Jump to content

Slow Pinky! Help!


Hell Bites

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Hey guys I have a number of Troy Stetina's books including Speed Mechanics and am currently on Metal Lead guitar volume 2, but lately I'm having a bit of a problem. My pinky keeps moving WAY more than my other fingers. For example, Stetina says you always want your fingers hovering maybe half an inch above the strings, but everytime I do three note per string runs my pinky always flies back way too far and I end up hitting the note late. The rest of my fingers can keep up fine with my right hand but my pinky is really preventing me from reaching faster speeds (or at least playing smoothly at faster speeds). I've even been trying supportive fingering exercises mentioned here:

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/43

 

This is really annoying as I feel I have no control over my pinky finger!! Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I once read on a guitar forum somewhere that the problem guitarists often have with faster fretting is lifting their fingers up, rather than bringing them down to fret, especially with the pinky. It sounds like you have less muscular control with your pinky than the other fingers. the suggested excercize (to be practiced with caution) is to rubber-band you fingers to a piece of wood (like a little section of guitar neck) then lift each finger up and lower back down 10 times in a row. This should give you better control and speed with your left hand. I've never tried this myself since I'm not a shredder-type but it couldn't hurt as long as you don't overexert yourself.

 

That's my two cents, good luck!:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by Hell Bites



Slide!? I play metal.


Auggue doggie, can you PM me when that new speed article of yours comes out?

 

Yep...it would have been here already, except for some technical trouble I'm having with Adobe Acrobat. As soon as I get it worked out, I'll post it and let you know. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...