Is it possible to correct that problem?

How's your guitar setup? Action nice and low?

I used to have that problem a lot, and still do a little, but the thing that helped me work it out was giving one of my guitars a makeover - spent a couple of days doing nothing but getting the neck just right and the action as low as possible, lighter guage strings, etc. (It took a couple of days 'cause to do it to this particular guitar involved shimming the neck, redoing the nut etc.). Until I did that, both my leccys were just a little on the hard-work-to-play side. This one is now a dream to play, and it takes just the tiniest amount of pressure to fret a string - I think I was moving my fretting hand fingers too much in order to be able to put more pressure on my fretting hand. Now it's just a matter of un-learning to throttle 'em and learning to tickle 'em instead.

I also find that practicing things too slowly can increase the amount of movement in the fretting hand, unless I'm very careful to avoid it. When I have all the time in the world to change frets I tend to move my fingers a long way out in between in order not to hit any unwanted strings, but I only end up putting those exaggerated movements into muscle memory.

The action is nice and very low. I just get it set-up by a pro.

I don't think I fret too hard too.. It's more like a "muscle problem"... I tried to concentrate myself while playing to keep my finger near of the neck, but it's automatic, when I play with my pinky, all the other fingers are going up :roll:

In that case it sounds like just a matter of training... How about a variation on the ol' 4 frets in a row thing? Pick a string, and play -8-7-6-5- repeatedly, picking each (rather than doing pulloffs) - the variation being that you don't leave the index finger on the 5th fret the whole time as you would naturally tend to do. I just tried it, and I was bringing my index and pinky way too far away from the fretboard, but managed to get a little better after about a minute of scowly-concentration. I'm definately adding this one to my regime :)

Just thought of something better too, try the same thing with -8-7-6-5-0-5-6-7-, 'cause that'll force you to lift the index off to hit the open string. It's not quite as annoying to listen to either ;)

I have just tried that exercise, and to be honest i didnt realise i had a problem but my fingers are coming too high, after about five mins i had them low to the neck! Definatley using that exercise more often!

David

Thanks for the exercice and the advice!

I think that'll help me.

I notice that it's not that hard to keep my index, middle and ring finger close to the fretboard when I concentrate. The pinky still need to work on :wink:

But doing that, I get pain in my thumb :roll:

(May not be because of that)

agree with misanthrope - you can also change the order around (i.e. 8-7-6-5- then 7-5-6-8- then5-8-6-7 and so on, altering the order each time, or after a few runs on each). I'd also say don't worry too much - for bluesy stuff my pinky seems to tense up and disppear completely from the fretboard, but trying to relax the pinky back to its usual position, I stop sounding like I want to sound. So on blues stuff I just ignore the fact that I'm supposedly playing with 'bad technique'. And if you look at the hands of a lot of top playing (e.g. Hendrix, SRV, Mick Taylor) you'll find plenty of examples of bad technique there, too.

I'm not trying to undermine the importance of good technique - that's something we should all strive for and much better to learn early than later. But good technique isn't good technique IMO if it prevents you from sounding how you want to sound.

Another helpful variation of that exercise, especially for helping keep an eye on keeping your fingers close to the fingerboard, is to try the "one finger one fret" on the diagonal. So, for instance, you'd do:

index finger - first fret first string
middle finger - second fret second string
ring finger - third fret third string
pinky - fourth fret fourth string

And then reverse:

index finger - second fret fifth string
middle finger - third fret fourth string
ring finger - fourth fret third string
pinky - fifth fret second string

and on and on...

Peace

It's possible to correct all mechanical problems. It will just take patience, practice and persistence.

Denny

I've read through this thread a few times now and tried one of the exercises and keep wondering, exactly how high is too high?

For my index, middle and ring fingers, they're all pretty close to the fretboard; the pinky tends to get a bit unwieldy (especially if it's just let go of a fret and the ring finger goes up) but it's somewhere in the range of half and inch to an inch (didn't quite measure it, I'm guestimating here).

Also, to mimic Denny's question, what level of control can be exerted over the pinky? Is it possible to get the same kind of obedience out of it as the ring finger? (I would say the index, but I'm not totally unreasonable and would be glad to settle for this).

Thanks