Anarchistic pinky

[gersdal]

My nephew (Globo here at IBM) directed me to a problem with the pinky. He showed me that the pinky has a life of its own when he plays chromatic scales. I tried myself, and discovered that I had more or less the same problem. Minimizing the motions may or may not be a important task, but it's still looked a bit strange when we both tried to get that d... pinky to stay right above the string. Anyone else has this problem, or is it something in the family? Anyone got some advice for getting rid of the anarchistic motions of the pinky?

[emilan]

I myself have some problems with my pinky that doesn't always want to do what i tell it to do, and one of my friends has the same problem. Even though minimizing motions is important, I, like my friend, manage to play perfectly well anyway. What's worse is actually my index finger, that draws back completely whenever I use the adjacent fingers, and makes the muscles in the hand really tense... With loads of practice it shouldn't be much of a problem though. So hang in there!!

[gersdal]

Thanks emilian. I agree, I don't mind to much, and I play reasonalbe well with the pinky having its own life out there, but it still would be interesting to know if there are some advise on excersices to get rid of the extra motion.

[Schooligo]

"anarchist pinky"
theres always one that likes to Rebel LOL,

but you have a good strategy :)
trying to keep the fingers as close to the string as possible is a worthwhile goal

as for exercises to reach that goal,

I personally prefer to find songs that allow me to reach my goal, many songs will have your exercises built into the song.

so find some exercises that specifically use the pinky &/or create some yourself,
ie. for instance you might start with small scale fragments of 3 notes to that specific string

start at a slow tempo with a metronome &/or drum machine,

and gradually increase the tempo,

your pinky will have to follow the tempo, (and to keep in time with the tempo)eventually your pinky will get in the habit of being "poised" over the string,

this strategy will increase your technical efficiency especially for your frethand fingers.

[GuitaRR]

i seem to have more trouble with my ring finger...probably because i got too used to play 3nps stuff using my index middle and pinky always leaving the ring out

[gersdal]

I personally prefer to find songs that allow me to reach my goal, many songs will have your exercises built into the song.

so find some exercises that specifically use the pinky &/or create some yourself..The problem seems to be worst when I play chromatic stuff.

[ChrisJ]

Gersdal: I always tell my students at college; "Why concern yourself with chromatic exercises?" You shouldn't let it bother you unless you plan on using the chromatic lines somewhere. But most likely they are exercises and nothing else. Am I right? I think it is much better to work on something you can use in a real situation. I agree, your pinky should be as well used as all your fingers but give it a workout playing something you can use.

I hear it from students all the time; "Sensei, I can't develop any chops even though I practice these chromatic exercises all the time." They have great chops, at only playing chromatic exercises and not at playing musical phrases!

Clive does have that wacky chromatic thing that I love (and he uses it in music). Wish I could play it!

-CJ

[Kole]

The best way I've found to solve the problem of the "Anarchist Pinky" (haha), is to keep the pinky close to the string as you do exercises (like you said), but make sure that you are playing very slowly while you practice so there isn't any tension in that pinky. You never want to feel as if your playing and you have to strain to keep your pinky in that position. That only leads to your pinky's muscle memory remembering "tension" and to play clean/fast, relaxation is necessary.


Hope this helps and best of luck!

[bball_1523]

what happens when your pinky tenses even while going slow? When I play some exercises, such as 3 nps string ones (index, middle, pinky), my pinky kills my wrist, and my wrist aches aftwards. I've tried moving my thumb around and moving my arm aorund to try different positions, but none have really worked well.

any suggestions?

[joeyd929]

Wow, I thought I was the only one. I was actually thinking of having my pinky surgically removed because it is useless. It tenses up and is more of a hinderance. (Laffs)

I see so many players (Guthrie Govan, George Benson, Yngwie) to name a few that play some of their best runs WITHOUT the pinky. I'm thinking of just learning to play without it for a while since it is pretty much useless..

I have this pair of bolt cutters, maybe I'll just....nah, never mind....but it is virtually useless and after 30 years of playing I don't expect it to improve..

[MorningStar]

Here is an exercise taught by Robert Fripp for this exact problem

4 note runs
1 fret for each finger
As you play each note leave the fingers pressed down on their respective notes. As you move to the next string 'only' remove the finger needed for that next note (always keeping 3 fingers pressed down)

[jackdullboy44]

I assume you are talking about the Left hand. As a young classical guitarist I was forced to use the LH pinky whenever it was notated.
For Classical players the RH pinky is a source of frustration, which is why you willl often see players anchoring it on the face of the guitar. I saw a dear friend abruptly dismissed by Pepe' Romero because of the tension in his RH pinky. It was odd because he was a much better player than me.
Back to the left hand, as a youngster I had this idealistic dream that I would use the pinky when called for in a position. However, after many years and seeing players like E. Johnson, S. Morse etc. play and only use the pinky from time to time, I realized that the music not my utopia was the goal. Don't get me wrong, watch the before mentioned players and you will see they can use it when they need to.

[aeln2011]

sorry if this is not what you're talking about

when i was first startin out my pinkey would always flare up a lot, and it was really hard to keep it close to the strings (not that any of my fingers were invredibly close at that point).

what i did was simple but hard, i just focused more on the pinkey than on what music i was playing. this sounds really dumb for a MUSICAL instrument, but i figured itd help me longterm. so i made my pinkey stay down no matter what, in all the notes i played, not just scales or technique work - and it wanted to flare up constantly, but i just made myself feel myself pressing down with the pinkey, holding it actively the whole time.

i suppose this caused a little tension at first, but it didnt take long at all to get my pinkey to start relaxing and staying down. now it lays there all by itself and it feels much more natural and relaxed than when flared.

by the way, I just started using the exercise described by Morningstar a little while ago. It's really hard to do with any speed. It's very challenging and good for finger independance, i think its called the supportive finger method. anyways, when doing that one don't let your fingers tense up or you'll never get anywhere with that speedwise

good luck

[TMV]

I'm sorry, but this is not what you need to do! And for the fellow that wants to remove that pinky..., DON"T!!! What is need to done is to exercise that pinky alright..., but I would suggest that your execises should be of some purpose your mind would understand! Use that pinky! Don't just let it hang out there! At first. I would have your pinky used on the third note rather than your ring finger. Make your song's and music in conjunction with the pinky put to work as your "ring finger"! If your ring finger interferes, place it on top of the pinky. At least eight month's of this should teach your pinky to follow the work and don't forget to work into your fret playing in the years following. TRAIN the mind!! Not the pinky!

And for the misbegotten comment of the pinky being useless in playing guitar..., apprently someone is watching close enough. I saw Yngwie..., he uses his pinky. At speed and blurringly fast! But he does use it! And I will mention, that the most incredible guitarist in the world..., used his pinky in the most delicious and beautiful song's by, lightly tapping sting's while in some of his chord's. Making an almost lyrical flick of a note! The hand is well balanced, if you ignore any part of it, you are ignoring some small portion of yourself. So it is a reflection of your character. Do you have the character to expand each and every part of yourself!?

[graypianoflying]

I'm surprised no one has directed you to http://www.guitarprinciples.com/ yet. If you look around there a bit I think you'll find some stuff that will really help.

Basically, muscle memory has locked the anarchy into the pinky, probably because it was too tense to begin with. In order to fix it you have to re-train your muscle memory by using a metronome and going very slowly (as slowly as you need to do it correctly) and ensuring that your pinky is doing exactly what you want it to do. Then slowly speed up the metronome, ensuring that the bad habits don't start up again.

[gersdal]

Thanx graypianoflying. I'll check into that.