When thinking about fingering, we need to decide where to place the hand. Hand / fingering positions are always based on where the index finger, and we either describe them using frets (i.e. the imaginary lines on the fret board as shown in the diagram below) or by the classical positions.

The Classical positions are as follows

• Half position – first finger on 1st fret (Ab on G string)
• 1st position – first finger on 2nd fret (A on G string)
• 2nd position – first finger on 4th fret (B on G string)
• 3rd position – first finger on 5th fret (C on G string)
• 4th position – first finger on 7th  fret (D on G string)