Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

D Lick Left Hand Fingering

#1

Hi @BanjoBen

Looking for suggestions on how best to finger this tricky UTN D Lick and play it smoothly.

D lick LH Fingering 2.tef (882 Bytes)

#2

MI PM IR MI IM IP IM
I would start with the "Y’ position without the ring finger which would then fret the 11th fret, then drop my index to barre the 10th fret then back to the “Y” position. You could use your ring finger instead of the pinky but I like to stay in position. Hope this makes sense and hope it helps.
Fret hand position is; MIP MIR MII MIP IM

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#3

HI Archie,
I agree with dougfish.

Another way of looking at this is that you play the Cumberland shape at the 10th fret. Then you use your pinky to play the 12th fret and you barre with your index to play the 10th fret.

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#4
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#5

Hi Guy’s

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I have tried various fingerings including the bar in Mark’s video (thanks Mark for doing that really appreciate it) but I am struggling to get the movement. It’s quite a fast tune but even when slowed down I am not making it. I am moving from an F shaped G chord to the D and back to the G. See extended TAB.

D lick combo LH Fingering.tef (1.0 KB)

#6
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#7

Hi Mark

Got it, the problem wasn’t so much moving between the two positions it was my brain couldn’t figure out what to do with the D lick when I got there.

So here’s how I figured it. I moved the F shape up to the D Posn. and played the first part 321 with my ring finger still planted on the forth string. then quickly moving the ring finger to the first string (Em shape) as I let go with the pinky, and played 321 then dropping the angle of my index finger to bar the first string as I lifted my ring finger to play 321 then adding the pinky at the 12th to complete the lick. This is probably way more complicated and not the way most folks do this but after I practiced it a few times I quickly began to build speed and the picking sounds clean.

I was finding that if I tried baring the first two strings at the outset my middle finger would end up touching the second string muffling the sound as I tried to play the lick also it was taking way too long to set up the bar shape.

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#8

Sounds like a lot of extra movement, but hey, if it works for you, go with it! I have to adapt things to my liking all the time. Glad you got it figured out.

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#9

Thanks for the backup help, @Mark_Rocka! @Archie, these last couple days have been crazy, but Mark is the man!

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