Pinky and the Brain

Playing Technique
#1

This thing just keeps on giving. I thought to get a bit more insight by subscribing to the Code, but I find myself completely immersed in the interesting and intelligent discussions everywhere.

Yesterday I watched the interview of Terry Syrek. Focal dystonia? I’ve heard of that. Golfers call it the yips. I could not have it. I am a bedroom guitarist. I play about 1 h a day if I have the chance. But then, the lights went on. Damn, my left hand pinky, it does not flatten. Has it ever? I thought it was a mechanical thing. That I can’t do it. I flatten it by playing with two fingers: ring finger has to be right next to it, almost on top, definitely touching pinky. Even then it is so-so.

So, looked at my right hand, thinking “what if that ****er can do it?”. Sure enough, it works like a charm. I had no idea!

Then I spent the much of the day at work playing with my pinky. I soon noticed that I can operate it at will very close to palm. It is weak, but it responds. Without thumb there is again possibility to flatten it farther from the palm, but not too well. Pressure from thumb removes my mental access to that particular joint. I can only curl it. Not extend. I am totally unable to roll my left pinky from one string to another. I only can use the tip of the finger.

I don’t (probably) have actual focal dystonia, but this is definitely a relative. As long as I remember, left has been like this, but the right hand and my tests prove to a certain degree that it is a neural thing, not mechanical. Now I am going to try to retrain my brain with the help of the more capable, friendly neighbourhood right pinky.

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#2

I have exactly the same issue: my pinky (or better its last joint) does not flatten by itself, only when helped by flattening also the ring finger. Luckily the other three can do it, and this gets me out of most situations. I suspect it may be a mechanical thing in my case, like something to do with the way my tendons are arranged, but I never really checked properly (don’t know how to!).

Anyway, if you ever come up with more tricks/tips to get around this let me/us know :sunglasses:

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#3

@tommo
I did a bit of brain-wiring yesterday. Fairly quickly I was able to get some control to flattening the last joint with my hand on the neck. Pinky is slow and ill-tempered, but in the end it responds to my will, something I’ve never been able to do before and would possibly never have considered possible, had I not watched the fantastic interview of Terry. It is purely neural, not mechanical at all.

It is sort of the opposite of his condition, but the symptom of an absolute blackout with certain movement is definitely similar. Also it is different from the awkward movements of first learning the guitar, that kind of “this goes there and this goes there”, like moving pieces on a chess board. Imagine never learning how to move a pawn two steps forward, only one.

This is totally fascinating. If I turn the guitar around, my right hand pinky control is immediately available. I looked at some of the muscles involved and copied that to left. It helped.

Will I ever be able to use my pinky for anything more than one string? I don’t know yet but there is promise.