https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/mandolin-fretboard-geography-1-4-5-chords-mandolin-intermediate
This is one of those lessons that I would have paid $500 for back when I was learning the mandolin neck. Folks, don’t remain in the dark…learn your fretboards! Put in the hard work, it’s worth it!
Listen mandolin pickers: I need y’all to work through this one and give me some feedback. Yes, this lesson requires you to think. HOWEVER, if you can grasp it, and I think you can, it could really open your mando neck up–especially if you’ve always just thought about the mando neck in terms of licks and not positions.
Great lesson! I work on this type of stuff a lot on the fiddle.
It’s awesome for preparing to freely play in different keys and for a “base” for positions for improvising.
This is great!! Reminds me of the Segovia exercises we had to learn on the guitar that were so helpful. Thanks, Ben. -d. 
Barely into this lesson and have already had 2 or 3 “Ah Ha!” moments! Best lesson in a long time! Thank you Ben!
Thanks Ben, this is great. i knew this but never really worked on it. looking forward to spending several hours on it. Thanks again, God bless.
Well done!!!
Looking forward to digesting this lesson.
Hey all,
Can you pray for me? I broke my left shoulder while snorkeling in Hawaii. I had surgery a week ago and everything went well. This is going to be a long haul in terms of recovery and I want to get back to pickin! I will keep up the best I can.
Blessings,
Dean
Ben, Awesome lesson. I was going to start laying out the scales and such and figure this out on my own, but now I don’t have to, :).
The lick almost sounds like the background mandolin on ‘friend of the devil’ which I am working on memorizing at this time.
Thanks for all the hard work you do for us!
Tim…
Ouch! Praying, Dean 
Really enjoyed it…and am looking forward to applying other licks over the practice tune. I pulled up the bag of licks in g and started rethinking the connections. Great lesson, and thanks for it!
That was an amazing lesson Ben! I just finished watching it, and I just had to laugh at some of the basic concepts I had simply never thought of before. Keep up the good work!
I’m putting some time into this. I’m developing a callous on my left thumb; is that normal? And wow, my pinky is getting a workout! I have to stop often and shake it out.
But a worthwhile lesson. Re-enforcing the 1-4-5 connection is great. Also I want to strum a G-chord at the end, so just 7th fret on the G string and 5th fret on the D string?
A+ lesson @BanjoBen . Thank you!
It’s funny. I’ve only been playing the mando for about half a year. I’ve played guitar for about a million years. I’m starting to wonder how well I really understand that fretboard. Hmmm… I bet there is a lesson for that.
This is a short tangent, but it is interesting trying to play along with a seasoned player. You can play the right notes and still not be right. My descending eighth-note run was not sounding the same as when Ben played it. His sounded much better. For a while I thought I was playing a wrong note. Then I thought that maybe Ben was sneaking in a mystery note to test us. What I think I realized is that I was playing it too straight. I wasn’t giving it feeling. You gotta put a little swing into those eighth notes. After that it started sounding better. Still not as good as Ben the String Sensei, but closer.
Anyway, thanks again Sensei. It’s a good one.
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing…
Yep, exactly! And you’ll include that 5th fret on the A string, which is the 5.
That’s what I was hoping for!
I love listening for the mandolin in CDB’s Uneasy Rider, but I always thought, “I could never get there.” HA! I’m there! Great lesson.
This is exactly what I needed! I’ve been trying to figure out the mandolin neck but wasn’t making much progress. Thanks for the fantastic lesson!
The one main thing that I am so thankful for is you always throw a little something extra in for us players that are beyond beginner but still have room to grow. Everyone and their brother teaches beginners, but us “tweeners” seem to always get left behind. Thank you for being different and setting such a good example for us. Banjo Ben is the best. Bill
hi Ben, This was awesome lesson. Been taking lessons for awhile now from different folks…and I can’t believe no one has ever explained this in this way. It is so helpful and as Don Stirnberg says the mandolin,“the greatest instrument ever”, is laid out in fifths so it makes this kind of stuff so easy to grab once you get the concepts. So my question is, I tried this pattern starting on the C , 5th fret on the G string. Getting to the F was easy enough using this pattern and to the G as well, but then finishing with this pattern to the C I had to go to the C on the A string (3rd fret). Now I did that because I knew the note but the pattern that so beautifully follows at the end of that exercise if you start on a higher string is not the same if you start on any fret on the G string (the distance between the pinky and the first finger). I am sure there is a simple way of looking at this but I am feeling a bit dumb about it.