Hi there I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success.
Today we're going to talk about the pinky. Now the piggy gets a bad
wrap usually as being the weakest digit of the fingers
but I think it is in fact more of a bad wrap than it is a reality
and I'll tell you why. First of all, I am going to teach you a great exercise
that'll help strengthen your pinky but not only that it'll help your pinky
get coordinated with the other fingers on your left hand and it'll make all
your guitar playing better. But before we do that,
I want to explain a little bit about the mechanics and why I think the pinky gets
a bad wrap. First of all, I think for a lot of
people the pinky feels exceptionally weak because of the way
they hold the guitar. I'd like to have you do an experiment with me right quick
and please try this with me. It'll mean a lot more if you try it than
if we just think it out. Take your hand and move each of your fingers one at a
time into your thumb. See what that feels like. By the way this
is the way your thumb and your fingers are supposed to work.
The grasping hand is scientific terminology. Now put your thumb out to
the side and go ahead and reach your fingers into your palm. More or less
they end up being in the air. It doesn't feels a lot weaker
and maybe even more importantly kind of out of control.
Well for most people that's the case anyway and that has to do with because
you're kind of bypassing the way the hand
works best by this grasping motion. Now to make the most use to your
pinky even before you do any exercises, take that position of the grasping hand
and put the guitar neck directly between there. You see now
my fingers are basically going towards that thumb
but the neck is in the way so I'm getting the most
leverage. If my thumb .. Can you see my thumb sticking out top?
If it's over here I'm losing a lot of that leverage.
Now if you put your thumb over the neck when you make chords or when you play
bending chord notes the same thing applies. It's not my preferred position
but it works and it's best to keep your thumb in the middle of your hand again
not off to a side like this. I'm going to teach this in
three sections and the best way to learn it is to learn one section at a time.
Practice it so you're reasonably comfortable. Let's say you know 80%
to feel like you got it solid and then add the next section and the next
section. Eventually we're going to end up putting
all the sections together but trust me just doing it a section at
a time will relieve some stress and it really
works. It works in terms of strengthening your pinky. Here's section
one.
Now I'm starting on the fifth fret with my first finger.
The only other finger I'm using for this first section is the pinky.
So we start by hitting down picking on the first
note and then up picking on the second note. We call that alternate picking.
Go slow starting with the sixth string fifth string and so on
all the way until you get to the first string. Then when you can do that
comfortably go ahead and go backwards. That's what it
looked like backwards
from the first high string to the sixth string. Go slow.
Going fast will not help here. This is designed to strengthen
and get your pinky coordinated so speed doesn't really do that.
Think of again working out at the gym. If you're working out on some dumbbells,
going faster doesn't really build strength.
The key here is slow and conscious. Pay attention to the details, getting your
fingers in the right place relaxing and good hand position. Now for
section 2, I'm covering the sixth fret on the sixth
string with my middle finger. I call it second
something middle okay middle finger and then on the
eighth fret with the pinky. So the pinky is going the same place but I'm starting
with the middle finger pinky. So again that's down
pick, up pick onto the fifth string down pick,
up pick, down pick, up pick.
Again slow is the key but try and stay even too.
You might even want to try it with a metronome at some point but not critical.
Learn the exercise first okay so I thought I'd talk through a
demonstration. Surprised. I could actually do that.
Okay time for section three.
You guessed it. It's the ring finger to the pinky.
So now I'm on the seventh fret to the eighth fret and I am again keeping my
first, my index and my middle finger roughly
into place. Don't worry about if it moves a little bit but generally
speaking I'm not letting them pop out in the air or
clumping them all together. So we'll start with the ring finger
on the seventh fret down pick and the pinky on the eighth fret
onto the fifth string and so on. I think you got the drill here
so that's all three sections. Again it really
works best to just learn one section at a time. If you've been playing for a
while you could probably work through all three sections in one
day but if you're starting out take your time it's worth it.
This exercise is something that you can do for years and years and years.
Yes, really and by paying close attention relaxing your hand, keeping good hand
position you'll always be improving your playing. Finally, once you've got all
three sections, you can combine them together
and I'm going to show you what the entire exercise
looks like. So we start with the index finger, to the pinky,
now middle finger, pinky and ring finger, right? And then on to the fifth string.
Again I'm doing down up picking
fourth string
deliberately going slow to give you an idea. I could go faster but I'd rather
not.
Now let's go the other direction.
(strumming)
that's it. Now I want to give you a few tips that'll help you
get the most out of this exercise. Learn one section at a time
and then put them together. Go slow with the exercise. There's really no point in
going fast and do a little bit each day. I
recommend sessions of like 3, 6 minutes max.
My preferred way to do something like this
is to do a little one part of the day and a little in another part maybe just
a few minutes at a time and do that every day for a week or so.
You'll be surprised at how big of a difference
it makes. As you do the exercise, keep your fingers reasonably close to
the strings and don't use your hand to actually add
strength that means like this. No floppy hands. Keep your hand steady as
you put one finger down at a time. Then when you go to the next string,
try to keep your fingers close to the fretboard.
Just do the best you can. Don't get too uptight about this and don't overdo it.
If your fingers are sore kind of like when you're working out and you feel your
muscles a little sore, that's good. It's working.
If you feel pain that's not right. You should probably let it go, come back at
it later or another day and if it continues you might want to
get your hand looked at by a doctor. And finally as you practice the exercise
try to go for kind of an even tempo. You can also practice with a metronome
but it's not necessary. At some point you might want to try it
and just see how it works but the idea is to keep a nice steady
slow pace. Thanks for joining me today. This is day 16 of my 30 day
guitar coaching series. I hope you enjoyed it and if you like this give me
a thumbs up and come on back tomorrow and check out
day 17. Now I do have a favor to ask you. If you can think of something you'd like
me to add there's still time leave me a comment and let me know. What
kinds of exercises do you think would help you? Or
what other topics would you like to see? And if you have another exercise
that you really like, let me know about it in the comments.
I hope to see you again tomorrow. Bye