# How to keep your fretting hand as close as posible to the strings?



## AscendingMatt (Sep 28, 2012)

ive been practicing this forEVER and my pinky just wants to jump or fall off the fretboard. any goo techniques to get this down or exercises?


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## Larrikin666 (Sep 28, 2012)

How do you practice doing that? I usually built muscle memory in my pinky by doing hammer ons and pull offs between my ring finger and pinky for a set number of time. From getting used more, your pinky should end up naturally sitting in a better fretting position.


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## budda (Sep 28, 2012)

Like pretty much anything guitar related: practice, slow, clean.


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## AscendingMatt (Sep 29, 2012)

Larrikin666 said:


> How do you practice doing that? I usually built muscle memory in my pinky by doing hammer ons and pull offs between my ring finger and pinky for a set number of time. From getting used more, your pinky should end up naturally sitting in a better fretting position.



thats actually a good idea thanks!!


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## RevDrucifer (Sep 29, 2012)

When I first started playing, my uncle told me, "One finger per fret." Meaning, if I put my hand on the fingerboard, each finger would be over a fret. 

So in practice, I made it a point not to stretch my ring finger up a fret that I could hit easily with my pinky. It built up pinky strength and also brought in the muscle memory of always keeping my closer to the fingerboard. 

Learning some Petrucci runs, the solo in "Erotomania" is a good one for this, really helped drive that home as well. Unless you've got REALLY long/fast fingers, you pretty much HAVE to use your pinky in that solo. 

Force yourself to use your pinky in places where you normally stretch your ring finger up. When you're noodling, keep looking at your left hand and catch yourself straying away from using your pinky. 

It'll get there eventually.


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## SirMyghin (Sep 29, 2012)

Work in one position at first and isolate movements. Watch what happens when you make the movements, to the other fingers. If your pinky moves when you fret between index and middle finger, isolate it and practice stopping it from moving. Rinse, repeat with all combinations, then start doing full scale runs.

The lighter your touch on the fretboard, the less likely you will have large movement also. So if you are pressing hard on the frets, you can expect a whole lot more finger movement.


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## AscendingMatt (Sep 30, 2012)

I ALSO found

THIS
Guitar Finger Exercise Guaranteed to Improve Speed and Accuracy - YouTube


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## Pronounce (Sep 30, 2012)

I think It's just about doing this. Stop thinking about not taking fingers too far and start doing this. Pebber Brown (avialable on Youtube) explain in that way.

Stay focus and start keepig them close.


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## goherpsNderp (Sep 30, 2012)

i've been told to keep my hand/wrist perpendicular to the neck at all times, and to go slow, making sure to never let my pinky stretch out from it's normal resting position. it's still hard for me to keep it from "kicking out" but i am at least making progress.


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## stuglue (Oct 1, 2012)

I always find that whenever I practice economy picking my fretting hand changes and becomes very efficient. If I take the frank gambale approach to picking my fretting fingers remain very close to the board. Same with sweep arpeggios.


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## Grimbold (Oct 1, 2012)

focus on it... i mean
speed picking is about efficiency of motion
the fast pickers move their fingers the least, so try t do chromatic exercises and barely lift your fingers a millimeter off the strings... works for me


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 1, 2012)

I practiced pinky intensive exercises like a fiend.

I also did things to force myself to use my pinky even in situations that didn't call for it. Often this meant learning more than one fingering for the same pattern [initially]. I then decided which of the two I felt was most comfortable and went with that once I'd gained the desired pinky proficiency.

Do everything really slowly and don't speed up unless you can keep your technique consistent AND play your current lick/run/etude/what-have-you 5 (or more if you choose) times through without making any mistakes at a given speed.


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## gandalf (Oct 2, 2012)

I used a really effective lesson for this. I just play a semi chromatic line over all the strings, descending I put all fingers on the fretboeard and I dont play the next note until im completely satisfyed with how close the fingers are to the fretboard and this can be difficult since the sheer nature of the pulse in your body wants you to play in some kind of tempo, but you must resist that urge(so obviously this is not something you do to a metronome either) ascending I put one finger on the fretboard and I dont play the next until the remaining fingers are in place. I hope this helps


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## wildchild (Oct 2, 2012)

that 11 note lick that paul gilbert and buckethead is great for the pinky


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## AscendingMatt (Oct 2, 2012)

wildchild said:


> that 11 note lick that paul gilbert and buckethead is great for the pinky




that is sweet. i found a guitar pro by paul thats very fun to play also called guitar sequences on ultimate guitar


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## Maniacal (Oct 3, 2012)

Anthony said:


> This is most excellent! I love real exercises like these, not just some pointless picking patterns.
> 
> Also, check out the book Riff Training by our forum member Maniacal. I bought the book back in 2008 and it changed my playing forever, its a truly awesome tool. News | ShredTraining.com



Happy to hear my approach to practice is working for you too


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## Maniacal (Oct 3, 2012)

There are a few different things you can do that will help you reduce movement with both hands. 

Preliminary stuff such as:
Practice legato trills using very small, fast movements. Trill for 5 minutes per finger, you will have to adapt efficient technique to trill for that long.

Work on picking at a slow tempo using very small movements, 80bpm 16ths for 5 minutes would be a good start. You don't need to increase the tempo every day, just use this as a way of into the mindset of using small movements. Sounds strange but it works. 

Keep your fingers above the frets you are going to play, for example if you are playing the A major scale 3NPS style, you would have frets 5 7 and 9 with fingers 1,2 and 4. 
Play each string over and over again while switching between legato and alternate picking: there should be NO change in the way your fretting hand fingers move. 
You should apply this with everything, chords, scales and arpeggios. For chords, a good exercise is to play different chords on the same root note to a metronome. For example: C major 7, C dominant 7, C minor 7, C minor 7b5, C diminished 7, C major 9, C dominant 9, C minor 9. Drill that over and over again then move between different root notes such as: C major 7, D dominant 7 etc


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## AscendingMatt (Oct 3, 2012)

^ thank you!


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## SirMyghin (Oct 3, 2012)

^^ 

+1, Never thought about keeping my legato with that little motion, I am sure it will take all kinds of work to get there but always worth while. Not that my legato has much more motion, but it definitely has more. FWIW, exercises like these are great warm ups, and help to keep your hand moving properly.


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## BornToLooze (Oct 3, 2012)

What I learned when I was taking lessons is play the chromatic scale and leave your fingers on the string as you play, so you would play the first 4 notes on the E, then as you start to play on the A leave your other fingers on the E. If you mute a note or pick one of your fingers up, start over. Did I explain that good enough?


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## JazzandMetal (Oct 3, 2012)

Maniacal has some good advice that I will have to integrate into my practice. When you can trill your pinky for five minutes while your third ring or third finger is fretting the note below it, IMO the hardest trill, you are well on your way to technical proficiency. This is all my opinion because I am only an intermediate player just starting to be able to shred. 

I learned a good way to keep my fingers down was to practice a scale shape veerrry slowly and try to keep my fingers about a quarter inch away from the fretboard. I learned this from Justinguitar on youtube. He has a video about it, I forget what it is called but it is in the intermediate portion of his lessons. When I practice that five or ten minutes a day, all my playing is closer to the fretboard. I have to get back to it, because my pinky is starting to get unruly again. 

BTW, I also got faster at everything after a few days of this. When your fingers are half the distance off the fretboard than they used to be, speed comes naturally.


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## Hollowway (Oct 3, 2012)

Yup. Watch your form and practice. It's the secret to everything.


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## kekkuliheikki (Oct 4, 2012)

You can never prevent this really. Human physics. Varies between individuals. Look at John Petrucci for example. He has brilliant techinque but his little finger is often flying around. Certain streches also manifest this. If you try the example below your little finger WILL rise if you keep your fingers parallel to the frets and don't bend them towards the nut. Also the one below is good for developing the stretch between 2nd and 3rd. I call it the Jason Becker stretch.

Kreutzer - Play throughout with 1st 2nd and 3rd fingers only:

X3 X1
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|------12-10----10-------|--------------------------|
|10-14-------14----12-14 |10-12-14-12-10-12----10-|
|-------------------------|--------------------14----|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
1 3 2 1 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 1

X3 X1
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|---10-14-12-10-12----10|------10------------------|
|12-----------------14---|12-14----14-12-14-10-12--|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
2 1 3 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 3 2 3 1 2

|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-----10-8----8----------| -----12-10-9-10---10----|
|8-12------12--10-12-----|8-12------------12-------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
1 3 2 1 3 1 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 2 3 2 

|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|
|-------------------------|-----9--------------------|
|---9-12-10-9-10---9----|---9---12-10-12-9-10-----|
|10--------------12------|10------------------------|
|-------------------------|--------------------------|

1 2 3 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 1 3 2 3 1 2
etc...etc...from Am...


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## JazzandMetal (Oct 4, 2012)

Shawn Lane, Allan Holdsworth, and other great keep their pinky pretty tight despite playing the biggest stretches and the most difficult positions. It requires dedication and practice.


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## kekkuliheikki (Oct 4, 2012)

JazzandMetal said:


> Shawn Lane, Allan Holdsworth, and other great keep their pinky pretty tight despite playing the biggest stretches and the most difficult positions. It requires dedication and practice.


 
That is true but my point was that it is no big deal if it does fly occasionally.


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## JazzandMetal (Oct 4, 2012)

kekkuliheikki said:


> That is true but my point was that it is no big deal if it does fly occasionally.



Absolutely. Pebber Brown said in one of his videos that chromatic practice and practice at home in general is for perfecting your technique and you should go slow and be really attentive to your form. However, when you are with your band, you shouldn't worry about your form so much and should worry about your timing, rhythm, and music. For those of use who are not in a band, (like me) it translates into not worrying about form too much when playing songs, licks, improvising etc.


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## SirMyghin (Oct 4, 2012)

^^

Naw, only when performancing you don't worry about form. At home improvising you should definitely worry about form, as you won't build bad habits from bad form then so when you play out, you have better form, and won't need to worry about it (see what I did there?)


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