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Thread: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

  1. #1

    Default Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    I started to learn the mandolin a little over six months ago and I’ve been having an issue with actually using my pinky finger. No matter how I try to move it, my pinky finger always seems to want to curl up and into my ring finger, ending up laying across multiple strings on its side. Are there exercises I can use to train my pinky to be able to move more independently and not want to poke into my ring finger? I’m starting to worry perhaps there’s something wrong with it I’ve just never noticed before since I’ve never used it in this way before

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    finger dexterity exercises? twirling a pencil, one-hand rubik's cube?

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    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Hello DD and welcome to the forum!

    Your very last sentence in your post sums up your problems: “starting to worry” and “I’ve never used it in this way before.”

    I believe the first thing to address is the worry. Fear, apprehension and worry will not help and can work against you. Frustration can actually hinder progress and exacerbate the problem. Relaxation techniques can help, and paying attention to relaxation while practicing and playing can help with this and other issues. Finding a competent teacher either online or in person, a good coach, can also help if it’s feasible for you. Otherwise, it is up to you to keep your sessions relaxed and enjoyable.

    As you have written, your pinky is attempting something totally new, after a lifetime of coasting along. Everyone who plays a stringed instrument must deal with the same issues in the beginning. The “finger gymnastics” required for making chords and playing melodies are not natural, in the sense that you have to train them to do things and assume positions that they don’t normally do. Having trouble with the pinky at six months in is not unreasonable in terms of progress.

    I know this is not answering your question about “pinky workouts” so let’s think about that. You may get suggestions here about dexterity exercises, and they can be beneficial so check them out. In the end, it will come down to practicing pieces of music that require use of the pinky. I’m assuming that you’ve already encountered some? Thus the concern? If that’s the case, you should isolate phrases where you need the pinky and slowly practice those phrases taking care not to become too tense, and taking care not to allow yourself to become frustrated. Just make those phrases part of your practice routine and continue attempting them over time. Don’t expect instant gratification, just stick with it over time. You will learn to overcome if you follow this method.
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Try out Mike Marshall’s Great Book of Finger Busters: https://www.elderly.com/collections/...finger-busters

    Getting your pinky working does take time and practice. It requires not only a lot of brain rewiring, but muscle strength and stretching. Keep working on it and be patient with yourself. It will come.

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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Play tunes you know with your 2,3,and 4 fingers….and stop worrying about it it’s not like you can’t be a great player without a perfect pinky.

    The ring finger and pinky share a tendon so you’ll never achieve complete independence, practice shifting if reaching out with pinky is difficult.
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    There are many good exercises, and I am sure everyone is going to recommend their favorites. No bad ones.

    My favorites, that I highly recommend are shown below. Both notes and the tab to tell you which fingers to use where. Not specifically finger busters, but something to practice that is worth the time. Good warm ups, good exercises, good drills, whatever you want to call them. Both books by Todd Collins.

    First thing I did when I got them is get them spiral bound so they stay open and lay flat. I bound both of them together, because I flip back and forth a lot.

    Incalcitrant pinky is a burden many folks, myself included, have struggled with. Practice, patience, and oh yea practice.

    It takes about ten years to sound like you have played for a decade.
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    Last edited by JeffD; May-18-2023 at 1:00pm.
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  11. #7

    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Quote Originally Posted by bigskygirl View Post

    The ring finger and pinky share a tendon so you’ll never achieve complete independence...
    Independence is what will enhance your technical facility in all aspects of playing.


    Someone had posted a yo yo ma vid on another pedagogy thread - we can use it here as well.

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    Certainly, mandolin repertoire and technique is not cello repertoire/technique. Nor is it necessary to approach developing the pinky as if the two were equivalent. So, the point here, is to illustrate that it is possible (and de rigueur in other playing idioms) to train the pinky. Most certainly, it's beneficial to do this beginning at a young age - before the adult brain discerns that it's equivalent to physical torture

    You can, however, take up string playing on an entirely recreational hobbyist level - gain much in technical development, and apply it to mandolin playing. You can make very rapid gains in this way - cross-training, as it were.
    Last edited by catmandu2; May-18-2023 at 1:28pm.

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    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Another good workout for the pinky, one that I sometimes use in performing, is to practice hammering on with the pinky 1/2 step up from the ring finger note.

    Since the 3rd & 4th degrees of the major scale are a 1/2 step apart, likewise the 7th & 8th … and in many melodies, there is movement from the b3 to the M3, it is often possible to play a note with the ring finger followed by hammering on with the pinky on the next fret. Finding places where that will work, and making “practice phrases” of them in order to build pinky strength is a good approach IMHO. In situations like that, the pinky and ring finger get to work in concert with one another. Developing the strength & dexterity necessary to hammer on successfully with the pinky is not easy but it’s doable and rewarding.

    You can see one example of this on a video I made for showing some of the fills I used in playing Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell: https://youtu.be/PZ3huYP5Oo4
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    I'll add one more exercise.

    Play major scales in closed position fingerings

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    Use fingers 1 - 2 -3 - 4 for each tetrachord (group of 4 notes) on each adjacent string.

    Play this in every key on all sets of strings.

    And keep all 4 fingers down after playing on any string.

    So if you begin on A, 4th string 2nd fret, finger 1 does down and stays down, then finger does the same, as do all 4 fingers.

    Do the same for the other 4 notes, E - F# -G# - A.

    Another exercise is to use the 4th finger to hold a note on the E strings, for example the B at the 7th fret.

    Then use the other fingers to hit notes on the other strings below and up to the 7th fret, all the time keeping the 4th finger on that high B.

    Of course all the previous suggestions are excellent too!

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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    My pinky is in pretty good shape from years of fingerstyle guitar before getting more serious about the mandolin; however, I have a couple of suggestions that I use with mandolin. 1. Play scales without any open strings and use the pinky for the highest notes on each string. 2. Get an Octave mandolin, which kinda forces to use your pinky! Mostly, just spend more time playing. And take heart, with time it does get easier.
    P
    Plus all the other Cafe suggestions are excellent - I plan to try a few myself.

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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidKOS View Post
    I'll add one more exercise.

    Play major scales in closed position fingerings

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Use fingers 1 - 2 -3 - 4 for each tetrachord (group of 4 notes) on each adjacent string.
    Quote Originally Posted by Denis Kearns View Post
    1. Play scales without any open strings and use the pinky for the highest notes on each string.
    Yes, I agree!

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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Quote Originally Posted by bigskygirl View Post
    Play tunes you know with your 2,3,and 4 fingers….and stop worrying about it it’s not like you can’t be a great player without a perfect pinky.

    The ring finger and pinky share a tendon so you’ll never achieve complete independence, practice shifting if reaching out with pinky is difficult.

    This was a big help for me. I badly cut my first / index finger long ago and had it stitched and wrapped up for a length of time.

    Playing without that finger really did wonders for the dexterity and strength of my ring and pinkster.

    I'll still practice scales and play that way to this day.

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  21. #13

    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    "It takes about ten years to sound like you have played for a decade. "
    I love that. Another way of saying it only comes with experience and practice.

    I'm not going to answer your question. Looking at the date of this post, you've been playing the same amount of time as I have. But I do have a couple of comments that will be helpful, perhaps.

    First, as it was recommended on here many, many times, I listened to the audiobook of "The practice of practice." I forget the author. Damn was that a killer recommendation. Great fukn book if you're practicing any kind of instrument. Heres one thing that I learned: When you're learning a new skill, your brain actually has to grow neurons that become the pathways to this new information, skill, etc. Neurons are physical objects and they grow at a certain rate. Much in the same way that overwatering and fertilizing a plant will not make it grow more quickly (and may even slow it down or kill it), you can't sound like you've been playing 10 years by playing for one year and practicing ten times more than average. The brain needs to grow the infrastructure for your new skill and no matter how much you practice, its still going to happen on the brain's own timeline.

    Maybe you've noticed this phenomenon: you practice something that is very difficult (for me, it was the upstroke. I had a really difficult time getting one that sounded just okay). And you practice and practice and dammit, weeks later it sounds hardly any better. Then one day you can just do it. There was no breakthrough or "Aha!" moment. One shiny, blue sky day you can just do it. This happened to me with my upstroke.

    I also had the same pinky problem. Really I still do. But one day I looked and darn if I couldnt wag my pinky side to side, somewhat independently from my ring finger and holy jeeziss my pinky was standing straight in alignment with my other fingers in a way that it definitely had not just the evening before. And the only thing that had happened from one day to the next is I went to sleep. I found that very encouraging. And it made me realize I just needed to keep practicing and keep thinking about my practice and trying new exercises to focus on my trouble spot and if I did that...plus gave my old, THC encrusted brain time to grow...eventually it will all work out. But listen to those guys^^^. They sure know WTH theyre talking about .I've learned a great deal on here.

  22. #14

    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Thanks. This is great:
    "Another exercise is to use the 4th finger to hold a note on the E strings, for example the B at the 7th fret.

    Then use the other fingers to hit notes on the other strings below and up to the 7th fret, all the time keeping the 4th finger on that high B."

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    Registered User lowtone2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Great suggestions.

    Tristan starts this lesson with a good finger independence exercise.


  25. #16

    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    As I've learned practically any instrument, I incorporated practice/drills into my TV time.
    Usually something simple but with a goal in mind of building strength or muscle memory.

    Specifically, when learning the mandolin and working on my pinkie, I'd finger a full G
    chord(pinkie on low string). The transition to a full D Chord taking care to leave the pinkie
    fully in place. This was to strengthen the pinkie but to also "unhinge" it from the movements
    of the other fingers.

    I'd just move back and forth between those 2 chords until the pinkie felt fatigue(which doesn't take long).

    Anyway, just a simple exercise using those 2 full chord shapes will help over time.
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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    Quote Originally Posted by speacock View Post
    As I've learned practically any instrument, I incorporated practice/drills into my TV time.
    Usually something simple but with a goal in mind of building strength or muscle memory.

    Specifically, when learning the mandolin and working on my pinkie, I'd finger a full G
    chord(pinkie on low string). The transition to a full D Chord taking care to leave the pinkie
    fully in place. This was to strengthen the pinkie but to also "unhinge" it from the movements
    of the other fingers.

    I'd just move back and forth between those 2 chords until the pinkie felt fatigue(which doesn't take long).

    Anyway, just a simple exercise using those 2 full chord shapes will help over time.
    Thanks. This is a useful exercise. once I was able to figure out what chord figurations you were using. Also a good reminder to practice chord transitions until they just come naturally, and for me, a reminder that once again, I need to trim my left hand fingernails!

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    Default Re: Pinky workouts for a pinky that wants to always turn?

    So here are a couple of thoughts:

    One is to think of the pinky not as in independant finger, but as the beloved pet of the ring finger. I don't expect independence, I expect a short leash.

    So what I do most of the time is to deploy the ring finger nearby, one fret down, somewhere out of the way, at the same time deploying the pinky where it needs to be. The strength and confidence in the pinky comes from being next to its owner, the ring finger. Once I got into the mind set it became second nature to me. Goint up the scale? Leave the fingers down so that when you do deploy the pink, the ring finger is already nearby. Have a riff that requires some constant pinky maneuvering? Can you put the ring finger in the middle of the battle so the pinky is able to do its job without pulling at the leash?

    This pet idea was invented out of what what I perceived as necessity. My second point came by accident. I had some problems with my index finger. During the time it took to figure out what was going on medically I seriously believed I was going to lose use of that finger. (Spoiler alert, everything turned out fine.) So what I did is go about learning all the tunes I knew, as if I didn't have an index finger.

    Using the beloved pet idea described above, and the necessity I felt forced upon me by the problems with my index finger, I got in about six months of hard but really effective practice getting the pinky out. In six or so months the problems were diagnosed and corrective action taken and it all went away. I could go back to full four finger pickin. But my pinky was never shy again.

    Now I am not the one to recommend fastening a popsicle stick to your index finger, though, if your are up to it, it may not be a bad idea.

    And the beloved pet idea has really greatly enhanced the deployability of my pinky. This idea, if you can get into it, is might-T-powerful.
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