LH fingering.....or in John Masciale's case RH fingering

[Al Smitley]

I've been talking to a few banjoists lately about the fingers they use on the fretboard.

I've always used the index and ring finger to form the 'G' chord (Brigg's tuning).  That seems most efficient to me because you can merely put the middle finger and pinky down to get the 'C' chord and merely pick them up again to get the 'G' chord.  Same goes for the Am...just put your middle finger down and pick it up.  But I asked Tim about it and he said that he uses both methods (index and ring finger AND index and middle finger) for the 'G' chord.

I could be wrong but after viewing videos, it appears that Paul Draper, Carl Anderton, and Mark Weems and Tim Twiss (usually) use the index and ring finger.  With Leonidas Jones and Greg Adams and the last video I've seen of Strumelia, it appears they use the index and middle finger.... though my observations, in both cases, may be too limited a sampling to say for sure.

I guess I've concluded that whatever is most comfortable is probably best, but Just out of curiosity, I wonder what fingering is used by most on this site and why/what got them started with that method.  And.....let me know if I jumped to erroneous conclusions on those mentioned above.

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

I actually have fairly small hands, certainly for a bass player. The longest scale length I play on is a 27" though, and 3rd finger feels pretty comfortable, I would probably have to rethink that if I were trying to play a 30" instrument.

[Al Smitley]

Strum, if you're talking about using the pinky to 'fret' the 'C' on the first string, I do that, as well.  Click to enlarge my photo.  You can see that I'm playing a 'C' chord.  I think that's even more logical if you play the 'G' chord with your index/ring finger because you leave your ring finger on the 'B' and lay your pinky (the only one possible) down on the 'C'.  In fact, I guess that, as much as anything, makes me think that playing the 'G' with I/R is easier than I/M.  When you play the 'G' chord with I/M, you have to pick up your index finger to put it on the 'F' on the third string and then pick it up again to put it back on the 'B' when the chord changes back to the 'G'.  Playing the 'G' with I/R, you can just put your middle finger on the 'F' and pinky on the 'C' and leave the fingering for the 'G' chord in place, thus merely lifting the middle and pinky to go back to the 'G'.  I guess I'm making too much of this.  It's not a big deal!  It just feels awkward, to me, to use the I/M instead of the I/R but.... I would imagine it feels awkward to those accustomed to using I/M to play it with I/R.  So the bottom line, I guess, is that it just depends what you're accustomed to.... no right or wrong!