Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

All of the Chord Shapes

I’d like to poll The Forum. How did you learn where all the chord shapes are up and down the neck? Did you simply learn from the “How to play backup” lesson? Or maybe it was “Blackberry Blossom?” Maybe you took a week or 2 to memorize where, for example, all the G Chord shapes are on the neck, then C, then D, and so on. Or…yes another or, you’re thinking “Brent, have you been paying attention to anything? Every lesson teaches where they all are.” Anyway, if we were sitting around a campfire together, this is what I would ask you. Then I would bring up something like, why Hey Dude’s are essentially slippers you can wear outside.

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Fretboard Geography, How to Play Backup, and Waypoints mostly. I learned the X, Y, and bar chord shapes and when I needed to play a certain chord, I chose one and counted it up the neck. Doing this, you get familiar with your commonly used chords really quickly and it just ironed out over time… AKA by building muscle memory in the brain, not just the hands, your recall time gets faster and faster. :upside_down_face:
My banjo teacher at the time would literally just make a chord shape at a random place on the fretboard and make me tell him what chord it was by looking at his fretboard and counting until I got it right… good practice!

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and

That’s ultimately where I’m trying to get. Thanks @Michael_Mark for the input.

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Hi @Brent.H Brent On my banjo journey I used a lot of resources to help me memorize chord locations.

This website was my quick reference guide https://banjochords.net/chords/chart/

Geoff Hohwald was one of my best resources in the early day’s Geoff had a lesson that included a picture of the entire banjo neck and you could print this off and mark out the chord shapes for easy reference.

Janet Davis Music produced a large wallchart showing every note on the banjo. @Jake Stogdill might be able to help you with one if there was any stock left when the JD store closed down.

That said @BanjoBen 's Lessons is probably the best resource for learning chords. The Fretboard Geography Course with Alan Munde has already been mentioned but Ben has also produced a lot of lessons that cover chords. Unlock the Neck With Patterns, The Waypoint Lessons in G & C. Ben never did complete that series. Still wafting on D. The 6th Interval Banjo Backup. Pretty much every lesson Ben creates he will do a mini section on a chord shape.

Hope this helps you in some way.

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Thanks @Archie. I’m familiar with a few of those, and @Mark_Rocka sent me something awhile ago that sounds like what you referenced. It’s helpful for me to hear what’s worked for others, so I appreciate you chiming in.

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To be honest, I still haven’t learned them all. The first time I went to Ben’s house, we talked about this subject. He grabbed my banjo and said “You already know where they are. You just don’t know it.” He proceeded to show me a little trick that blew my mind and, in that moment, I totally got it.

Then camp started, my brain got filled with other stuff, and pushed his lesson right out. All I remember is that it had something to do with knowing the note of the 4th string.

@BanjoBen, do you remember that? If so, it would make for an awesome lesson.

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Amen :+1:

I’m like @Mark_Rocka but much worse. I’m lucky if I can hit just the gc&d past the 5th fret quick enough!:tired_face: But a lesson would be great.