I probably could have worded the title better but oh well. I’m trying to learn “New Beastly” from the new Vulfpeck album. It’s surprisingly straightforward for the most part (I’m pretending the soloing bit at the end doesn’t exist for now). I’m just having trouble finding a fingering that works for this part:
Nothing I do feels like it would work if I were to play it at speed. I’ve tried watching the video but Big Joe has his flying fingers so under control that it barely looks like he’s moving at all so that didn’t help. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I can tell you how I’m fingering this, with the caveat that it’s just what’s working for me currently. I finger the G (on the E string) with index, then slide over and finger the A with index as well, then the B with my pinky, then index and pinky for the D - E - D on the A string. I joint bar the G on the D string, with my index since it’s already there. Next I slide over and use my second finger on the E (A string) then my index on the A (D string), Second finger on the A#, and pinky on the B. I had the most trouble with that last transition and using the second finger on that A string E near the end made the transition to the index on the D string A easier. You could also try using index for both and joint baring, but that didn’t really work well for me.
I keep going back and forth between these two ways of doing it. The first one feels more natural, but the second appears to be slightly more efficient. Figured it was easier to demonstrate than describe it:
For major pentatonic scales in the shifting position (which is what this is) I use my index and pinky exclusively.
It’s super comfortable and feels amazing.
The 3rd fret E you play with index.
The index shifts up to the 5th fret for the next 7 notes for all the 5-7 stuff, and the pinky plays all the 7 stuff.
For the last 3 notes, that’s index, middle, pinky.
Basically, all Simandl fingerings for me when I’m playing pentatonic scales.
