I use mine a lot in my limited abilities. Without it scales away from the nut would be much more difficult.

Originally Posted by: ren

The pinky is a problem because from my limited understanding of anatomy, it shares a tendon (I dare say someone will correct me here)... so it's not easy to move it independantly. As with everything else, practice makes perfect.

I can't even attempt to correct you but I do find that interesting. On my fretting hand I cannot, no matter how hard I try, raise my ring finger more than ~1/4" while keeping the pinky down. But I can raise it by itself on my picking hand. This, and the fact that I eat and write left-handed, almost pushed me to try a left-handed guitar.

If I play something that requires the middle and pinky, I usually just let the ring lay on the same string as the pinky.