Spastic Ring Finger

I am working thru a lesson in the blues section that is using powercords for a simple 12 bar (ie D5 to D6). My problem is when I stretch the pinky out for the D6 my ring finger follows my pinky even to the point of pressing down on whatever string it happens to be near when the pinky goes down. I can tuck tue ring finger or just plant it on one of the high strings but it cant be a good habit to build. I've looked on the interwebs to see if there are exercises to get some control but I'm not sure what works. Any suggestions?

The ring finger is the weakest finger when playing guitar. It's a difficult finger to wrangle! A great exercise to strengthen your fingers and increse independance is the "Spider Legs" exercise. You can find that lesson here: https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=12293

Hey Dan,

The ring finger is definitely difficult to separate from your pinky.

Two things you can try:

1 - You can just practice controlling your fingers separately without your guitar. Just hold your hand up like you're waving hello, and try to move each finger individually. One at a time, folding it down toward your palm.

2 - When doing the D5 to D6 thing, try it way higher on the neck first. For instance, at the 9th fret (it will no longer be D5 and D6, it will be F#5 and F#6.) But there's less of an intense stretch. Once you get more comfortable with the shape / movements, bring it back down the neck to D. If you're on an electric you can even do the same shape on the B and high E string, even higher on the neck. Then work it back down.

-Carl.

Originally Posted by: dan_wall

I've looked on the interwebs to see if there are exercises to get some control but I'm not sure what works. Any suggestions?

These tutorials are aimed at building finger indepdence, strength & dexterity.

Trill Drills

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1829

Building Pinky Strength & Dexterity

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

Hope that helps! Best of success with it!

Thank you for the suggestions everyone! I will check them out.