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RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to RoJay1)
quote:
Practice arpegios while holding a pair of coins between your index and middle fingers and middle and ring fingers.
What about the pinky / little finger though? Should I have a coin in between my ring and pinky fingers too? Considering that the issue here is the pinky finger sticking out...
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
quote:
ORIGINAL: rombsix
quote:
Practice arpegios while holding a pair of coins between your index and middle fingers and middle and ring fingers.
What about the pinky / little finger though? Should I have a coin in between my ring and pinky fingers too? Considering that the issue here is the pinky finger sticking out...
The need to compress your fingers to hold the coins should force you to curl your pinky in next to your ring finger. I think this will become apparent if you give the exercise a shot. You can also put a coin between the pinky and ring finger, but I think this would be overkill. Just remember that the exercise will feel extremely awkward art first, but its shouldn't take more than a few days to become comfortable.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to ralexander)
I figured that the coins between i/m and m/a should force the pinky to behave, but I just needed to make sure in case there was any confusion... Gracias tio!
Elie: My picado alone (no need for matches) sometimes lights the guitar on fire. I keep a "taffayeh" nearby.
Ralexander: you've been watching too many Godfather movies.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
I'm going to be alternating between this exercise, and just doing regular arpeggios and making sure the pinky MOVES ALONG with the ring finger. The coin thing is good, but it makes the brain learn to STICK the pinky to the ring finger. The NATURAL and most relaxed thing for the pinky to do is MOVE ALONG with the ring...
But it's a useful exercise - for all-finger power, etc.
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
Rombsix, As I write this, I notice your pinky is even sticking out in your avatar :)
To unlearn a habit, it is helpful to isolate the feeling of the habit.
1. as you play, intentionally stick out your pinky. exaggerate it! Make sure you know what that feels like. 2. this simple awareness may give you the ability to relax the pinky.
Sounds too easy, but it might work. Your experiment of curling the pinky is similar to this technique. You will, of course, have to drill the "right" way once you have found it, to make a new habit.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to gaash)
quote:
Dumb question, but why does it matter what the pinky is doing?
It tends to create tension in the hand as a whole if it is doing something very unnatural like sticking all the way out in extension when the ring finger is doing flexion movements.
Here is what my tremolo looks like now, where I've gotten the pinky to follow the ring finger. Still trying to gain better control, but it's somewhat better now...
Anyone heard this granaina tremolo before? I think I've composed it, but I really can't trust myself now anymore. I tend to steal subconsciously too often these days...
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
Interesting. I never really think about my pinky when I'm not using it as I figure my body will naturally learn to do with it what aids the parts I'm focused on.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to gaash)
quote:
Interesting. I never really think about my pinky when I'm not using it as I figure my body will naturally learn to do with it what aids the parts I'm focused on.
I guess so... I was incorrectly taught though that I should ALWAYS stick it out, even if unnaturally. My teacher should NOT have taught me this, but that's what happened. And now I'm trying to unlearn this...
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
quote:
ORIGINAL: rombsix
quote:
Interesting. I never really think about my pinky when I'm not using it as I figure my body will naturally learn to do with it what aids the parts I'm focused on.
I guess so... I was incorrectly taught though that I should ALWAYS stick it out, even if unnaturally. My teacher should NOT have taught me this, but that's what happened. And now I'm trying to unlearn this...
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to gaash)
I use a Logitech C910 webcam. It provides 720p at 24 fps which is MORE than enough in my opinion to get decent quality videos. It only costs $75 in the USA. Also, if you know how to set this camera's built-in microphone, you can use the camera to record both your audio and your video simultaneously and easily, and the audio will be very very very acceptable to say the LEAST (check out xirdneh_imiJ and the videos he posted of Moraito buleria material in the Falseta Swap Shop), and the video will be great obviously. The videos by xirdneh_imiJ were recorded purely using the C910 using its built in microphone. If you like the videos and the audio in them, buy yourself a C910. I will tell you how to tweak the settings to get it to produce the best quality audio and video.
For audio, I use a CAD u37 USB microphone ($50), which provides decent audio quality (even though I could simply use the built-in microphone in the C910, but I have this USB microphone, so I use it).
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
quote:
ORIGINAL: rombsix
Thank you for the input, Orson.
Regarding the video: I am no expert on focal dystonia, but perhaps my medical background made me really belittle what this guy was saying. Playing guitar involves moving the fingers. The muscles involved in moving the fingers are located in the forearm. He is talking about the latissimus dorsi and the teres minor which act on the shoulder joint or humerus at best. I just wasn't able to imagine playing guitar from your shoulder joint. But what do I know...
Thanks again!
Hi Ramzi,
Could you imagine that contracting / relaxing your jaws will effect your motorbike riding abilities? Relaxing jaws is what is being tought in German ADAC special biking courses, and I found things to quite work that way.
Thanks Orson for the link to the David Leisner video! It appears to be the most useful practical info bit on FD ( and guitar playing in general ) that I have come accross so far.
The dorsal point under the armpit indeed affects the whole arms muscles. When I treat people with issues of overstrained flexors / extensors in the lower arm, I will also engage a receptor located where Leisner is referring to. The minute hit it will make you feel instantly how the complete arm gets released, and people habitually overstrained will additionally sense a clear tingle that goes down all the way to the fingertips.
What Leisner is saying in the video about delegating tasks to major / bigger muscles further upwards makes definite sense, and is in fact what you learn in advanced Wing Tsun. By realizing how far up and remote in fact the steering of your fine extremities is located, dispense of superfluously engaged fine motorics will be taking place simultaneously, allowing you economizing of musclular and neural ressource.
Also noteworthy what he remarks about strained thumb pat.
This is one of the most intelligent reflections on ( for that matter ) musicians´ physiological background I have come accross so far and should be mandatory info for every guitar player; especially for beginners, to have them avoid from start what the common player is being stuck with throughout decades.
Finally, his suggestion to imagine plucking as reversed dropping. In the same way fingers should return to idle, instead of by intentional extensor work the process should be deemed as gravital / dropping too ( just not seen reverse this time, naturally ).
( By understanding the principles behind the details in the video, you´ll also realize in the end how limiting sitting position is compared to upright and centered playing.) -
It should mean a significant favour to the community to have this video permanently linked to from the foros main page / technique section.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to Elie)
Hey Elie - yeah, I have it much more under control now. You can notice from my more recent videos. It's still got somewhat of a tendency to stick out when I push myself to my technical limit of comfort, but when I play relaxed, it does better.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
Just look to the ceiling whenever you stick out your pinky, you'll look and sound like VA. If you fill it with some soulful "wiggly wiggly" hammer/pull-offs, chicks will start losing their panties.
Beware not to play to close to the soundhole or you'll eventually forget what chicks are for.
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to rombsix)
that's really great Ramzi, Congratulation man ! you seem to control it very well. I hope you keep progressing till you get rid of the whole pinky problem at any speed.
I still have my pinky sticking out during i-m picados and recently I've been working intensively on arpeggios and Tremolos using the pinky and I think its helping but still my a-m(I mean i-a) picados faster and produce less tension
Ramzi in your opinion do you think I should quit improving i-m picados and stick to the a-m(I mean i-a)? or is it important to improve them (the i-m) in order to improve other techniques ? [any thoughts from other members?]
RE: Right hand Pinky / Little finger (in reply to Elie)
I personally think you should stick to the picado technique that feels more natural to you. Juan Habichuela Nieto does a-i quite well (among many other guitarists), so I say you should stick with it. The i and m fingers are naturally stronger than the a finger, so I guess your way of doing picado with a-i is better considering it strengthens the a finger, whereas the i and m are already naturally strong and they work out with many other techniques too. So my conclusion would be to stick to a-i picado.
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