Fret fingering for Bad Moon?

[Paula_C]

Newbie here and trying to learn Bad Moon Rising to play with uke band (don’t laugh). I can’t seem to come up with consistent fingering on my own and am worried that I am developing bad wayward finger habits (OK laugh) on my own. Any suggestions for correct fret hand fingering?

[John_E]

Correct is what works for you and feels the best.
There are certainly more efficient ways of course.
I generally try different things on more difficult bits to see what feels best.
In general, the closest finger to the target makes the most sense, but, you have to look to see where you are headed next too.

Since this song sits mainly on the 3rd and 5th fret, you can try (on 3rd and 5th respectively)

• Index / Ring
• Index / Pinky
• Index Pinky+Ring (comes from the Smandl technique, the ring finger helps out the pinky if not very strong)

I just looked back at my cover of this and I did something completely different, using index for most notes. It worked, but now that I have been playing a bit more I am inclined to do it the Smandl way above (but only becuase I have been working on this in private lessons).

So back to … whatever works!
It is slow enough and simple enough that it probably doesn’t really matter how efficient you are.

You can see how a bunch of folks did it here…

Song 2 - "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

This one doesn’t officially start until the 22nd of March, but I know some people have finished the first song early and will want to start talking about the next one, so am creating this thread a week early. I’ll be doing this for all future songs. If you haven’t finished “Another Brick in the Wall” yet (like me!), don’t worry. There is no rush. In fact, you could take a month on each song if you want or just join in on songs you want to. Totally up to you. Song: Bad Moon Rising Artist: …

[Wombat-metal]

I used to struggle with stretching for frets, practice is the answer. will come with time.

I found Mannish Boy by Muddy Waters a good song to practice this on. On the A string, A D A C A, 0 5 0 3 0. That’s the whole song.

Also I did I & R+P

[sshoihet]

@Paula_C

Any suggestions for correct fret hand fingering?

When playing root/5th/octave i’ll use index-pinky as much as possible. I’ll usually roll the pinky on the way up from the 5th-octave and use pinky-ring on the way down from octave-5th. I try different out different ways and use whichever is easiest and gives me the sound I want. I don’t use one finger per fret until i get up past the 8th fret or so. Whichever you choose, just make sure to always stick to that; you should always be using the same fingers every time you play through a song.

[Paula_C]

Thank you all! I needed just this reassurance.