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Exploring The Fingerboard - Scales
Editor's note: this article originally ran in Banjo Newsletter's March 1976 edition. It is re-published here by permission from the author and the Banjo Newsletter.
If you have ever studied another musical instrument you are familiar with the scales and exercises that are included in the beginner's instruction books. Outside of the rolls in Scruggs' oriented material and the occasional scale in books that discuss the 'chromatic' there is really no systematic approach to development of basic scales that can come only by exercises.
What advantages do exercises have in learning an instrument? They not only develop the physical and mechanical skills, but if properly used they train the mind as well. A regular practice session that employs exercises can be a most worthwhile experience.
I never thought that I would be advocating a series of exercises that use the middle finger on the second string. As readers of BNL know I have discussed this in the past, usually offering an alternative fingering such as 'dragging the thumb'. My reason was a cop-out because I couldn't do it. The finger-pick was always getting snagged and out of frustration I looked for other ways to make the same notes. But, I decided that I would force myself to re-examine the whole idea of the 'inside roll' and see if I could develop the skill. The following exercises were developed with this in mind and if you give them about 30 minutes a day you will find that they are quite helpful.
Study the scales and see if they can be rearranged into many variants; if an exercise ends in M or T pick another that starts with I for a continuous exercise. It is also helpful for the mind as well as the fingers to alternate octaves.
So this section can be fun as well as a drill I have also thrown in octave exercise that use another skill that I find invaluable: the cross-over to the fifth string and the quick thumb lead on the second string after the index has struck the same string. The upper-neck exercise is actually an octave break for "Jordan's Hornpipe" which first appeared in BNL (Dec. '75).
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About the Author
 In 1971, while working as a high school librarian, Hubbard Nitchie began compiling information on the 5-string banjo. He called it "The Banjo Clearinghouse," and that, along with a banjo tablature service he also offered called "Tab of the Month," eventually became The Banjo Newsletter.
Hub played 3-finger style, and was especially partial to the melodic style; his own columns in "BNL", Exploring the Fingerboard, concentrated on that style. In September ,1992, Hub received the Personality of the Year in Print Media award from the IBMA. In October 1992 he passed away in Greensboro, Maryland.
In 1988, Hub wrote: "Whatever objective you have with your interest in the banjo—to play for yourself or for others, or whatever musical style you prefer—our goal at Banjo Newsletter is to celebrate the banjo."
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