Moving Along the Neck
When to read this: after Session 17, “Shifts”, “Power Chords by Root”, “If a Reach Pulls” (20 minutes). None of this reading is part of a session’s 50 minutes.
What You’ll Learn
Section titled “What You’ll Learn”This handout is about moving the fretting hand along the neck. It covers the shift; the three-string power chord found by the name of its root, and its daily limit; the highest fret each phase of the course reaches; and what to do if a reach pulls.
Session 17 sends you to three sections: “Shifts”, “Power Chords by Root” and “If a Reach Pulls”. The fourth, “The Fret Each Phase Reaches”, is not part of that reading. If a reach pulls on any day, turn to “If a Reach Pulls” again.
Shifts
Section titled “Shifts”This is the rule of this course for single notes. In a scale or a tune, each finger has its own fret. A note outside the hand is reached by moving the hand, never by stretching a finger. No fingering has two frets between fingers 3 and 4.
A chord shape may put two fingers at one fret, as the power chord does.
Move your whole hand along the neck, thumb travelling with it. This is a shift, not a stretch.
If it pulls, stop that item for today; if it aches, stop playing for today.
When you place the three-string power-chord shape at a root from a card or a chart, it moves from one root to the next by this rule:
The shape is lifted and placed, never slid along the strings.
Between two roots the shape itself does not change: all three fingers move the same number of frets. Between a root on string 6 and a root on string 5, every finger also moves one string.
This shape has no open string, so its sound ends when you lift; that is expected.
Power Chords by Root
Section titled “Power Chords by Root”Three-string power-chord work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total.
Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.
- Root on string 6, root on string 5 — The two places for the moveable three-string power chord: finger 1 holds the root on string 6 or on string 5, and the chord is named after the note under finger 1. The name of a power chord placed this way says which, as in “G5 (string 6)”; the four of Beginner Session 20 (F5, Bb5, Ab5, Db5) keep their names. (Session 17)
The shape never changes: finger 1 on the root, finger 3 two frets higher on the next string, finger 4 on the same fret as finger 3, one string further. The chord takes its name from the note under finger 1.
A power chord found by its root is written with the string of its root in brackets, as in G5 (string 6). F5, Bb5, Ab5 and Db5 keep the names the beginner course gave them, with no brackets. E5, A5 and D5 with no brackets are the open two-string shapes of the beginner course.
Two diagrams stand for every power chord found by its root: first the shape with its root on string 6, then the shape with its root on string 5. Both are drawn with the root at fret 3. Every other root is found from the table further down.
- Finger 1 (index): string 6 (low E), fret 3
- Finger 3 (ring): string 5 (A), fret 5
- Finger 4 (little finger): string 4 (D), fret 5
- Do not play strings 3, 2 and 1
- Strum strings 6, 5 and 4 only
- Notes, string 6 to string 4: G, D, G
This block is for reading here: play it in its session and in the week’s row, not from this handout.
- Finger 1 (index): string 5 (A), fret 3
- Finger 3 (ring): string 4 (D), fret 5
- Finger 4 (little finger): string 3 (G), fret 5
- Do not play strings 6, 2 and 1
- Strum strings 5, 4 and 3 only
- Notes, string 5 to string 3: C, G, C
This block is for reading here: play it in its session and in the week’s row, not from this handout.
On string 6 the natural notes are E (open), F (fret 1), G (fret 3), A (fret 5), B (fret 7), C (fret 8) and D (fret 10). On string 5 they are A (open), B (fret 2), C (fret 3), D (fret 5), E (fret 7), F (fret 8) and G (fret 10). A sharp note is one fret above its letter; one fret above B is C and one fret above E is F, so no fret lies between those two pairs.
The table gives every power chord by its root: the nine of Session 17 and the four of Beginner Session 20.
| Chord | Root note | Finger 1 (root) | Fingers 3 and 4 | Strum strings | Notes | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F5 | F | string 6, fret 1 | strings 5 and 4, fret 3 | 6, 5 and 4 | F, C, F | Beginner Session 20 |
| F#5 (string 6) | F# | string 6, fret 2 | strings 5 and 4, fret 4 | 6, 5 and 4 | F#, C#, F# | Session 17 |
| G5 (string 6) | G | string 6, fret 3 | strings 5 and 4, fret 5 | 6, 5 and 4 | G, D, G | Session 17 |
| Ab5 | Ab | string 6, fret 4 | strings 5 and 4, fret 6 | 6, 5 and 4 | Ab, Eb, Ab | Beginner Session 20 |
| A5 (string 6) | A | string 6, fret 5 | strings 5 and 4, fret 7 | 6, 5 and 4 | A, E, A | Session 17 |
| B5 (string 6) | B | string 6, fret 7 | strings 5 and 4, fret 9 | 6, 5 and 4 | B, F#, B | Session 17 |
| Bb5 | Bb | string 5, fret 1 | strings 4 and 3, fret 3 | 5, 4 and 3 | Bb, F, Bb | Beginner Session 20 |
| B5 (string 5) | B | string 5, fret 2 | strings 4 and 3, fret 4 | 5, 4 and 3 | B, F#, B | Session 17 |
| C5 (string 5) | C | string 5, fret 3 | strings 4 and 3, fret 5 | 5, 4 and 3 | C, G, C | Session 17 |
| C#5 (string 5) | C# | string 5, fret 4 | strings 4 and 3, fret 6 | 5, 4 and 3 | C#, G#, C# | Session 17 |
| Db5 | Db | string 5, fret 4 | strings 4 and 3, fret 6 | 5, 4 and 3 | Db, Ab, Db | Beginner Session 20 |
| D5 (string 5) | D | string 5, fret 5 | strings 4 and 3, fret 7 | 5, 4 and 3 | D, A, D | Session 17 |
| E5 (string 5) | E | string 5, fret 7 | strings 4 and 3, fret 9 | 5, 4 and 3 | E, B, E | Session 17 |
C#5 (string 5) and Db5 are the same three frets: C sharp and D flat are two names for one note.
No root is above fret 7, so no finger is above fret 9.
With the root on string 5, the shape leaves string 6 out:
String 6 must stay silent: let the tip of finger 1 lean lightly against it.
The 5 minutes a day count every three-string shape: the nine of Session 17 and the four of the beginner course, F5, Bb5, Ab5 and Db5. The open two-string E5, A5 and D5 are not counted. A song chart in these chords is practised in sections inside the limit, never as one run from its first measure to its last.
A power-chord card in the Rotation row is one placing, so a card adds nothing to the day’s power-chord minutes. It is played as every chord card is:
Each chord card: place the shape once, pluck each string that should sound, let go.
One check, the test of exit criterion E5. Shuffle the nine power-chord cards face down and lay a sheet of paper over the pile, so that nothing on the top card can be read; draw them one at a time from under the paper. With the metronome at 60 BPM, draw a card and count the next five clicks: the chord is down when the fifth sounds. Then pluck its three strings one at a time and read the tuner for the root, and lift the shape before the next card. Pass: 7 of the 9 cards, only the three strings sounding. This is question 1 of Session 17, “Self-Check Questions”: take it on your last practice day of Week 17, in place of the first 2 minutes of the “Root-Finder Study” row, so that it stays inside the day’s power-chord minutes. If not: find each failed root in the table above by pointing first, then place it three times, and try again on your first practice day of Week 18, inside that day’s power-chord minutes.
The Fret Each Phase Reaches
Section titled “The Fret Each Phase Reaches”The table gives the highest fret the course asks your fretting hand to reach in each phase, and what reaches it.
| Phase | Highest fret asked for | What reaches it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fret 3 | Open position, as in the beginner course |
| 2 | Fret 4 | Finger 4 (little finger) in open position, from Session 7 |
| 3 | Fret 9 | Fingers 3 and 4 of a power chord whose root is at fret 7, from Session 17 |
| 4 to 6 | Fret 9 | Fingers 3 and 4 of a power chord whose root is at fret 7, as in Phase 3. Single notes reach fret 8, with finger 1 at fret 5, from Session 21. The two barre shapes at fret 5 reach fret 7 |
With a capo (from Session 9, at frets 1 to 4), every fret in this table is counted from the capo. The shapes are the open shapes, and the hand sits as many frets higher on the neck as the capo’s fret. That is a shift of the whole hand, not a reach.
The spider crawl of every warm-up is at frets 5 to 8 from Session 1, as in the beginner course, and the four moveable power chords of Beginner Session 20 reach fret 6. They are not new reaches.
No piece or exercise of this course asks you to play at a fret above 9, and no string is bent. The notes at frets 8 and 10 of strings 6 and 5 are named and found from Session 17; they are not pressed in a chord.
If a Reach Pulls
Section titled “If a Reach Pulls”Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.
If a reach pulls, do these three things, in this order. None of them is more force.
- Stop that item for today, as the line under “Shifts” says, and let the hand hang by your side.
- If the hand, wrist or thumb aches, stop playing for today: the pain rule in START HERE says so. If it only pulled, go on with a row of the day’s plan that does not reach.
- The next day, if nothing pulls or aches before you begin, move the whole hand before the item so that finger 1 is over the lowest fret of the shape, thumb travelling with it, and only then place the fingers.
If it pulls again on that next day, stop again and leave the item out for the rest of the week: the pain rule comes before the plan.
Two things are never done:
- Never hold a stretch against a clock, before or after playing.
- Never press harder to make a far note sound: the buzz fix below comes first.
If a note buzzes: (1) move the fingertip right up behind the fret wire; (2) stand the finger on its tip; (3) only then add the smallest extra pressure that clears the buzz.