Before you can use open strings as a creative tool, you need to know which keys actually contain them and what those scales look like at their lowest position on the neck. This lesson gives you the full map — eleven keys, all in one place.
What you’ll get out of this lesson
You’ll come away with a clear understanding of the difference between an open key and an open position, a reference chart of all eleven open-key fingerings, and a set of practical exercises to start making these scales musical straight away.
Open Keys vs Open Positions
An open key is any key that contains at least one note found on an open string — E, A, D, G, or B. Because not every key contains those pitches, there are only eleven open keys. When you play one of those keys at the lowest possible position on the neck, that’s the open position. The two terms are related but distinct: a key is open because of its notes; a position is open because of where on the neck you’re playing it.
The eleven open keys in both their major and relative minor forms are: C major/A minor, F major/D minor, B♭ major/G minor, E♭ major/C minor, A♭ major/F minor, G major/E minor, D major/B minor, A major/F♯ minor, E major/C♯ minor, B major/G♯ minor, and F♯ major/D♯ minor.
The Fingering Chart
Here are all eleven open keys in their open positions. Take your time with this chart — there’s a lot of information here, and the goal is familiarity, not speed.
Five Exercises to Make Them Musical
Knowing the fingerings is only the start. Work through these five exercises for each key to begin integrating the scales into your playing:
- Play each scale ascending and descending, listening carefully to how the open strings ring against the fretted notes.
- Play the major chord of the key, then run through the scale. Let the chord sound orientate your ear before you explore the scale.
- Play the minor chord of the key, then practise the scale. Notice how the character of the scale changes depending on which chord you’ve just heard.
- Hold a chord and play melodies using notes from the scale with your free fingers. This is one of the most rewarding things you can do with open-position scales — melody and accompaniment at once.
- Practise a chord progression and fill the space between chord changes with riffs built from the scale. This is directly how players like Danny Gatton and Brad Paisley use these positions in performance.
For Advanced Players
If you’re already comfortable with these scales and chords, try superimposing the open positions over more complex harmonic situations. Any standard that moves through a range of tonal centres — such as “Take the A Train,” Rhythm Changes, or “Giant Steps” — gives you an interesting challenge: find moments where an open-position scale fits the current chord, and use the ringing strings as a point of colour against the moving harmony.
Taking it further
Once the open-position fingerings feel natural, move up the neck and start combining them with fretted positions. The real magic happens when you intersperse open strings with notes at the fifth position or higher, letting those open strings sustain underneath your lines. That’s the heart of the banjo-lick style, and it’s covered in the next lesson in this course.
Your homework
Pick any three of the eleven open keys and work through exercises one to three above for each one this week. Play the scale slowly enough that you can hear every note clearly, and make sure you’re naming the key aloud before you begin each one. By the end of the week you should be able to locate the root notes in all three positions without looking at the chart.