You lost me here. Is this supposed to be C# to C?
When playing chords up the major scale, I think the chord progression is M - m - m - M - M - m - dim and back to M. (M = Major, m = minor, dim = diminished)
So, in the key of G, it’s:
G - Am - Bm - C - D - Em - F#dim - and back to G.
Mark, thanks for catching that…fixed.
I gave both options on the II chord (A) because you may run into either.
For instance you don’t normally lead into a V (D) chord with an Am in country, fiddle tunes, or bluegrass.
But there are many instances where a minor II is used in other places.
Just depends on the tune/song.
Playing within a scale is one thing, but the lesson actually deals more with starting to improvise and finding/moving through positions for playing the different scales required to get through a tune
There’s actually a really good reason for that that was spelled out for me a few years ago, and it blew my mind. The 2 chord of G is Am, but the reason that the A chord sounds so good as a transition chord to D (the 5 chord) is that A is the 5th of D. So you’re playing the 5th of the 5th, which causes the listener’s ear to beg for that resolution to D.
This is why I love music theory. 
yep.
III, VI, II, V change, or parts of it, is heard over and over in western styles. when heading to the I
Yes, I am doing more, but the A chord can be found by moving up 2 frets when on the G. The E minor can be found 2 frets above the D (just keep it in the G scale and you’re good!).
Ben, do we have such fret board lesson for guitar?? This is coool!!
Not yet, but it’s on the docket!
That would be awesome, Ben! When that happens, probably I would not know how to thank you enough! Not that I’m not thankful enough already. Keep up the good work!
Wow, Thank you Ben. The light is coming on, now I understand how to work the whole neck. Not good at it yet but that will come with time.
One hour playing and i feel completly difreent. Really nice job. Greatings from Spain
Wow! That’s quite an endorsement! I may have to pick up my mandolin and spend some time with this lesson. (Probably after the camp.)
Thanks for the feedback, @jornada82!
Wow, great feedback, thanks!
I am brand new to your site and am working my way around. For this particular lesson, I am having difficulty in figuring out which fret each of the measures is starting on. Hope that makes sense. For instance, in the lesson that includes measure 21, what fret do we start on. For measure 25, what fret do we start on, etc.? Thanks.
Hi @dusty1014 Lowery Welcome to @BanjoBen 's Forum.
Measure 21 Eco Combo is the start of the exercise pattern which runs from 21 throu to measure 28
Measure 29 is the start of the next exercise Shifty Combo,
You will see Ben has given each exercise a name above the start of each exercise, Hope this helps
PS. If your working from the PDF Tab Files I would strongly encourage you to download the free tab player Tefview ( then download the lesson tef files) that way you can listen and see what going on in the Tab and makes it so much easier to follow the lesson…
Checkout the thread below which explains more fully the benefits of working with TEF TAB Files
Welcome to the forum, @dusty1014! @Archie gave some good advice, and I don’t know if you have a question beyond what he stated. It sounds like you might need to watch the lesson on how to read tab: https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/how-to-read-mandolin-tab-mandolin-beginner
I promise to give this a try… And provide feedback.
The thing is… It will take me a bit to grasp, perform and absorb… but I will work on it!
Good stuff. Where do we go from here?
Hi @granaghan Welcome to @BanjoBen 's Forum. At this time Ben is without power due to a tornado passing through his home town. I am pleased to report Ben and his family are fine. But it may be a while till he sees your post and gets to reply as he is also preparing to host the first Cabin Camp this year in just a few short weeks.
I am not a Mandolin Player but what I will say if your are new to the mandolin focus on the beginner section for now. Learn the fundamentals because you will need these as you progress to the next level.
Maybe @Mark_Rocka or @Fiddle_wood can offer some guidance. Good luck
Hi @granaghan and welcome to the forum!
If you have a good understanding of the whole beginer section you can either pick another song or exercise or you can expand further on this exercise by using your imagination.
Some ideas on expanding this lesson:
Change which finger you start the lick with. These licks (and many others) can be played starting with any finger but the fingering changes if you hold the same hand position through each chord. (this can be very challenging but is great for dexterity and more understanding of hte scales)
Change the chord progression to any song you already know or another song lesson on the site.
You could go through the Bag o Licks lessons and combine it with the same ideas of from this lesson.
Hope this helps some.
If you’d like to apply what you’ve learned in this lesson series to more exercises, I’d recommend the pentatonic scale lessons followed by the scale lessons.
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/introduction-to-pentatonic-scales-mandolin
https://banjobenclark.com/courses/mandolin-scale-studies
But there’s also a lot of fun to be had in learning actual songs. If you’re ready for fun, pretty much any song that you’re drawn to is a good place to start. Just make sure you don’t do like I did and go for the really tough stuff first. Work your way up to it. Going too difficult in the beginning can get discouraging.