keeping fingers close to the fretboard

[wiechfreak]

my guitar teacher pointed out that when playing All my fingers tend to follow whatever my fretting finger does and be way up off the fretboard. My question is what exercises can i do to practice keeping my fingers close to the fretboard

Also I saw an exercise online where u have ur left hand palm facing you and try to bend each finger to your palm and I can't do this with ANY of my fingers...is this something I should work on or is it something that will come eventually with practicing keeping my fingers close to the fretboard?

[phantom]

Also I saw an exercise online where u have ur left hand palm facing you and try to bend each finger to your palm

do you mean like closing the hand to a fist, but one finger seperately?

i would suggest playing (veeeeeerrryyyy) slow and concentrate and watch your fingers. literally tell them what to do and where to go.
you have to be aware of that you are the boss of your fingers - not the other way around. sounds strange - helped me.
it is not that your fingers are some sort of aliens, all body movement is controlled from YOUR brain. if you want them fingers to move tight to the fretboard, they will.
it will take some concentration at first until they are used to do it that way "on their own".

[Caffeinated Cat]

Try thinking of what your fingers need to do next. Like, if a certain finger is way off the fretboard, try getting it into position to play the next note that it has to play. That's the only way I've found to get them to go someplace. Telling them not to do something doesn't seem to register. You have to tell them to do something, like start moving towards where they need to be next.

[Gandalv]

Go veeeeery slowly. It'll improve quickly once you attack it from there instead of trying to fix it at full speed.

[Koala]

Try supportive fingering. You can search for the topic on the forums, it should really help you out.

hope this helps,

[wiechfreak]

whats that? Can't seem to find anything

[dave111]

Supportive fingering is well described by Eric in Art of Picking 1 http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/43

Its a good technique to get used to!