Wandering pinky

[mediumpimpin]

Well I was doing my guitar "workout" practice last night which consists of lots of scales up and down the neck along with trem picking and trills and whatnot to build stamina and speed and I realized something. My pinky is constantly wandering. I played some licks and runs that tend to trip me up from time to time and payed extra attention to my fretting hand and my pinky seems to be what throws me off. I know this is something that is probly not 100% correctable nor easy to correct, but what would you guys recommend? I understand that after all these yrs of playing like this it will be really difficult to fix, but I have corrected some bad habits that I had for yrs on end before.

 

[Lettuce23]

Re: Wandering pinky

Ya know the standard 1234 or 4321 where you play with those fingerings on each string? Do that except mix it up with like 2341 or 1423. That helps me out bunches. Maybe some arpeggios (nothing too standard) that involve wide interval of notes? Maybe that could liberate your pinky finger from possibly the clutch of your index finger?

 

[mediumpimpin]

Re: Wandering pinky

Ya know the standard 1234 or 4321 where you play with those fingerings on each string? Do that except mix it up with like 2341 or 1423. That helps me out bunches. Maybe some arpeggios (nothing too standard) that involve wide interval of notes? Maybe that could liberate your pinky finger from possibly the clutch of your index finger?

I actually do the 1234 thing and mix it up, but I've found that only helps when I'm playing something similar, not all the time. I'll try some arpeggios I guess. It's really not my index that seems to screw me up, it's more my ring finger, when I'm using my ring finger to fret my pinky wants to straighten out and point away from the fretboard which is what messes me up the most when playing fast.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Wandering pinky

Well I was doing my guitar "workout" practice last night which consists of lots of scales up and down the neck along with trem picking and trills and whatnot to build stamina and speed and I realized something. My pinky is constantly wandering. I played some licks and runs that tend to trip me up from time to time and payed extra attention to my fretting hand and my pinky seems to be what throws me off. I know this is something that is probly not 100% correctable nor easy to correct, but what would you guys recommend? I understand that after all these yrs of playing like this it will be really difficult to fix, but I have corrected some bad habits that I had for yrs on end before.

Slow down and control the pinky and entire hand to be where you want it to be. It takes a lot of work but can be done.