Scales form the backbone of any successful technique. By helping to determine where licks and chord shapes should be placed on the fretboard, scales help establish where your licks and chord shapes should reside.
Banjo players with smaller bodies tend to tune their standard tenor banjos a few steps above A, in order to reduce string floppiness and create additional droning options. This practice helps avoid string floppiness while opening up more possibilities for droning sounds.
Major
Scales are an integral component of music theory and one of the key banjo skills for developing melodic playing styles. From Scruggs-style banjo playing to more melodic approaches, gaining knowledge on how to use scales opens up an abundance of creative potential and possibilities.
A major scale contains eight notes (beginning with its root or tonic note) evenly spaced by an interval of two and a half steps between each note, also known as chord degrees or intervals.
G major is the most frequently played major scale on banjo, making it an excellent starting point for melodic banjo playing as it allows easy movement up and down fretboard with this fingering pattern.
To play the G major scale, begin at the fifth fret of the fourth string with your left-hand index finger and progress upward to the fifth fret of the 3rd string using your ring finger before finally moving down onto the open 2nd string using your right-hand middle finger.
Repeat this pattern across the fretboard until reaching the tonic or root note of the scale, which in this instance would be G note on an open third string. You’ll use this same technique for all major scales on your banjo.
Note that when practicing this type of fingering, it’s crucial that each fretting finger be released quickly so your hand can shift positions efficiently. Otherwise, tension in your fingers could build and make playing scales harder than necessary.
If this term seems confusing to you, imagine driving a car: if you keep holding onto the steering wheel too long, you could end up in another lane!
Keep in mind that knowing this material won’t guarantee you becoming a great banjo player, but it may help. Just as traffic laws can assist drivers to drive more safely and avoid tickets, understanding musical concepts such as improvising can enhance musical experiences by giving confidence to take risks with improvisations and make bold melodic choices.
Mastery of both major and minor scales allows you to expand beyond bluegrass; for instance, G major scale is an ideal choice for Celtic and jazz music.
People often associate 4-string banjos with Irish or Dixieland music, but a standard tenor banjo can also be played in these styles as well as classical. Since its tuning is similar to that of viola or mandolin instruments, you could even try playing some traditional jazz or bluegrass using this type of banjo – though be prepared to adjust its scale length by increasing or decreasing a few half steps depending on what kind of music you plan to perform!
Minor
Minor scales are an invaluable part of any banjo player’s musical arsenal, enabling them to craft melodies different than what can be created using major scales, and opening up creative possibilities when used for composition or playing alongside a band. Scales form the backbone of music composition; becoming familiar with their navigation on the fretboard can increase speed and confidence when playing banjo.
The minor scale is built from the notes of the major scale with one key note – the minor seventh – added. This makes the scale sound less bright and more bluesy while being slightly more difficult to play due to additional fingering techniques needed. At first it may seem daunting but with practice it will become second nature and will become easier and more natural as time goes on.
There are various methods for creating a minor scale on the fretboard, but most involve moving specific fingers up or down as you play. Although initially challenging to learn, these movements will eventually become second nature as your mind adjusts to how fretted notes should be played; once mastered they will bring about new opportunities in music.
As a banjo player, you will eventually want to expand beyond the Major scale and explore its minor scale counterparts as well. Minor scales are a little more intricate than their Major counterparts and utilize different fingering patterns for similar notes on the fretboard. Knowing how to identify root notes of each position before finding their intervals on the fretboard in relation to them is crucial as intervals give minor scale its unique sound that differentiates it from Major scales.
Begin exploring minor scales on the fretboard by mastering G melodic minor scale’s first position, as shown in the diagram. Fingering suggestions for this scale position involve index, middle, and ring fingers in combination; you’ll notice there is a two-position shift involved here but this can be reduced by using middle fingers instead of index fingers for strings 4, 5, and 6.
Once you’re comfortable with playing the melodic minor scale in its initial position, expand its application by applying it in other keys as well. C minor and D minor scales are nearly identical; their only distinct characteristic being F natural in C minor vs F# in D minor.
If you’re new to melodic minor scale, this tutorial offers an excellent introduction. It shows how to play it at various positions on the fretboard – this may take some practice before becoming second nature – but once internalized will allow you to create complex melodies without counting up or down an octave of notes.