Using the little finger

Teflon

Just got back into trying to play guitar after a 30 year lay off (!) and I'm finding the same issue that I had all those years ago  - though that's hardly surprising I suppose.

In essence, although I have fairly long fingers, my little finger is all but useless.  It looks much like any other little finger I guess, but it seems to curl inward and simply won't stretch across to reach notes. I means that everything has to be played with my first 3 fingers, which is obviously  a bit limiting. I've tried various stretching excercises, and even pulling it across with my other hand, but it simply won't reach 

Does anyone here have similar issues, and are you still able to play to a reasonable standard?  I know Django Reinhardt  managed ok (to put it mildly!), but I suspect he may have had a little more talent than I!

Cliff

dazzajl

Great to hear you're rediscovering an old passion and since you don't seem to have a lot of choice with the pinky here, you might as well embrace it. Let it lead you to a less is more style and as long as you're enjoying yourself, it's all going to be good.

Jalapeno

Get a stress ball or hand/grip exercisers to condition the strength in your fingers - they do need exercise too.  Having a functioning pinky is a big advantage.  It is worth doing something.

Henrytwang

Although I don’t have any problems using my little finger many players seem to. There are many great players out there who play mostly with just 3 or even 2 fingers and don’t appear to find it limiting.

Sassafras

I broke my little finger when I was a kid and it's about half an inch shorter than it should be. It never really affected my playing but then I've never played the most complicated stuff.
I think you just adapt your playing to suit your dexterity.

BahHumbug

You are not alone in having this problem.  The little finger is very much the grumpy teenager of your fretting hand.  I suspect that it’s the case for every single guitar player, that their little finger is their weakest and least dextrous.
My only advice is.....it will take a long time to get it working.  DO try to use your little finger for fretting, but be very patient with it and don’t get down about it not cooperating.  Don’t give up either.

Teflon

Thanks guys, some good encouragement there  . I suppose the main point is (as dazzajl says) that as long as it's fun, it doesn't really matter. The idea of a stress ball is also worth pursuing and may help in the long term.

I suppose the real issue is that I just want to be Hank Marvin (or similar) and find it frustrating that it's not as easy as it looks LOL.  I checked out a beginners guitar finger exercise on Youtube earlier and couldn't even place my fingers in the start position to begin with Grrr.

Thing is though, I love guitars. I've got a very nice '70s Strat which I bought from new (for £225 in 1978!) and have just treated myself to a Burns Apache (not everyones taste, I know). I'd love to buy more, but it's hard to justify when you can't really play. In many ways, the guitars are wasted in my hands. I'll keep practicing though - fortunatley for the wife, my amp has a head phone socket 

Cliff

guitartango

Teflon said:

Thanks guys, some good encouragement there  . I suppose the main point is (as dazzajl says) that as long as it's fun, it doesn't really matter. The idea of a stress ball is also worth pursuing and may help in the long term.

I suppose the real issue is that I just want to be Hank Marvin (or similar) and find it frustrating that it's not as easy as it looks LOL.  I checked out a beginners guitar finger exercise on Youtube earlier and couldn't even place my fingers in the start position to begin with Grrr.

Thing is though, I love guitars. I've got a very nice '70s Strat which I bought from new (for £225 in 1978!) and have just treated myself to a Burns Apache (not everyones taste, I know). I'd love to buy more, but it's hard to justify when you can't really play. In many ways, the guitars are wasted in my hands. I'll keep practicing though - fortunatley for the wife, my amp has a head phone socket 

Cliff

Mmmm I know you ? were you in Summer Holiday ?

Henrytwang

Teflon said:

Thanks guys, some good encouragement there  . I suppose the main point is (as dazzajl says) that as long as it's fun, it doesn't really matter. The idea of a stress ball is also worth pursuing and may help in the long term.

I suppose the real issue is that I just want to be Hank Marvin (or similar) and find it frustrating that it's not as easy as it looks LOL.  I checked out a beginners guitar finger exercise on Youtube earlier and couldn't even place my fingers in the start position to begin with Grrr.

Thing is though, I love guitars. I've got a very nice '70s Strat which I bought from new (for £225 in 1978!) and have just treated myself to a Burns Apache (not everyones taste, I know). I'd love to buy more, but it's hard to justify when you can't really play. In many ways, the guitars are wasted in my hands. I'll keep practicing though - fortunatley for the wife, my amp has a head phone socket 

Cliff

If you want to be Hank get a good echo and the UB Hank backing tracks and tabs. Hanks stuff isn’t that difficult, particularly the early hits, and should be easily manageable with three fingers.

LastMantra

My pinkies are double jointed and when i started playing it would lock up all the time. Even playing simple open chords. Kept going and don't really notice it at all now. Doesn't lock, unless I make it lock. Can  be sore popping it back!

merlin

@Teflon , can we give you the nickname "Django"?   

jonnyburgo

Do you use it for let’s say an E shape barre chord?

p90fool

I dislocated the third and fourth fingers on my fretting hand in an accident 2 1/2 years ago, I worked like hell to get most of my strength back in my third finger, but strength and dexterity has pretty much gone from my fourth finger. 

I can still use it to help out on more complex chord shapes but rarely risk it for lead work.

Not much help I know, but you can work around it. 

Hank's stuff is not as easy as some think to play well, but at least you have time - it's rarely fast, even if it is crisp, controlled playing. 

Teflon

merlin said:

@Teflon , can we give you the nickname "Django"?   

I wish!

jonnyburgo said:

Do you use it for let’s say an E shape barre chord?

I can, but that's about about the best it can do. I suppose it's better than nothing, and at least covers the basics. 

I'll have a look at those UB Hank backing tracks. I've got a few Shadows numbers under my belt now, but oddly, I find that when I attempt playing with a backing track, it all falls to pieces. I think it's the added "pressure" of having to hit the right note at the right time. Eric Morcambes piano playing comes to mind.  

It is fun though, and I'll persevere with backing tracks. I bought my Burns Apache from Ebay, and the chap selling it had a wonderful music studio above his garage. He demoed the guitar, playing Wonderful Land to a backing track and it added so much to the experience. 

guitartango said:

Mmmm I know you ? were you in Summer Holiday ?

I'm old, but not quite THAT old 

Cliff

Maynehead

Sounds like your hand might be too tense. If you lay your fingers on the fretboard with your hand completely relaxed, can you just push down on your little finger hard enough to fret the string underneath it? If so that's what you're aiming to do with all the fingers. Just push down enough to fret the note. If you over-tense your hand that's when the fingers start curling up and losing flexibility.

DeeTee

I broke my hand a little while ago, and had to build up the finger strength again. I would suggest an actual guitar grip exerciser like D'Addario/Planet Waves do. The reason I say this is there's an independent "piston" for each. With a stress ball or similar, the weakest finger can get away with not exerting much pressure, so it doesn't.

bloomer

Unless you want to play 3 note per string shreddy stuff, having a lazy little finger isn't an issue for lead playing. As has been said above there are many great players who predominantly use 3 fingers. I'd try to get it working in a chord situation but wouldn't bother about using it for lead. Especially as you say your other fingers are pretty long. 

Snags

My little finger is a recalcitrant bastard. I can use it OK in (most) chords, and for bits of lead stuff, but it steadfastly refuses to stretch/develop the reach I would like it to have.

So whilst I can use it fine, I can't comfortably do things like e.g. the shuffle patterns for Come Together, Milk and Alcohol and similar songs where you potentially need a 5-fret stretch from index to little finger, with ring finger in the middle.

e.g.: 

A||-12--12--14--14---
 E||-10--10--10--10---

I have to twist myself into stupid pretzel shapes to do that, and it's ouchy.

This may have something to do with me doing no exercises whatsoever. It did start to improve when I forced myself to do two things:

a) play scales every day
b) do a "Justin Guitar" exercise from his Captain's Privates series. In essence you start on the high E at the 7th fret with the index finger, then keep that fretted and fret the 9th fret with 2nd or 3rd finger, then keep both fretted and fret 11th fret with little finger. So at the end of three notes all three fingers are fretting on the same string. Then repeat on the B string, then the G string, etc. down to the low E.

When you can do that cleanly (and slowly) move the index finger back a fret to the 6th and go again (6,9,11).

When you can do that cleanly, move the little finger up a fret to the 12th (6, 9, 12) and repeat.

Keep extending it as each stretch eases.

It's quite important only to do it a little bit each day though, otherwise it hurts like hell and you can bugger your hand up if you push to hard too soon.

HAL9000

When I was learning a friend of mine was showing me how to play Chuck Berry songs.This meant that from the beginning I was using my pinky to play sixths and sevenths on the fifth string, and it has always felt normal and natural.

Not sure if it would help, but maybe playing some of Chuck Berry type chunka-chunka riffs could help.

Rocker

Try playing power chords using index finger and pinky.  As you have four fingers on your fretting hand, it seems a pity not to use them all.  Playing simple lines on a bass will strengthen all your fingers including your pinky.  Go slowly at first....

brooom

I forced myself to use it early on, because it made sense to me to try use what was available to me. But realistically you can center your whole technique around using it for chord work.