Once the open-position fingerings feel familiar, the real adventure begins — moving up the neck whilst keeping those open strings ringing. This is where the distinctive sound of open-key playing comes alive.
What you’ll get out of this lesson
You’ll learn the fingerings for all eleven open keys at the fifth position, understand how to use open strings as anchors when playing higher up the neck, and have a set of exercises to turn these shapes into licks and musical lines.
From Open Position to the Fifth Position
In the previous lesson you learned to play the open keys at their lowest position on the neck, where most or all of the notes sit close to the nut. Now we move up — but crucially, we keep the open strings as anchors. The technique is to intersperse open strings with your fretted notes, letting them ring through into each other. Instead of muting one note before playing the next, you allow notes to overlap and sustain, creating that characteristic cascading, harp-like texture. This is the foundation of the banjo-style licks you hear from players such as Danny Gatton and Brad Paisley.
The Fifth-Position Fingering Chart
Below are the open keys played at the fifth position. Use the numbers on the chart to help you keep track of the order of the notes — this is especially important here because the open strings create gaps and jumps that look unusual compared to standard closed-position scale shapes.
Four Exercises to Develop the Position
Once you can play the scales ascending and descending at the fifth position, work through the following:
- Practise the chords of the key alongside the scales. Move between chord voicings and melodic runs to start hearing how they relate.
- Practise the scales in sequences — in thirds, fourths, triads, and other diatonic patterns. This builds fluency and starts to reveal the musical potential of the fingerings.
- Write out some licks using these positions and make deliberate use of the open strings. Let the open notes ring as long as possible against the fretted ones.
- Work out the fingerings for the ninth to twelfth position on your own. Use the same logic as the open and fifth positions — find where the open strings fit naturally into the scale pattern.
Taking it further
As you become comfortable at the fifth position, look for connecting runs that link the open position to the fifth position and beyond. The most idiomatic open-key licks often start low, pick up an open string, climb to a higher fretted passage, and then let an open string ring out at the end. Once you can navigate these positions fluidly, try applying them over chord progressions and backing tracks in the relevant keys to start building a real vocabulary.
Your homework
Choose two keys from the chart and spend your practice sessions this week getting the ascending and descending scale shapes under your fingers at the fifth position. Then write out one short lick in each key that uses at least one open string to connect a fretted passage. Record yourself playing it so you can listen back and check that the open strings are actually ringing clearly.