Increase pinky performance???

Question

Ok so you guys know how your pinky and 3rd finger are connected to the same flexions or something in your hand right?

If there a way to get your pinky and third finger to function seperatly? Like training yours fingers like crazy to work individually.

I see guitar players who have pinkys that are like free and as crazy as a pointer finger.

Yes I know, practice practice practice, but what exerises can I practice to get my pinky to perform at a decent level

Answer 1

I wish my pinky were freer, too!  While exercises like the above mentioned are maybe the best way to achieve your goals, you may want to add some arpeggios (maj, min, aug, etc...) and some scales (maj modes, harmonic and melodic minor, pentatonic) so that you are learning tonalities, at least some of the time, while practicing to free up your pinky.  

A note of caution:  I remember when I was at Berklee, almost 20 years ago, there was some discussion about repetitive stress injuries- usually caused by musicians practicing the same and/or similar stuff over and over.  Straining till it hurts is not a good idea, certainly not over a long period of time.  Warming up slow and easy for 5 or 10 minutes will go a long way to preserving your hands.  

There is a really awesome guitar player/ teacher at Berklee now, a young guy named Scott Tarulli (http://www.scotttarulli.com/Default.aspx... who is an awesome player.  Watch some of the videos on his site and I think you'll agree he has freed his pinky up significantly.  But he talks in his "thoughts" section about getting repetitive stress injury from too much repititive practicing and how it impacts his playing overall.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, it means a lot of repetitive and boring exercises. The good news is that, once you've learned the exercise, it's the sort of thing you can do almost silently while you watch a movie or something.

Chromatic exercises are a good start: start at the 1st fret on the low E string with your 1st finger, then play 2nd fret with 2nd finger, 3rd with 3rd, 4th with 4th and back down again. You can work up the neck this way; say 4 repeats starting from 1st fret, 4 from the 2nd fret and so on right up the neck. Go slowly at first to keep your movement smooth and speed up as you get the hang of it. You'll find your fingers tire and may start to ache/burn quite quickly. Don't push it too hard or you'll injure yourself, just build it up each day.

You can make up your own exercises based on this principle (and they'll help your picking as well as your finger strength - try doing all down picks, all alternate etc.). I like going diagonally across the strings and back, moving up and down the neck.