sometimes changing positions makes you rethink how you look at a melody or scale and forces you to try new things. When the notes that you commonly hit with your index finger are now on your ring finger, your muscle memory will fail you. This makes for a great way to break out of a rut or develop new licks.
D--6h7p6---4-- vs. D--6h7p6------
A--------7---- A--------7-9--
4th pos. 6th pos.
=== Natural Harmonics ===
Fadd9 F half-dim7
E--1------8-------13----- E--------------- B--1------10------13----- B--21------9---- G--2------12------14----- G--20------8---- D--5------10------17----- D--21------9---- A--3------8-------15----- A--20------8---- E--1--------------13----- E---------------
smaller stretch less bunched
|5th Position#Chords and Position|Chords & Pos.
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Here are the C Major and G Major scales in 5th position, first as tab then scale maps.
C Major
Since the 5th fret is a P4 higher than the open strings and most strings are tuned to P4's, most of the notes and whole-half patterns from open position are simply moved down a string. Although we finger them differently since we can no longer use open strings, it should be somewhat easy to learn 5th position if we reference open position.
The tab below shows the same notes for open position and 5th position being played at the same time. It's difficult to impossible to actually play them at the same time - the point is to notice the similarity between the two positions. Other than the slight difference between 1 note on the G and B strings, each string has the same whole-half pattern. w h w w h w w w h w w h w E-----------------------------------0--1--3------- B--------------------------0--1--3--5--6--8------- G--------------------0--2-----5--7---------------- D-----------0--2--3--5--7--9---------------------- A--0--2--3--5--7--8------------------------------- E--5--7--8----------------------------------------
Of course, the fingering is completely different, since we are no longer using open strings, and we have to use our pinky finger more. EFocus on the shapes more than the fingering. Its important to identify the shape patterns - fingering patterns will eventually become more and more natural. But the layout of the note patterns allows us to fully understand the instrument and prevent us from getting lost.
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