Originally Posted by: Kevin TaylorThere's a few of things you can try.
Three note per string scales is one. Another is getting proficient at sweeping.
Another is using economy picking
Lastly, doing tapping leads.
I have a similar sort of problem with my left hand. Whenever I press my first finger down on a fret, my pinky automatically shoots straight out. There's nothing I can do to stop it so there's no way for me to keep my fingers close to the frets at all times so that I can get up to speed.
So I basically I just learned tapping so I could imitate any lead I wanted. Once you get good at it you can't tell the difference and there's a whole bunch of stuff you can do with tapping that's impossible with regular playing.
Plus the exercises are extremely fast and really tone up your left hand in a hurry.

I've worked with basic three string sweep patterns so far, and I've recently been applying six string sweep patterns to my practice regimen. Now I've heard of economy picking but I don't know exactly what that entails. Could you please clarify?