Most guitarists learn their scales in closed, transposable shapes and quietly assume that open-position fingerings are a bit of a dead end. That was my mistake for years — until I discovered what open strings can really do in the hands of players like Tony Rice and Darrell Scott, and realised I’d been ignoring a whole dimension of the fretboard.
What this course covers
This course presents the fingerings for all eleven open keys in their open positions and then moves up the neck, showing you how to weave open strings into your lines at any position. You’ll learn where the roots sit, how to explore the chord voicings within each key, and how to build the kind of ringing, banjo-style licks you can hear in the playing of Danny Gatton, Jonny Hiland, Brad Paisley, and Brent Mason. The fingerings are the map — it’s up to you to explore the territory.
When I was first mapping the fretboard, I noticed that shapes not using open strings are transposable — move them up a fret and you’re in a new key. That made open-position scales seem less useful, like a special case rather than a general tool. It took watching Tony Rice and Darrell Scott to shake me out of that thinking. Open positions have a unique sonic character that closed shapes simply can’t replicate: notes ring into each other, creating a resonance and a sense of space that is distinctly guitar. They’re also the gateway to bluegrass-style licks that climb the neck whilst letting open strings sustain underneath — a technique that sounds far more complicated than it is once you know the fingerings.
An open key is any key that contains at least one note found on an open string — E, A, D, G, or B. Not every key qualifies. There are exactly eleven open keys, covering both major and relative minor: 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. Playing any of these keys at the lowest available position on the neck is what we call the open position.
Treat these fingerings exactly as you would any other scale position. For each key, learn where the roots are, explore the chord voicings that live inside the scale, practise sequences and patterns (thirds, triads, diatonic intervals), and then take it into real musical contexts — rhythm playing, soloing, and improvised licks. The goal isn’t to memorise diagrams; it’s to make these sounds part of your musical vocabulary. The lessons in this course will walk you through the open position first and then move up to the fifth position and beyond, so you can start using open strings as anchors anywhere on the neck.
