Greetings from a real real beginner

Hello GT community.

My name is Paulo, I'm 45, I'm from Portugal and I love music.

I'm a complete beginner and I started on the Guitar Fundamentals 1 ten days ago or so. I was amazed with Lisa's way of teaching and her voice too by the way.

So, I was surfing through the lessons, practicing 1 or 2 hours a day (time passes fast when you're having fun) but now I got to the song called (ironically) 'I Get It Now' and I'm having trouble with that one. This is the first real wall I encountered, not bad for who didn't know how many strings were in a guitar just a few days ago (ok, I'm exagerating, but not that much)

That pinky G is really helpful but is way more hard to do then it seems. Well, I will just keep practicing at my own pace.

I'm loving GT btw.

Hey Paulo,

Pinky G chords are definitely hard to get at first! I actually find my weakest and least agile finger to be my ring finger, so getting it onto that 3rd fret on the low E while keeping my pinky on the high E string is what would trip me up.

A fun and challenging exercise to work on your ring and pinky strength / coordination is try just playing patterns using only those two fingers. For instance, start on low E and play 3rd fret with ring, then 4th fret with pinky. Then go to A string. Etc. Up and down across the strings and frets. It's just an isolated finger exercise and not very musical, but that sort of targeted thing can help. I used to do that one years ago.

You could also just practice switching between that D chord and Pinky G over and over until it gets easier. It's an odd stretch and combination, though! So you'll have to be patient.

-Carl.

Originally Posted by: Carl King

Hey Paulo,

Pinky G chords are definitely hard to get at first! I actually find my weakest and least agile finger to be my ring finger, so getting it onto that 3rd fret on the low E while keeping my pinky on the high E string is what would trip me up.

A fun and challenging exercise to work on your ring and pinky strength / coordination is try just playing patterns using only those two fingers. For instance, start on low E and play 3rd fret with ring, then 4th fret with pinky. Then go to A string. Etc. Up and down across the strings and frets. It's just an isolated finger exercise and not very musical, but that sort of targeted thing can help. I used to do that one years ago.

You could also just practice switching between that D chord and Pinky G over and over until it gets easier. It's an odd stretch and combination, though! So you'll have to be patient.

-Carl.

Great advice Carl. I'll try that exercise to get some muscle on my Aquiles pinky.