pinky

hey i use my pinky a lot while doing scales and stuff, but i cant keep it like really close to the strings while im playing. is that really important? please respond

i guess its useful if your playing at speed or something. it doesn't really matter what finger you use in my opinion. its good that you can use your pinky at all because alot of players (me included) find it really tricky to incorperate(sp?) that finger. holding it close to the strings will just speed you up a bit, but im not really the guy to talk to this about. i cant play fast to save my life...

My pinky does that too. I'm sure it'll be easier to control after many more hours of practice. The lil' bugger just has a tendency to fly up about 4 inches after it hits its note lol.

it helps in the long run to keep you pinky atleast within an inch or less from the string of whatever ending scale fragment your doing. do it slow just to get the kinda groove of doing it and then kinda speed it up, you can also try those tension things that work with your fingers and try and keep your fingers on the little scratch pads while pressing down.

Just keep practiceing and playing eventually your hand will have a feel for anything you want it to do,no matter what it looks like doing it.
Like said above its good that you can evan use it at all too many players baby there pinky and only use the other three.
I think useing the pinky lessons the load on the other three which is probably better for stuff like tendonitis(spell?)and carpel tunnel. Well this in addition to a few minutes slow warm up befor you play.
Not to mention you can hit more notes in a run when your using your pinky instead of just three fingers.

Mine also flies up after I hit a note, I am almost controlling it now though.

i have learned to controll my fingers to move as little as possible. but i have failed to keep my pinky within less than 2-3 cm. but.. it does not slow me down the slightest bit. my pinky is fast enough to overcome that distance in time when necessary. so i dont work on it anymore. 16ths at about 220 bpm is fast enough for me. i dont realy want to go any faster for i can´t think of a solo where that makes essencial sence.

Dunno where I saw this exercise. Might have been here but I think it might help you (if it's even that important). My pinky goes up aswell but I don't feel like it's disturbing my already awful playing. It's a regular 1-2-3-4 really, but it might be easier to start with a bit up the neck:

E1: |-5-6-7-8-|

Play that with the four fingers I assume we all use. But as you hit the notes you don't remove them from the fret. None of the fingers. So when you've played all four notes all four fingers should be pressing down the 5,6,7 and 8th fret.
You continue by playing the same run on the B-string. So when you play the first note (fret 5) on the B-string the remaining three fingers should still be on the E-string. And when you play the second note (6th fret) the remaining two fingers from the first run should still be on the E-string and so on. Dunno if this is helpful at all since I haven't played this one frequently.

Good one progg, U shud also try trills with each finger in combination with the pinky.....
index finger/pinky trills
middle/pinky trills
ring/pinky trills

Try them on all six strings..... it does wonders... if u go as long as u can at it with out hurting yourself


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Practice until your fingers bleed, then play some more

Originally posted by Rrhoads154
Good one progg, U shud also try trills with each finger in combination with the pinky.....
index finger/pinky trills
middle/pinky trills
ring/pinky trills

Try them on all six strings..... it does wonders... if u go as long as u can at it with out hurting yourself


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Practice until your fingers bleed, then play some more

I will, thank you. Btw, I was not planning on hurting myself. Thanks for the concern =)

Naw i was just sayin that u shudnt try to just keep goin if u kno ur finger is stained..... kinda common sens. go figur




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You'll feel the burning in your fingers, this is great isn't it?

Originally posted by Rrhoads154
Naw i was just sayin that u shudnt try to just keep goin if u kno ur finger is stained..... kinda common sens. go figur

Yeah, I know. Just kidding a bit. And yeah. Starte doing those trills and I bet they will do wonders for me. I will continue to do them. Thank you!