Up The Neck Banjo Lick in G

ByJody 05/30/202506/13/2025

Today I want to share an up the neck banjo lick I use a lot over a G chord.

Pay close attention to the left hand fingering above the TAB. You’ll begin by placing your middle finger on the 10th fret of the 2nd string. The pinky will come over and hit the 12th fret of the 5th string. This is a melodic style lick. In this example, I move to the 8th fret in the next measure. However, this lick works great when you are up the neck and quickly want to get back down the neck.

Theoretically speaking, these first four notes are the first four notes of a G major pentatonic scale (G A B D)…only the E note is missing to be the complete pentatonic scale. If you like this lick and would like to see others, I recently uploaded a sheet with five others on it for my PATREON members.

Please consider signing up for my BANJO JOURNEY EMAIL NEWSLETTER. I’ll notify you when I update the website, post new videos, and TABS.

Check out my Book Of Solos past the 5th fret on my ETSY store:

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Jody

Professional musician and educator of 27 years. I've played Banjo and Acoustic Guitar on the stages of Carnegie Hall, The Grand Ole Opry, and The Ryman Auditorium. 4X winner of the Georgia State banjo and flatpick guitar competitions. My banjo playing was featured in the "A Waltons Thanksgiving" movie.

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