So... I've been playing for many years (got my first guitar a 8), though I quit / barely played for the last 11 years. I've never considered myself anything better than an average player, for several reasons...some I can definitely fix (theory knowledge, sight reading) and some that I consider problematic. I want to work on both (one reason I'm here).
One of my problematic issues is my pinky finger on my fret hand... I could hack it off and not miss it much, other than a little blood loss and pain. This finger is clumsy, weak, and slow. Any time I tried to develop it, I got a lot of hand pain. So needless to say, I've neglected it, and resorted to what I consider cheating, or using my ring finger for notes that would more properly be played with my pinkie finger.
I was watching a video of other forum user play and noticed that rarely used his pinkie finger... maybe it was the nature of his licks, or maybe he also suffers from pinkie hatred. It got me thinking, so I thought I'd ask... Is this a problem for a majority of guitar players? Are there some exercises that I can do to target this problem? Should I just HTFU and deal with it?
-Ryan
