The importance of the pinky

firedancer86 · Unread post by **firedancer86** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 9:17 am

Sounds funny, but I think it is one of the "key" parts to becoming a good guitarist; building up that little guy at the end of the line. Dave Matthews, John Mayer, anyone for that matter; they all rely heavily on it. If you can keep rythmn with your pinky as well as the rest of your fingers, you are well on your way to learning many complex chordings and rythmn patterns. I think people underestimate the power of it. The trick is building it up to be as powerful as the rest...just food for thought.

Unread post by **jkanter** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 10:02 am

firedancer86 wrote:Sounds funny, but I think it is one of the "key" parts to becoming a good guitarist; building up that little guy at the end of the line. Dave Matthews, John Mayer, anyone for that matter; they all rely heavily on it. If you can keep rythmn with your pinky as well as the rest of your fingers, you are well on your way to learning many complex chordings and rythmn patterns. I think people underestimate the power of it. The trick is building it up to be as powerful as the rest...just food for thought.

Def the most under-rated finger by all means...ha. But seriously, it's so versatile. If you can get that finger to stretch a decent amount, the number of chord formations possible are endless. That little guy lets you hit notes that are otherwise impossible to hit in combination with other notes. Take any of the satellite style songs(with that fingering).....or something lik Crash(in terms of Dave songs). It gives you so many options for chords that it's amazing. What's interesting is to see how REALLY GREAT guitar players use it. Hendrix used it a LOT(I believe)....Dave makes good use of it also. The stuff they can do with that great little finger is amazing.......and honestly, would you be able to do a SHOCKER without one?!??!?!?! HAHHAHAHA, oh man, can't wait to see D&T tonight....peace all

Pickles · Unread post by **Pickles** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 10:49 am

i need to get better with my pinky... definately my hardest finger to control... i need to get faster.

Fran · Unread post by **Fran** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 12:18 pm

yeah it is the most underestimated and under played finger. most people dont even get into using their pinky cause they rely mostly on their main three fingers. well thanks for that thought

mbgreen · Unread post by **mbgreen** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 1:59 pm

THE SHOCKER! Yes!! We call it the Tazer where Im from, but yeah. This is by far the BEST use for a pinky.

juineaux · Unread post by **juineaux** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:01 pm

I dont really use my pinky at all because it kinda clicks in and out. Their is probably something wrong with it, It dosnt work well when i try to finger pick, i just use my main 3 fingers.

billywestom · Unread post by **billywestom** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 9:22 pm

i remember when i started playing, i waited a long time to start using my pinkie, cause it felt so strange to use. then when i tried to start using it, i believe for the first time on crash, it was the only one with no callus (is that spelled right?) so it hurt like hell for a while..hehe

now i use it just as much as all the others

shaboogie25 · Unread post by **shaboogie25** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 9:51 pm

When I started playing, I couldn't use my pinky for anything, and I always found myself relying on my other three fingers. But once I started learning the scales and some Dave stuff, I realized how important it is to have all fingers equally strong. Now a year into playing I really very much on my pinky, and I find myself using it almost as much as my index now. Anyway, it's VERY important to have equally strong fingers. It helps me alot when I'm doing a fast solo.

gravedigger · Unread post by **gravedigger** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 10:14 pm

about 4 years ago, in college this guy was playing Crazy Train and I asked him to teach it to me. I was having trouble with it, because I couldn't use my pinky at all. he's like "you can't play with your pinky?" and I'm like "uh....no" well now I can.

very underrated finger indeed.

firedancer86 · Unread post by **firedancer86** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 8:43 am

yeah...kinda funny - I use my pinky to play alot of barre chords;

e---------
B---5------
G---5------
D---5------
A---3------
E---x------

that is - playing the "5"s with my pinky...

Most people have to break the habit of their pinky "curling" under the neck and kinda "locking" into place...I guess you just have to learn to move your fingers with equal strength and in every possible position...I just thought it was interesting...

m98ter · Unread post by **m98ter** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 7:41 pm

Thats how I play those chords too. Everyone thinks its so weird when they see me playing those bar/power chords with my pinky. I learned guitar by playing green day songs with my index and pinky fingers alone, and because of it I still use my pinky more than my ring finger.

johntherevelator · Unread post by **johntherevelator** » Sun Mar 23, 2003 7:45 pm

Fran wrote:yeah it is the most underestimated and under played finger. most people dont even get into using their pinky cause they rely mostly on their main three fingers. well thanks for that thought

ya man
i remember when i started
i played recently (intro,chorus), let you down, all those songs with my 3 main fingers

it wasnt too bad for me cuz i have HUGE hands (this chord found in one of my songs [3587xx] is not too big of a stretch for me) but once i got better with my pinky and started using it in those chords, it made all the difference

ryopan · Unread post by **ryopan** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 2:32 pm

yeah, im not huge on the pinky but its coming around. i dont barre 3 strings w/ it easily but it definitely moves where its supposed to and all that. i like a nice slide on the pinky. when i first learned anything, all those open chords (except for that blasted b) didnt really need the little guy but in time i put him to work.

Lennox · Unread post by **Lennox** » Sun Mar 30, 2003 9:56 pm

Sometimes when my pinky finger is cold or just tired it tends to like to lock up on me. It's very annoying and I totally can't use it at all. I've had a lot of practice using my fingers to play music before I started playing guitar 2 years ago. I've been playing the Alto Sax for around 13 years and my pnky has been annoying at times with that as well.

gravedigger · Unread post by **gravedigger** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 10:27 pm

firedancer86 wrote:yeah...kinda funny - I use my pinky to play alot of barre chords;

e---------
B---5------
G---5------
D---5------
A---3------
E---x------

that is - playing the "5"s with my pinky...

Most people have to break the habit of their pinky "curling" under the neck and kinda "locking" into place...I guess you just have to learn to move your fingers with equal strength and in every possible position...I just thought it was interesting...

if you barre those "5"s with your ring finger, you can stretch your pinky out and hit the high E string on the 7th fret to make it a major7th chord: x-3-5-5-5-7. try it.

there's always a place on the neck for the pinky

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The importance of the pinky

The importance of the pinky

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