Pinkie finger

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Few I will admit, but darn few, I don't think so. I know a handful of cool trad irish in G minor.

Crabs in the Skillet is one I keep meaning to learn. One I do play is "Seanamhac Tube Station," which is masquerading as G minor but it's actually sort of G dorian gapped scale where there isn't a third (the Bb).

Any true G minor or dorian tune is a good way to upset any non-keyed flute, button box, or whistle players in a group session. But yeah... there are some cool tunes in that mode.

[JeffD]

Some cool O'Carolan in Gm. Planxty Wilkinson and Planxty Drew come to mind.

[James Rankine]

Those of us who have switched to tenor banjo from the mandolin, and use mandolin fingering, make a lot of use of switching to the second position. By that I mean moving the index finger to the third fret, and since a lot of fiddle tunes cycle between the G, A and the B the stretch becomes less and allows the fingers to stay in position close to the fingerboard (economy of movement of the fretting hand is something I have been working hard on). I'm doing it here in the B part making slight shifts between the first and second position. Obviously if you are going between F sharp and B it doesn't work, in which case I either pivot with my ring finger on the A or make a jump depending on the note sequence - both of which involve pulling the other fingers slightly away from the fretboard. The interesting thing is that this has transferred to my mandolin playing where I keep shifting to the second position for these fiddle tunes when I didn't use to. As I'm primarily a banjo player for fiddle tunes now I've decided to just go with the flow when It's a tune I usually play on banjo. Do other mandolin players shift to second position for these common key fiddle tunes?

Regarding peghead nation I can really recommend Marla Fibish's Irish mandolin course if this is the style you are interested in - no greater player in my opinion.

[Bertram Henze]

when I went to TB from mandolin, my hand jumped all over the fretboard to do all frets with the proper mandolin finger, i.e. 2nd fret with index, 7th with pinky, and it was no problem because of the almost zero pressure needed for fretting and the effortless high output. But when moving from there to the OM, I had to fundamentally change my ways. So today I am shifting to higher positions when needed, and I use that to do without pinky. Sean sa Cheo is one example:

[AlpineDave]

How about on, say, the G string--Is it acceptable to shift the hand slightly to reach the seventh fret with the pinky?

[Bertram Henze]

shift the hand slightly

I think we should distuingish "shifting the hand (1)" from just "moving the hand (2)":

1 - both thumb and index base positions change
2 - thumb stays where it is, only index base moves (the shape of the hand is changing with a slight turn of the wrist)

#2 is totally normal in my book and does not count as changing to 2nd, 3rd etc. positions

[AlpineDave]

I think we should distuingish "shifting the hand (1)" from just "moving the hand (2)":

1 - both thumb and index base positions change
2 - thumb stays where it is, only index base moves (the shape of the hand is changing with a slight turn of the wrist)

#2 is totally normal in my book and does not count as changing to 2nd, 3rd etc. positions

Then, is #2 the proper way to reach the D fret on the G course? I think that's what I'm doing, but I'll have to play a G scale to find out.

[AlanN]

Everybody's hand is different. I just checked mine by playing the opening salvo to Blackberry Blossom, and then a closed-string G major scale ascent and descent starting with ring finger on D5. My hand neither shifts nor moves. And to note: when I reach the B note on E7, all 4 fingers are down (index on E2, middle on E3, ring on E5, pinky on E7).

[mandomurph]

I would suggest some stretching exercises on the left hand. For example, group the middle 3 fingers of your right hand. Spread the fingers of you left hand and place the 3 right hand fingers in the left hand gaps and gently push down to spread the left hand fingers. If you do this before you play it will loosen up the fingers and eventually increase the breadth of you spread. My left hand spread is about 3/4 of an inch wider than my right hand spread.