I've never been afraid of, or shied away from using my little finger on my fretting hand. Needless to say it's still not my strongest or most dexterous fretting finger but I'm happy to live with that. However there's one issue that bugs me and I wonder if any one here knows any good exercises that might help.
The problem is really about independence between little finger and fingers 2 and 3. For instance say I'm practicing a 1 octave major scale in a standard pattern across three strings and four frets. When I get to the highest three notes in the scale I'm going to fret and play the note under my first finger, then the note under my third finger, then the octave note under my little finger.......then I've reached the top of the scale and I'm going to start descending, by removing my little finger so I can play the note under my third finger. And here is the problem; my little finger resists being lifted off while the third finger is fretting the next note. It will move, but there is resistance. If I'm playing with a metronome running at above about 130, doing two notes per click, then it gets difficult to smoothly turn around at the top of the scale.
Ok, it's not exactly debilitating for most everyday playing but it bugs me and I do wish I could exercise it out.
ps I've been playing and practicing fairly diligently for over 30 years, so it's not lack of scale practice, I really think there must be specific exercises for these movements.
Comments
Try to find other situations where the problem occurs, and do the same with those. Make very slow and deliberate exercises.
I guess you can try other strengthening things, like trilling with just 3rd and 4th fingers, bending with the 4th, eta. But I'd direct my attention to where the problem occurs at first.
One issue I found when trying to tackle my own problem was that it felt great and all, doing these exercises, but once I went back to regular playing, it was either too stilted and disruptive trying to employ the technique, or else it felt like I was undoing any hard work I'd put in, by 're-reinforcing' the bad habit. But, over time, I felt more able to employ the control in more circumstances where it previously was a problem. Hopefully that was the case, and will hold true for you, too.
Long story short, I'd say prepare to have to work on it, and be prepared for fairly slow progress.
This probably needs pics or video to convey better, but the take home point is, also pay attention to your whole hand and arm. And if you feel you need to adjust any of those things to get where you want to be, then adjust them.
First of all, fingers are not independent - some of them share tendons and it's impossible for all of the fingers to display the same level of independence.
So you will always have one finger that's worse than the others.
The bit that Lee said above (about finding real, musical phrases where the problem appears and repeating them) is the key I think - with plenty of breaks to do something else of course. (Don't want to get RSI or something.)
ex1: Play the notes under fingers 1,2
ex2: Play the notes under fingers 1,3
ex3: play the notes under fingers 1,4
ex4: play the notes under fingers 2,3
ex5: play the notes under fingers 2,4
ex6: play the notes under fingers 3,4
Dont lift off the finger playing the lower note as you add the finger playing the higher one. It may help to put down the non-playing fingers as well eg in ex2, play finger 1 then add 2&3 together before sounding the note under 3.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
I'm going to work with @Phil_aka_Pip s exercise, which makes some sense to me. Thanks Pip! I have a fairly well disciplined practice regime (with a practice notebook even!), so building in a another exercise will be no problem.
cheers
Anyone else or just me?!
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Not that one, but I notice my middle and ring finger tend to collide fingertips quite often. The ring and little fingers rotate sometimes, then when flexed the ring rubs up against the middle.
I can separate them to play wide, classical-like chords and so on, I just have to practice each awkward hand position to get there. (I don't particularly do special exercises aimed at this sort of thing so can't say if they help.)
I found a really good way of getting my pinky my independent of other fingers is to pick a fret - here let's say 3rd fret - on any string. Then place your 1st finger on fret 3 and trill with your pinky on fret 6. Then place your 2nd finger down onto fret 4 and keep trilling with your pinky on fret 6. Then place your 3rd finger on fret 5 and trill with pinky on fret 6. Then work backwards until you're trilling between fret 3 and 6 again.
If you repeat this a bunch of times on different strings, frets at different speeds your pinky should get a great workout and should get stronger / more independent if you practice enough.
Also just hammer ons and pull offs of the pattern 3-5-6-5-3 over and over (for minutes at a time if you can) helped me get the 'momentum' down.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself