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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.
* For both C Major and G Major keys, 5th position uses a note on the index finger (5th fret) for every string, making it fairly easy to learn.
== Why Use Other Positions? ==
Some runs are simply way eaiser to perform by using positional shifts. Consider this run that is a simple descending scale but adds 5th intervals above.
with Shifting
E-------20-------19-------17-------15-----
B-20\18----18\17----17\15----15\13----13--
i i r i i r i i r i i r i
without Shifting
E-------20-------19-------17--------------
B-20-18----18-17----17-------------20-----
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 ===
The higher up the fretboard you go, the smaller the frets. This makes stretches eaiser. It can make certain chord shapes playable/eaisier. Conversely, chords that use compact finger groupings may be more difficult to play on smaller frets. Shifting position towards the nut can help ease their fingering.
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
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|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
In the second example, it's a bit easier to get lost as that 1 fret shift now changes which fingers you use for what frets, not just on the G string, but also the neighboring strings. The D and G string 7th frets are sometimes fingered with the ring finger, sometimes with the pinky, depending on where you are in the lick. If you try to shift every time you touch the G string, you end up shifting too much for melodies that quickly alternate between D and G or G and B strings.
=== Similarity to Open Position ===
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. Focus 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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== Homework ==
* Work through the above examples of why to use different positions. Try to come up with your own examples.
* Practice C Major and G Major in 5th position. Be sure to identify the root notes.
* Practice A Minor and E Minor in 5th position. Be sure to identify the root notes.
* Practice switching position for various chords, following the guidelines above.
** Play through some of our common progressions in C Major and G Major without using open position chords.
* Practice the arpeggios above.
* Play all of the diatonic C Major and G Major chords in 5th position as arpeggios, taking care to identify the notes for the chords.
* Try to start learning all the notes for 5th position. We already hit these when we learned each string, but you probably forgot them, as we haven't really used them. Start trying to relearn them. It's not important to memorize every note at this point, but you should at least know the location of the C's and G's, and be able to see how 5th position relates to open position.
== Q & A ==