-
Epic Win – Milestone in Guitar Journey?
Today’s lick seems easy. There is no part that I am not able to do… normally, or sometimes, IDK, seems like it’s easy. Anyway, when I get to the part where I’m supposed to do a pull off with my pinky, I can’t do it. Sometimes I can do pull offs with my pinky just fine. And sometimes, my pinky gets “locked”. I just discovered what’s going on and this could be a game changer for my soloing ability.
So first, let me say that this might help others. I have medium, large hands. And so I can “cheat” to some extent with my hand position. But this creates a problem because my pinky is so short.
(This is where the first pic should be, but I can’t seem to put the pics in the post, but only at the bottom, so see below.)
So, when I get down to the bottom of the fretboard, my pinky ends up looking like this. Notice how the first joint is bent and there is pressure causing the second, middle joint to locked straight. From this position, I literally can’t pull my finger down to create the pull off.
(See second pic below.)
So, having noticed this, I finally realized why I can’t pull my pinky down. So, then I started at the top, or beginning of the lick and worked my way down to the pull off trying to see when and how I could readjust my hand to get the pinky bent. I was so easy I couldn’t believe it. All I had to do was pull my pinky up into a bent position and pull down to create the pull off.
(See third pic below.)
MG 😀
-
20 Replies
-
Thats another reason why you should play on the tips not the pads of your fingers. The pad is too soft and probably muffles the string as you try to release pressure. The tip, once calloused, is harder and releases cleaner and faster.
Until i starting strumming chords i never really bent my fingers as much up onto the tips and it was hard not to touch other strings by accudent. Now that i am forced to played on the tips to get between the strings to form some harder chords it seems like my fingers arent as fat as thy used to be and get in there easier to play cleaner
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by That_Guy.
-
This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by
-
Glad you found something that works for you, Mike. 👍
I have the opposite problem, smaller hands but I end up with the same issue when I get down to the pulloff. I’ll have to try your solution. Thanks for the tip!
-
Hey @Rando ;
I have been practicing this a lot through out the day today. Some times it seems so easy, and other times I have to figure it out again.
@That_Guy mentioned playing on the tips which made me question “is that all I’m doing?”. No, it gets back to the pinky being half the length of my other fingers. When my index and middle finger are fretting, they are on the tips, but when I reach for the 5th fret with my pinky, it is stretched out and it looks like the second pic where it is locked straight because it is so short. Now, if I bend the little finger, it pulls my palm up against the bottom of the neck and my other fingers have too much reach and can’t easily press the strings. So my little finger has “learned” this trick to fret the string very cleanly, but I can’t do a pull off without bending the pinky and pull my palm up to the neck. That allows me to pull off, but I need to lower my palm immediately afterwards so that my other fingers work properly.
Anyway, I still haven’t gotten this lick past the triplet pull off. But I have the technique figured out, so it’s just a matter of getting my fingers/hand to learn to do this automatically.
If you want, I could do a video of my hand as I do this lick so you can see how I do it. It would be very cool if this could help you also.
MG 😀
-
-
Lovin It @MikeGaurnier . You get a gold medal for determination and sticking with it until you found the solution. Epic Win!
-
Well thanks jumpin jeff. I guess that’s what we all need to do: figure out how we personally, with our given anatomy, can get the proper sounds from our guitar. I never thought my pinky was freakishly short until I joined TAC and started noticing things like other peoples fingers. Tony fingers are all almost the same length. That would be a great advantage for playing guitar. But I know my hands are a particular type and many others have hands like mine. Maybe not the best for playing guitar, but that’s what I want to do. And I’m doing it… my way. Yaaaah!
MG 😀
-
-
Nice win!
-
Thank you David.
MG 😀
-
-
Good Job @MikeGaurnier , Sometimes you have to sit back and figure out just why something isn’t something working for you. Glad you got everything figured out. well…. at least the pinky problem. 🙂
-
Thank you Cadgirl. That pinky is very important in the style of music I like. I like finger picking which uses a lot of finger movement, including the pinky.
MG 😀
-
-
You are smart. Good analysis and problem solving.
-
Thank you @albert_d . I feel that this one is a big deal and I was hoping that it would help others. Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment.
MG 😀
-
-
Always nice when you figure out a solution. Wish I had more of those!
-
They come slowly… but surely @punder . But we can miss them if we aren’t looking for those small wins. Then, we can still forget them if we don’t report them and share them with others. Thanks for checking it out.
MG 😀
-
-
That is awesome MikeGaurnier! 👌 that’s an amazing win. 👏
-
Thank you so much @stevieblues , I agree that it is an awesome win.
MG 😀
-
-
Huge win! Congrats bro!
-
Thanks @RealKurt . I feel it is a huge win. You well know how much this will open the door to doing embellishments that I could seem to do before.
MG 😀
-
👍👍
-
-
-
Glad you were able to figure this out so it works most of the time. My fretting pinky is still shorter though due to a partial amputation. Just the one joint knuckle functions for me, so the finger curl pull-off is an impossibility for me.
-
Thanks for coming by and commenting @JeffM.22 .Yeah, my little discovery won’t help you. There are 3 finger players who do remarkable things though. This is just an example of our learning to do what we can do and making beautiful music within that area of ability. I continue to push to be able to do more and more when a long time ago I had enough ability to make beautiful music. I need to push myself to use what I have now. Thanks for reminding me. 😊
MG 😀
-
Log in to reply.