Right Hand Technique and Pick Usage

Okay, so let's focus a little bit on your right hand and the use of the pick. One of the basic things that you should learn is to alternate the pick directions:

• Down, up, down, up, down, up.

When you have a series of faster notes, either eighth notes or sixteenth notes, it continues:

• Down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

Understanding Major Scales

For this purpose, and for the purpose of getting to know the fingerboard a little bit, it's probably good to just learn a few of the major scales in the common bluegrass keys. The common keys in bluegrass, at least in traditional bluegrass, though I think this is changing now, are:

• A
• B flat
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F

I'll just show you an A major scale, and you'll find tablature for the other keys I just mentioned.

Scales: Open vs. Closed Position

For each of the scales, I'll show you one where you're using some open notes (in other words, unfretted notes) and scales where you're mostly trying to play and get that same note but fretted (closed position versus open).

A Major Scale

Here's an A major scale, alternating the pick:

• Alternating the pick: Down, up, down, up.
• We will go up a couple of octaves and then back down.

The first version uses open notes:

• Open, down, up, and maintaining that.

Then we'll move to the closed position.

Another reason it's good to practice the closed position is that it allows you to play in any key. You can change keys and keep the same positions.

Importance of the Pinky

Additionally, practicing in closed position exercises your pinky, which is the fourth finger and the weakest finger, making it the hardest to develop.

So, here it is in closed position, with the pinky catching the notes that were played open in the previous version of this A major scale.