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Need help with pinky pull offs   You are logged in as Guest
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Cervantes

 

Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA

Need help with pinky pull offs 
Having a really difficult time with pulling off with the p finger.
The worst is this:

"a" finger on the G string third fret.
"p'" finger on the B string fourth fret
"m" finger on the B string second fret
"i" finger on the B string first fret.

When I try pull off from p to m the B string is muted by the a finger.
If I just do a and p and hold i and m in the air I can get some sound from the pull off.
But with all fingers down I can't
Its like I have to actively push the a finger away from the B string so it doesn't mute it.
I know its a finger independence thing and will take time.
I have looked at exercises on Youtube but they basic and don't really cover this more difficult situation.
Any tricks or tips to improve on this?

Thanks

_____________________________

Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco
very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 16 2015 2:45:48
 
Blondie#2

 

Posts: 530
Joined: Sep. 14 2010
 

RE: Need help with pinky pull offs (in reply to Cervantes) 
First of all P is the thumb (pulgar) and PAMI are used to denote the right hand, fretting hand is simply 1,2,3,4. Just mentioning that as it could be confusing.

You mention pinky in the title, so I assume this is a 4-2 pull off/slur that's giving you problems.

If its important to hold that finger 3 down and its muting the string below, then your finger 3 is not arched/flexed enough, particularly at the tip joint. Difficult to advise without seeing your hand but this is most likely a problem of hand position - ensure that your palm is parallel with the edge of the neck/ fingerboard and bring it in closer to put finger 3 in a more flexed/curled position.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 16 2015 15:01:33
 
Ricardo

Posts: 14822
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Need help with pinky pull offs (in reply to Cervantes) 
Sounds like you need to lower your thumb behind the neck so that you can better orientate your fingers as coming from ABOVE the fingerboard more than below it. If you are already ok in this regard...it could very well be your guitar's design. These little issues are why we professionals prefer the concert style wide neck instruments vs the all too common low end models that drastically taper down in the lower postion.

You can tell if this truely is the issue however if you simply try your pull off situation at a much higher position on the neck where it might be wider spaced. If you still mute that B string up at say 9th position then for sure it is your technique as I first described.

Ricardo

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 16 2015 15:28:54
 
Paul Magnussen

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)

RE: Need help with pinky pull offs (in reply to Cervantes) 
I had this problem in the early days.

What it was, I was tilting my hand slightly to the left (like a violinist). My teacher (Julian Byzantine) told me to move my left elbow to the right a bit. This altered the angle of my pinky to the strings. Look at this photo:

http://charanga.com/resources/151-Guitar-Left-Hand-Position

The 2nd finger should be perpendicular to the strings (Julian said), the first finger tilted slightly one way, and the pinky slightly the other way.

It worked for me. Hope this helps.

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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 16 2015 16:36:04
 
Cervantes

 

Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA

RE: Need help with pinky pull offs (in reply to Cervantes) 
Thanks for the advice, its given me some things to try.
Sorry about PAMI thing, not used to writing the terminology.
I did try to get the 3 finger more over the string and arched but maybe not enough.
I did try it higher on higher frets but I am not sure its a good comparison because the frets get closer together which make things easier, but I will revisit that to see if I do get better results.
I could also have my teacher try it on my guitar next time to see if its a problem with the guitar. I really want to get this down because i think ligado is so important to Flamenco sound.

_____________________________

Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco
very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 16 2015 21:36:11
 
Blondie#2

 

Posts: 530
Joined: Sep. 14 2010
 

RE: Need help with pinky pull offs (in reply to Cervantes) 
quote:

ORIGINAL: Cervantes
I could also have my teacher try it on my guitar next time


...errmm if you have a teacher why aren't you asking him/her to help you with the actual problem?
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 17 2015 7:25:21
 
Cervantes

 

Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA

RE: Need help with pinky pull offs (in reply to Cervantes) 
I worked on this some more last night.
I made a bit of progress and was able to get some sound from the i finger doing it very slowly. I also found that my hand was not parallel to the fret board as some here mentioned. But I think my main problems are this:

My pinky finger is not very strong when I am fretting with the ring finger so I need to work on that.

When I am pulling off with the pinky it causes the ring finger to pull down slightly towards the string below it which causes it to be muted. I did try arching my finger away from the string which helps some but doesn't keep it from moving down.

Re my teacher. He is very good and is constantly watching my technique and telling me what I am doing wrong. He told me this requires finger independence. This type of ligado is new for me and I think he hasn't addressed it because he didn't feel I was at the level to where I could play it. in fact he told me to skip a section of a piece that has a difficult ligado run. Some of the things he has pointed out to me:

I don't have enough space between my hand and the neck, sometimes my palm is touching the neck. He sticks a pencil between my hand and the neck when he sees I am doing it wrong.

My thumb tends to creep upwards instead staying in the middle of the neck. he says don't let the audience see your thumb.

When I play arpeggios, some of my fingers tend to get too far away from the strings and touch other strings making noises that shouldn't be there.

I don't always play rest strokes with my thumb when I should. I have been working on this and I find it requires concentration and coordination with my other fingers.

I don't keep fingers down when I should since that same note will played again.

So I think he has helped me a lot and i have a lot of work ahead of me to accomplish all these things.

_____________________________

Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco
very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date Mar. 17 2015 16:10:17
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