DIRECTIONAL FINGERINGS
Fminor/Ab directional fingering
This fingering is one of many directional fingerings that can be created from the material in my book on this website. It moves through 4 of the 5 positional scale fingerings for an F Minor or Ab Major type of scale. 1st position, 3rd position, 5th, and 8th. A directional fingering can be an advantage when playing a melody up or down the neck as needed when you want to move to another area of the neck. You can make many different melodies by embellishing this fingering and varying the fingering as you move around within it.
To make other directional fingerings using the information in my book you could think of starting a different fingering on your 1st, 2nd, and 4th fingers starting on the 6th or 5th strings. For Fm7 this one starts on your 1st finger. For Ab or AbMajor 7th this one starts on your 4th finger etc. You can also create many differences in fingerings depending on which string you shift on and which finger you shift on or to. You will of course run into many similarities and duplications as you work on these types of fingerings. My book works a few out for you over the length of the neck in the last section. I believe there are five or six that are actually different used for the 12 keys. Within them there are some similarities, so I can’t say I listed any specific number of unique fingerings. This is due to the nature of the guitar when harmonically mapping the range of the fret board.
Above I said this is an F Minor or Ab Major type of scale fingering because I don't want to label them as dorian, ionian, lydian etc. I studied the George Russell Lydian Concept of Tonal Organization (http://www.georgerussell.com) so I see it as a lydian scale – Ab Lydain.You can think of it as you like.
You can play this for any:
AbMaj7, 9, #11, 13
Fm7,9, 11, 13
Bb7,9, 11, 13
Dm7b5
Looking a little closer at this it is a standard line for Fm7 without the 6th which would be the 3rd of Bb7. You can use this for IIm7 V7 (Fm7 to Bb7). This should be practiced up and down the neck with the exact fingering starting on the first position then on the 2nd etc. It tops out about Bbm7 or Cm7 depending on the range of your guitar and you.
I like the idea of not playing the 3rd of the V7 chord. After a while you can really hear it and since you are going out of your way not to play it you know where that sound is. You can also get real fast at the fingering after a while. If you don't hear the 3rd of the V7 (Bb7) just throw it in a few times as a resolution to the V7 to get it in your ear. Then practice without playing it and pretty soon you hear it when not playing it and you then know it.
Page Last Updated: March 7, 2007 | Email: cgrey0224@comcast.net