Please read..

Ok, I've been playing for about a year now but I have a problem that is affecting my playing. When ever I try to use my pinkie it takes alot of force to get it to move where I want it, as if its not really "connected" good. Does this happen to everyone at the beggining or am I doomed?!?!
any response would greatly help me

i dont think your doomed. mine was very week and still is. you have to keep working at it to get it strong. i dont use my pinkie much yet.

You're not doomed. Just start using it a LOT and it will catch up. Don't worry.
http://guitarsoc.homestead.com

Thanks guys, (ahh, i can breathe again), i just gota start using it often. thanks again, p.s. cool sight!

Weird you brought that up cause I got a similar problem with my left pinky....it's got a mind of it's own -- when I press down with my first finger, my pinky shoots out totally straight and locks in position. It's been a great hindrance to playing faster stuff but it's also opened up a whole bunch of other alternate techniques I've been forced to use to compensate for it. If you find you can't physically do something, try some kinda alternative way of playing it. (use your nose if you have to)
Schmange

Also watch some of the old videos of guitar players,or read old instuction books,using your pinky wasn't recomended,16 years of playing guitar and my pinky still won't fully cooperate

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Life is a banquet,so eat me.

I've been playing for the last six years, and only recently have I brought my pinky up to speed. Kirk Hammett was talking about it in an article I once read, saying he used it from the start. I first used it about a year ago mainly in chords. It sort of morphed into a soloing finger and now it's about 92% functional. I'm working on my right hand pinky now to get into all this 8-finger tapping and to be able to use it efficiently in finger picking.

Don't get discouraged. It takes a while. Just try to incorporate it however you can.

[This message has been edited by ekstasis16 (edited 10-03-2000).]

This is hard to everyone in the begining
but playing scales can help.. also try to play 4 notes in a row on every string like:

1-2-3-4
1-2-3-4
1-2-3-4
and so... you have nothing to worry about... lots of good guitarists dont use their pinky at all...

I find that my problem with my pinky isn't so much that it isn't coordinated enough, but that it gets tired faster than other fingers in pieces that use it a lot. Practicing paganini's fifth caprice, along with some irish fiddle tunes, helped me a lot in terms of building up pinky stamina, just cause they use it so much, especially to play notes on the same fret on adjacent strings.

Aint there like some good spanish guitarist, that only has three fringers?

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Is it just me or does life suck? Maybe I suck and it just life? We shall never know...
Up with dope! Down with hope!
A guitar is like a woman, touch her right, and she shall sing.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

many famous guitarists rarely use their pinkies when they play, like clapton. they can adjust their style of music to compensate, but if you want to add a new dimension to your playing, you really should strengthen it by using it as much as you can. this isn't my advice, but it's from a friend of mine who is the best guitarist i've ever seen (and i've seen B.B. King live)

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ok, i'm not really the eggman

quote:

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Originally posted by OldSkoolPunk02:
Aint there like some good spanish guitarist, that only has three fringers?

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Django rheinhardt, one of the greatest jazz players ever, had only 2 fingers on his left hand, but he did some pretty virtuosic stuff, somehow. That being said, use ur pinky, why not right?