10-12-2007, 03:32 AM
I also attempted to not use my little finger very much when I first started.. I have a double-jointed little finger so it makes life a little difficult in that department.. Anyway.. The way I learnt to include my little finger was that it's basically one finger per fret.. so if you're playing a shape that has a stretch from say fret 5 to fret 8, then you would play the 5th fret with your index finger and the 8th fret with your "pinky" finger. I played quite happily for years without using my pinky but once you get your pinky trained up, it becomes just as useful.
I am currently exploring the Major scales all across the neck.. for example there are two main ways to play the D Major scale on the guitar. The first starts on the 10th fret of the bottom-E string and the other starts on the 5th fret of the A string. Once you know both of those, then you can start playing between them by joining them at different places so you can practise using your fingers and learning the major scale positions.
Here's what I mean.. I've placed a number underneath each note on the tab sheet. These are the fingers I am using for each note. The first finger is the index finger and the 4th is the pinky finger. Also when I am playing the D Major chord starting from the 5th fret of the A string, I run out of room going across the fretboard before I reach the end of the 2nd octave.. so instead of ending up playing the last 4 or 5 notes on the same string, I utilise some basic slides to go up and down. I've included the way I come back down as well because the slides are in different places.
Notice that the two shapes overlap at the 10th fret of the top-E string.. you can use this to your advantage by learning both shapes at the same time.. or find your own ways of joining the two shapes together.. scales can be fun if you want them to be.. There are other ways to play the same scale in different places on the fret-board and that is what I am currently exploring at the moment. I'm trying to figure out which are the most useful for whatever reasons.. Also knowing where "moveable" shapes are helps in quickly finding a major scale in any key, then shifting to a mode from there.
D Major scale - 10th fret bottom-E string
E |-------------------------------|--------------------9--10---------|
B |-------------------------------|------------10--12----------------|
G |-------------------------------|-9--11--12------------------------|
D |--------------------9--11--12--|----------------------------------|
A |---------9--10--12-------------|----------------------------------|
E |-10--12------------------------|----------------------------------|
2 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 1 3 4 2 4 1 2
D Major scale - 5th fret A string
E |-------------------------------|--------------7--9--10------------|
B |-------------------------------|----7--8--10----------------------|
G |-----------------4--6--7///////|/9--------------------------------|
D |--------4--5--7----------------|----------------------------------|
A |--5--7-------------------------|----------------------------------|
E |-------------------------------|----------------------------------|
2 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 4 1 2 4 1 3 4
E |-10--9--7----------------------|----------------------------------|
B |-----------10--8--7------------|----------------------------------|
G |---------------------9--7\\\\\\|\6--------------------------------|
D |-------------------------------|----9--7---5\\\\4-----------------|
A |-------------------------------|-------------------7--5-----------|
E |-------------------------------|----------------------------------|
4 3 1 4 2 1 3 1 1 4 2 1 1 4 2 End of Post
Now that I've been practising with the major scale shapes for a while, I can say without a doubt that incorporating my pinkie into the equation has helped my "muscle memory" and visual memory of where everything is.
