Syn- Stubborn pinky

[Elton Breaux]

Ive been playing guitar now for a few years. Ive sat down taught myself most of the music i love (a7x mostly) but i have always had a problem with my pinky. What are some excercises you’d suggest to rectify that? Any input is apprectiated.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I actually am about to post a video tutorial on a new forum about how to play the Hail to the King intro. Because this song is a lot of pinky work, I go through some of my own devised exercises to help with the pinky. There’s a lot more I have, but you can check it out

 

[Filip Tomiša]

What made me start using my pinky was the shepherd of fire riff. You just have to use it on that riff cause at some point you can’t use your ring finger anymore because you keep stretching your fingers. Also you have to bend with your pinky on that riff and that strengthens your pinky even more. If you like that song, try playing the riff, it’s super easy and it might help you.

 

[Chris Robertson]

I have an issue with Finger Independace and I noticed it about a week ago. Are you struggling with controlling your pinky? like for example when you use the ring finger, does the pinky shoot up away from the strings or does it curl below the fretboard? Or are you struggling to keep the knuckle properly curled instead of flattening?

 

[Elton Breaux]

Thanks everyone. Its mostly just getting the pinky to do anything pronounced. If i get it to the fret it doesnt seem to play the note how i like

 

[idssdi]

Pinky tends to be a week finger maybe it is just that your pinky is not really strong enough or something.
Maybe this can help you or playing Paul Gilbeet stuff hw tends to have pretty wide stretches so they train your linky pretty well https://youtu.be/MqOGZCHI-nA

 

[Jen Hapke]

My problem with the pinky is that it moves far to much.

 

[idssdi]

How much is far too much? I use my pinky as much as possible so never really had problems with it

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

Elton Breaux – Go over lesson 88. That will definitely help with the pinky. It’s a legato exercise – but you can also alt pick it if you want to.Alt picking it is a great way to build right & left hand sync, in addition to working out your pinky.

 

[Elton Breaux]

Thank you papa gates. Going do that right now

 

[Jen Hapke]

@Ids After the pinky leaves the fretbord it is not bended at all and about 3-4 cm away from the fretbord.
By now it has no bad impact but i guess it might have if I get a faster.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Elton I have this same issue. All I can suggest is doing what I did. Watch the scale videos, and play the scales over and over like 10 minutes a day, I did it a half hour a week in one sitting. Within two months, I’ve started to notice a huge improvement with my pinky, I can play more complicated triplets now because of it.
Just watch the videos on the caged system, and listen to where he puts his fingers, and just let your pinky work it in. I’ll tell you tho, after the first session your entire wrist will kill for a week lol

 

[idssdi]

@Jen i guess one way you can practice is by going slowly and be very conscious about the distance your pinky travels away from the fret board. Try to move your pinky far enought to not mute the note you are trying to play but only.lift it eber so slightly

 

[Jen Hapke]

Thanks Ids. I think this will take me some time

 

[Calvin Phillips]

LIke I said its been two months for me and my pinky is getting stronger for sure. Still a long way to go.

 

[Ben Thorpe]

A good exercise is practicing your hammer-ons and pull-offs from your third finger to your fourth finger. It hurts after a while, but it will definitely build up the strength in your pinky!

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I’d also go the extra mile and try a bend in there too. hammer/pulloff/hammer/off/hammerbend type deal. I played over 10 years without my pinky and I’ll tell you its like starting over again when you try to add your pinky into your licks and solos. But I already see my brain wanting to go pinky first over my ring in almost every case. Which was never the case before. So keep at it and dont give up, even if it is to like 90 BPM, your pinky will get stronger and one day you’ll realize you can do it at 240 bpm without trying.

 

[Elton Breaux]

This is the first time I’ve posted in here and the help and advice has helped tremendously in just 2 days. A little sore in the wrist though lol. Thanks alot to everyone whos offered advice and thank you syn and papa gates for setting something like this up. Awesome to come together with other guitarists from around the world without ever leaving louisiana lol

 

[Samuel Desjardins]

i like to do this exercise, start slowly and speed it up as fast as i can
i do 1-4 up and down on every string on the fifth position
2-4 same thing
and finally 3-4
you can alternate pick, and switch to hammer ons and pullofs once the picking is nice and easy