Short Pinky Problems

Technique Critique
#6

I’ve found your reach is something that improves over time, the more you do it the more comfortable you get. I use to find stretching my middle finger over 1 fret uncomfortable but now I’m pretty happy playing a whole minor arpeggio on one string (around 10th position and upwards).

Check out the finger stretches in this video for inspiration, especially towards the end:

If she can do it, you definitely can. Discomfort will be normal to start with but be sure to have breaks if you get any pain :slight_smile:

Also, play around with your hand and guitar position to make sure you have good access and that your hand is in the best position for these wider stretches (Li-sa-X demonstrates this well).

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#7

Clearly I can see that. I meant it more as a general figure as speech. I tend to use the phrase a lot regardless of gender. Fairly noted though, I wasn’t thinking of the implications of doing so or how it might come across, so for that I do offer my deepest apologies.

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#8

Longer than mine lol. Mine is 2.25"

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#9

No worries! You’re completely fine. I hope I didn’t sound too snippy. That was not my intent. Thank you for responding to my post. :slight_smile:

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#10

So this is a question I posed in another thread yesterday about somebody asking about another similarly perceived physical limitation. If somebody told you that your pinky was too short, what would you do with that information?

Questions like this inherently tend to be self defeating.

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#11

Hey @AerithAngel

@Tom_Gilroy put together some great videos on fretting principles

Sure it’s easier for the ones with large hands, but using proper technique should allow you do any common or even slightly lengthy reaches.

Also, I follow classical guitarists and many are small women with small hands. They can do some pretty amazing reaches too! It’s all about the wrist angle and general setup as per the videos in the link above.

Congratulations! I bought an Rg5121 Prestige last week and I’m loving it!

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#12

Thank you for the referral! I literally have an RG5121 in it’s bag in my living room right now!! I bought both because I couldn’t decide if I wanted hardtail or tremolo lol. It’s a beautiful guitar that plays like a dream. I’m glad you enjoy it! I’ll be taking it back this weekend though as I’ve decided to stick with the RG5320C which is basically the tremolo version of RG5121. I could actually keep both if I wanted to because I got a bonus from work but they’re just really similar.

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#13

Welcome to the Forum @AerithAngel :slight_smile:

Like others have mentioned, your example picture shows a 5-fret spread in the lowest position, which is more than enough for a ton of “shred” vocabulary!

Excellent suggestion from Joe to look at Tom Gilroy’s thread, I believe he might be one of the world leading experts in fretting technique (no joke!).

Changing perspective a little, what music would you like to play? Are you already working on some songs that require stretches you can’t do? Happy to take a look if you have some examples.

Also, Did you ever try a 22’5 scale guitar? Both Troy and myself play on those a lot, I think they are fantastic and they definitely make stretchy playing easier. Paul Gilbert himself uses a 22’5 for some of his more stretchy solos :slight_smile:

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#14

Thank you for the kind welcome! I’ve not tried a smaller scale as of yet. I just bought this expensive Ibanez full scale so I feel like I have to make it work at least for now. As far as music goes, I love melodic rock. That goes from 80s hair metal, to modern post-hardcore with technical guitar riffs. In the past I idolized Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmstein. Now I’m mainly listening to 80s stuff from my childhood, some 90s stuff from my teenage years, and some modern melodic stuff with heavy guitars.

I might look into something like this some day!

That said, with the full scale I should be able to shred alright with enough practice? I hope I can. I just paid the RG off today.

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#15

Mine is 3 inches even. I have a good reach (and I’ve posted about this before) but I have HORRIBLE independence between ring/pinky on my fretting hand. So much that I suspect physical defect or past injury. I’ve actively done independence exercises between the 2 fingers. It was part of my daily routine for years. I’ve never done anything of the sort on my right hand and guess what? I have better independence between ring/pinky on that hand lol!

I’ve recently tried to adopt the philosophy that things which are extremely difficult and require a ton of work (i.e. years or work) aren’t worth my time. Most of our heroes have very specific strengths. They also have very specific weaknesses but no one talks about that :slight_smile: (and they shouldn’t because it’s rude lol) When I listen to Satch I think “Wow! What a melodic player with great vibrato and a nice smooth legato!”. I never think “Hmm. I wish he’d try cross picking. It’s really bumming me out that he doesn’t do that”. We are tough on ourselves and tend to think we should strengthen all weaknesses. Probably better to find what we are naturally good at and capitalize on those things. That’s probably how the greats got so great.

:metal: :metal: :metal: :metal:

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#16

Which is it?! Lol. I’m sure you’re good either way. If you feel like it really does matter, you could switch to LP (24.75") scale guitars, or even shorter.

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#17

2.25" I didn’t read the ruler correctly the first time (it was dark in my kitchen okay?! lol)

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#18

^ this! I wish I had come to this conclusion when I was in my 20’s. Some of this maybe comes with age though when you start realizing how much of your life overall has become a textbook example of a “sunk cost” fallacy.

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#19

I wish I’d come to it when I was in my teens lol! In fact, that’s where it all started with me being stubborn and thinking everything that was hard just needed “more practice”…I don’t even want to think about how much a better player if I would’ve gone “Oooh that’s really hard. Maybe I should try it a different way…”

But I guess things happen for a reason lol! I’ll count all the lost years (decades actually) as character building :slight_smile:

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#20

I don’t really think this matters at all for most things unless you insist on playing intentionally wide-stretch things. You do not need super long fingers for playing a scale, or pretty any interval up to a fourth. That covers most things people play on a guitar, outside of classical music, or again, wide things like trying to play an arpeggio on one string.

My pinky is about as long as yours, give or take. I have not spent even a minute worrying that finger size is somehow holding me back. The thought just never even occurred to me. I just play whatever is easy and sounds good.

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#21

I just went back to the video “Pentatonic Puzzle Solved” and I noticed it’s a Mustang you’re playing Troy, which has a shorter scale I think (24"). That might make it easier to do the longer stretches too. :slight_smile:

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#22

Yes I play shorter scale guitars but it’s because the whole instrument is smaller, not for the scale. The scale length doesn’t make much practical difference. If you capo your 25.5" guitar at the second or third fret, then presto change-o, you have a Mustang!

Do you have a problem playing the typical fingerings you would find in a diatonic or pentatonic scale, and are you sure it has to do with finger length? Or are you just worried that you might have a problem doing this down the line? Because I really wouldn’t worry about things if they’re not actually problems yet. Chances are good your finger lengths will pose zero issues for most things you want to play.

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#23

It’s the latter, I just have concerns I’ll have problems down the line. To be honest, I’ve got the rhythm guitar stuff down decently but I lack knowledge of scales, modes, arpeggios, etc. I can play a major scale from all over the fretboard and I learned the major and minor pentatonic scales years ago but never learned how to use them. I was able to teach myself the “chorus” to Cliffs of Dover, I found that one of the other parts I tried to learn was quite a stretch of the fingers.

I’ve been able to take advantage of your Cracking the Code program so far to aid with my picking though. I couldn’t even do upstrokes consistently until I learned about downward pick slanting. Thanks so much for confidence boost everyone!! Nice to be able to talk with you Troy! My next step is looking for some instructional material on scales, modes, etc while working on your program to improve my picking.

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#24

I don’t think I would even worry about half of that stuff yet, some of that just comes with time and exposure. Honestly I would only start concerning yourself with things you like and would enjoy playing. If you like shreddier stuff, start with short one or two string sequences, or two string arpeggios then slowly elongate them into longer sequences and see where that goes. There’s really no need to cram a whole undergrad theory course in there right away.

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#25

Snapshot2

Yes. Slightly less than 2’’. Moreover it’s deformed since it was restored from pieces after one nasty injury.
Well… I never had an intention to become a shredder. But after hanging on this forum I learned couple of tricks that might impress people (only those who can’t play guitar :grinning:)
The thing is - some patterns don’t require your pinky being long. Some do. For example some Gilbert’s stuff is a no go for me. Also barre with pinky is impossible for me since my finger cannot get straighten (and it lacks some flesh in the middle).
But I can play scale runs moderately fast (~180bmp), I can do one string tremolo, I can sweep a little. And then, when I combine those thing I get fast sounding soloes.

There’s that thing that I call ‘paradox of learning’. The less a person is focused on a result and the more he’s enjoying the process itself - the better he gets. So my advice is: just try to do it. It wouldn’t hurt (if you don’t overdo it of course). In the worst case scenario you just won’t get any results… though it’s unprobable. Some things would definitely improve, like hands coordination, picking precision, fretoard knowledge etc since those are not related to your pinky size.

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