In Session 2, you’ll venture up the neck to explore commonly used left-hand melodic scale positions from the fifth to twelfth frets, covering the first five notes of the second-octave G major scale. Bill shows you how to use some of these positions to play a straightforward arrangement of the melodic banjo standard “Blackberry Blossom.” Then he compares the G, C, and D scales in melodic style and shows you the G major pentatonic scale, which he uses as the foundation of an arrangement of the jam favorite “The Eighth of January.” For more experienced players, Bill shows you several different up-the-neck closed melodic positions, where all strings are fretted, which allow you to play scale segments using a single left-hand position in different keys. You’ll apply all of this knowledge to an intermediate/advanced arrangement of “Monroe’s Hornpipe.”
