Bad guitar habit?

Question

i play guiar and I recently discovered I had a bad habit of pulling my pinky to far away from the fretboard when its not in use. This hinders me from playing fast passages cleanly/easily. Any one have ideas on how to break this habit?

Answer 1

If you were my student, I would give you the simple exercise of placing your fingers on the fret board on the high E string, with the first finger on fret 4, second finger on fret 5, third finger on fret 6 and pinkey finger on fret 7... then using just those finger positions on just that string, pick the string... lift the pinky and look were it is... if it's too high, then adjust it... and repeat the exercise... keep doing it until you have the MUSCLE MEMORY of the proper height for the finger...

Once you work out the mechanics for that exercise, you can repeat it one finger at a time, slowly until you get the the first finger and then reverse it... if you practice this simple exercise you should get the muscle memory AND it's an excellent exercise for playing riffs.

Answer 2

tape your pinky to your ring finger

Answer 3

Well Mate I'm not a professional on this but i also had that problem when i started playing, well one of my friends told me that our pinky is the hardest finger to control by the brain. so it needs lot of work out for it to pace up with the others,

try playing a whole solo using just the pinky for once or twice then try with the others, if you feel a difference it's definitely the less practise on your pinky. if not try somebody Else's suggestion mate , I'm sorry.

Answer 4

Use Dave Mustaine's "Spider Chords". Instead of using your index and ring finger to play a chord, use your middle and pinkie. I honestly use about three fingers most of the time without noticing for most of what I play- which three depends on what comes naturally. I only use four for some of the more complicated sweep picking.

Answer 5

The reply given by Garrison is a good one. I've developed control of my little finger by using it as much as the rest of them. In one instance I will barre the A chord in the second fret, and using my little finger, start at the first string, fifth fret, slide downward, remembering to keep my forefinger stationary on the second fret.

Then with the little finger, attack the second string from the fifth fret and slide downward. Repeat the process on the G string, fifth fret.

Build up your speed by doing this gradually. There are other exercises that will help you develop control of the little finger. Another example is to form the basic E chord, and using your little finger, attack the first three strings in the second fret by striking it twice--once in the second fret and once open as the E chord is formed. Repeat on the G string, even to the point of using the sliding technique as explained in the first example.

Such exercises will help you.

Answer 6

Their is no two ways to play fast and be clean. The rule of thumb is to use one finger per fret.

End of story.

Ex...

If you put your fingers on the first four fret , (one finger per fret), that is the proper positioning for your fingers.

Your hand has to be parallel to the fingerboard and not shifted to one side or the other. This way, you can finger stretch easier.

Now, back to this 1finger per fret issue. If a riff consists of playing on notes on the 1st, 3rd, 4th fret, use have to use the appropriate fingering which would be the 1, 3rd and pinky.

That is the basic whether you are shiftig from the 3rd fret to the 12th fret. Its irrelevant. Each finger needs to control proper fret position.

Simple exercise ....called Isometric fingering.

1-4-2-3

4-1-3-2

4-1-2-3

2-4-1-3

1-4-3-2

4-3-2-1 etc..etc..

Alternate pick all the notes ALL THE TIME unless you are doing sweeps.

This should get you started. You have 4 fingers and 24 fingering combinations.

Answer 7

1. Pratice slowly, keeping your pinky finger up in its proper position.

2. Repeat until satisfied

:)