I checked back on my Cathy Fink DVD to see how she forms the F chord and here's the skinny: she uses her pinky finger on the first string. This would seem to be true of her D chord as well, I didn't check.
Fustigation about this cleared up some of my thinking about the tuning of the strings.
I was beginning to think that gCGBD tuning was not that much of an improvement over gDGBD. So I studied on what I was getting VS what I was giving up.
It seems to me that 'drop C' gives me an easier F chord. And I get one full step lower note - C - at the bottom.
Standard G tuning gives me a tiny bit easier G chord. Standard G also makes tones on the 4th string a bit easier... E-F-F# are just a bit more awkward to me using drop C.
I'm creating lots of tabs in C tuning. My memory skills are still lousy and I haven't broken my dependency on tabs. Still I'm getting better with the physical parts, hands and mouth, i.e. banjo playing and lyrics.
My worry factor is on the low peg. I don't expect to play much in public and I just want to entertain myself.
