Pinky Control

Hello!

I am having a little trouble with my pinky when practicing, for instance running up and down the strings on 1-2-3-4 then 2-3-4-5 etc. I'm finding that my first 3 fingers are staying very close to the strings but my pinky is kind of floating off into the air a good inch or two off the strings.

This is obviously affecting speed and precision and I have to go incredibly slow and concentrate to get it near, even then it's not great.

I have done Christopher's course 'Building Pinky Strength & Dexterity' and am actively practicing this, but not been doing so long enough yet to know if it will help with this problem.

Will this naturally sort itselft out or is there some things I can practice to help keep my pinky close to the strings?

Hi Jimmy,

Oh, the darn pinky. Tons of people struggle with this. It sounds like you are on exactly the right path though, with Christopher's course and plenty of practice. It will improve with time.

Be well - Lisa

Thanks Lisa for the confirmation that I am at least on the right tracks, I will keep practicing and hopefully report back after much practice that things have improved.

My pinky is mostly a lost cause when I use it for ascending stuff but specifically if it is a 3rd digit to 4th digit ascending deal. It just doesn't do what it should. 1-2-4 is fine when ascending but....1-3-4...Nada.

Been playing for a few decades and it only ever got so ggod and no matter what I did, never got past a certain point. It just wouldn't.

Not be be dejected > Work with what ya got, not what ya don't.

Maximize that pinky and if you can't shred with it, neither could Brian May and I hear a few people rather enjoy his playing ;)

How long have you been playing? If you started recently, your pinky will fall into line at some point. You will need it for scales and some chords. My pinky is slightly bent inward and I have a hard time stretching it out for some chords, so I just avoid them. I have trained it to do that variation of a D chord where the pinky reaches out and gets to that 4th fret on the G string, but it's hard. Much easier to do scales though, my scale lessons exclude the third finger mostly, relying on the pinky for the top notes on each string.

I can recall having a lot of trouble with my pinky in the beginning. Once you hit barre chords, you have no choice but to start using it in chords. The problem comes with solos where you can choose to avoid using it.

I can't point to a particular moment where my pinky came into control, but it was sometime after learning the 5 pentatonic scale positions and practicing them up and down the fretboard.

Certainly it makes sense to "work with what you got", but I don't think you should give up on getting the pinky "under control". Getting it under control will give you more range in a given position without having to stretch really far and give you more "economy of motion", which leads to cleaner and faster playing. Speed isn't all about shredding, players like SRV, Gilmour, Clapton, Hendrix have plenty of fast runs in their solos. So I would say working on your pinky is a very worthwhile endeavor.

A good exercise I think would be to work on playing the major scale up and down in thirds. I suggest this because that scale uses the pinky on all but the high E string. That exercise will help you develop both coordination and strength in your pinky. Take it slow at first and work on getting it clean and precise. Then work with a metronome to help you speed it up.

Originally Posted by: Saint JimmyI'm finding that my first 3 fingers are staying very close to the strings but my pinky is kind of floating off into the air a good inch or two off the strings.

As others have already mentioned, it's a very common problem. :)

Even after years of practice & playing my pinky occasionally likes to go floating off on its own. :p And it's not even a problem unless, or until it hinders your ability to get something done efficiently & effectively.

I see you've mentioned working through the pinky strength & dexterity tutorial.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1292

That's a great way to gain the basics of pinky control. If you are interested, the next step is to really drill it into shape with these 3-note-per string scale exercises.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=451

maggior mentioned the pentatonic boxes! I also use those for warming up & make sure I get my pinky into the act when I do these type of daily exercises.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=722
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=185

Also, even though these tutorials are aimed building speed, they can be done slowly with the idea of simply doing finger exercises in a musical, melodic way.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=898
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=899

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=928
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=929

I find when I make the time to drill these on a daily basis, my pinky doesn't stray at all. But sometimes, life get busy, and I don't make time to practice everything I should (it happens to all of us :) ). I can tell, because my pinky starts to float again! Then, I know it's time to get back on track with those scale exercises.

Hope this helps! Best of success getting your pinky in line!

Thanks for all your replies, seems like it's something all guitar players have to deal with at some point.

I might have titled this thread badly, I'm not having too much trouble getting my pinky to go where I want to and it mostly behaves. It definitely needs a lot of work to strengthen, the problem I'm mostly having is getting it to stay in position close to the strings. It seems to lift higher and higher as I progress up the fingers and so it is travelling much further than it needs to slowing me down a little.

JeffS65 - I'm finding something similar, 1-2-3-4 pinky is off in the air, been doing 1-4-2-4-3-4 and it stays exactly where it should. struggling to work out what's different.

Elliott - I've been playing 18 years but only really messed around for the first 3-4 years got to an OK level for a bit of fun: standard chords, power chords, barre chords etc but never really progressed that far.

Then didn't play too much until I started here 2 years ago and have progressed further then I ever did when I was younger.

maggior - Thanks for practice recommendation I shall add it to my list :).

Again thank you Christopher, that's a lot to work on and will hopefully make a big difference.