My teacher has me working on 'Layla' at the moment, I've been learning about hammer-ons and pull-offs, slides and now string-bending. That's all very well and good but yesterday he asked me to use my little finger to do a hammer-on and oh boy...it makes me realise how little in non guitar playing life we use our little fingers. Is just using that finger the best way to increase the use I can get out of it? At the moment I feel a bit frustrated as I know what I should be doing but when I do it it sounds less than good.
I heard there was this pill you take at bedtime and you wake up a virtuoso...no, just kidding!
PRACTICE!!!!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
What can I say Cat hasn't? I still haven't mastered this (and only really on the high strings, low E is not going to happen any time soon), but am definitely better than when I started trying. Only one way to improve...
I heard there was this pill you take at bedtime and you wake up a virtuoso...no, just kidding!
PRACTICE!!!!
Cat
Funny, Cat, funny - do you get emails in your junk box that say 'Guitarists! Enlarge your Pinky MAX Pinky ACTION!' Haha.
I suppose I knew the answer to some extent before I began asking it.
... yesterday he asked me to use my little finger to do a hammer-on ... At the moment I feel a bit frustrated as I know what I should be doing but when I do it it sounds less than good.
Yep, this one is really difficult and you will take time to get it nailed.
In the meantime, don't sweat. All this stuff gets easier the more you work with it.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Boy, do I ever have a sarcastic streak, Sansmerci...but, really, LEARNING guitar will never stop. Even Andreas Segovia...as old as he was...conceded that.
It's a great life metaphor on so many ways, too. Lots of us "think too much" about just about everything. Just get into a genré of music that gets into your blood...and you'll go with it. You ain't really gonna have a choice in it, I say. Your pinky will know what to do. Don't force it...or anything you do in life. Just love what you do.
Practically...I find that I'm playing out short melody bits with my pinky at the ends of all my chordings. While I'm holding these chords in place...of course my mind is sorting out the best two or three intervals to tag on to these chords so there's a brain-pinky hookup that I'm always conscious of as I'm on the fly. One extra note is easy enough...but more than that needs the hammer-on because of the tempo and getting it outta the way for the next chord change. As far as intervals go, usually my last hammer-on is a sneak peek at my next chord...
Hope my rambling on helps!!!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Boy, do I ever have a sarcastic streak
Yeah, if by "sarcastic" you mean... ah, forget it.
Leave the newbies alone, Cat.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
Just reading the title brought a smile to my face. Keep at it, you will be suprised.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Yeah, if by "sarcastic" you mean... ah, forget it. Leave the newbies alone, Cat.
Ahhh! Okay...but the point about practice, borne of a bit of a ribbing...is just my good natured way of saying not to be so serious about it. With "fun" in the equation...time and practice will get him there. I don't think I got up anyone's nose!
Ha!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Cat didn't bother me that much...anyway, things are coming a little easier each time I pick up my guitar. I always have fun, despite how it might sound.
I too have struggled with my pinky, i think we were all at that point. Right at the moment i'm using a hammer-on finger strengthening exercise i saw on Youtube, let's just say it leaves the forearm burning! Now if i can just ever get over this alternate picking hump, i'll be well on my way!
I struggled a lot with my pinky at first, and for a long time afterwards - it was never more than a useless appendage, a bit like an inflamed appendix - didn't do much, but hurt a lot!
It started working a little better when I started playing blues shuffles....you know what I mean? Two-note powerchords, A5 D5 and E5....then you have to start adding the 6ths and 7ths with your pinky. I had trouble with the 6ths at first - two frets up from the 5th, with my index finger holding down the root note. I've damaged my little finger a few times over the last ten years - it's been broken more often than a politician's promises, and is now permanently crooked! - but I can now manage that 5-fret stretch again from the root to the 7th.
Example, in tab....
A5 - x 5 7 x x x
A6 - x 5 9 x x x
A7 - x 5 10 x x x OR x 5 7 5 x x x
Play songs where you HAVE to use the pinky.....like "Alright Now," by Free, where the A chord doesn't quite sound right unless you play it x 0 2 2 5 5, with your pinky covering the e and B strings....or Badge, by Cream, where you finish each verse with an Am(add9) played x 7 5 5 5 7.....
The more you use it, the more control you'll have over it!
Good luck....
:-) :-) :-)
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I never used my pinky much until I switched to bass. Now I use it constantly and it is much stronger after fretting the thicker strings.
Funny you are talking about pinkies and Layla. I went to see Clapton last year and watched the big screen showing closeups of his hands and he almost never uses his pinky. I was blown away at some of the fast stuff he was playing and he was only using 3 fingers.
