Pinkie Problem

[Raiyanx Toshiaki]

Hey guys, do some of you feel that u have underutilize your pinkie when playing the guitar? And when playing scales fast, I find that my pinkie always "automatically" lift off the fretboard very fast... >.< any remedies? Or like special exercises to help?

 

[EugeneSmasher]

Just keep practising using it. But yeah it's difficult. I can use my pinkie sometimes but most of the time, for fast-soloing, I forgo the pinkie altogether and rely on my other fingers and my hand-speed. Been doing that for some years now. I was performing occasionally so didn't have the time to train my pinkie. Now that I'm no longer performing, I'm trying to train it up a bit by using it more.

 

[faekildare]

I play till the point I just had to use my pinky...... Some frets are so far apart to stretch that it makes more sense just to use pinky.

 

[fifafu]

I started by digging my nose with my pinkie...over time, I have develop the necessity pinkie dexterity to use it efficiently.

PS : Might has to grow a little bit of nail...it does help if you do need to reach deeper.

 

[Likui]

I started by digging my nose with my pinkie...over time, I have develop the necessity pinkie dexterity to use it efficiently.

PS : Might has to grow a little bit of nail...it does help if you do need to reach deeper.

I don't think you'll be able to sell any guitar 2nd hand any more lol

 

[ShredAddict]

practice is the only way to go. chromatics will help.

 

[relinquish69]

hammer ons and pull offs make you sound cool plus build up your finger strength.

 

[3hree6ixty]

I played crazy train with just my index and pinkie to improve the finger's dexterity. but that's just me. =P

 

[Raiyanx Toshiaki]

Hey thanks so far I've been playing Crazy Train using all fingers, I think I'll try all my fingers

 

[Raiyanx Toshiaki]

Thank you all for you're time, i'll try out everyone, including chromatics, just not the digging nose one

 

[XskaBand]

You need to ensure that your fingers are flat against the strings. I've had this problem before when I was practicing scales on the guitar and sometimes I would be delayed in my picking. The picking hand would have to ''wait'' for that pinky to land on the fret before it is being picked.

Have your thumb (of your fretting hand) placed approximately at the centre of the neck. This will have your fingers positioned further up and this is beneficial too because when you do that unwanted strings are muted and therefore you can isolate the string you wanna pick without having string noise. Of course, there is right hand muting too so having those is effective 2 fold.

Well, back to topic. Doing chromatics WITH a metronome is definetly the answer. But what you want is your pinky steadily moving downward to the corresponding string, and not lifting off the fretboard like you mentioned. At any point if you see your pinky lift up, start the chromatics all over again, right from the first fret 6th string onwards. There will definetly be significant changes as you practice religiously.

Cheers.

 

[xnanas]

wow.. disipline is the key

i think i gotta add more portion of chromatic to my pinky.. hohoho~