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06/10/2006 1:41 am
So, I picked up a guitar for the first time about 1 month ago. (I got an LTD M-50). I'm taking lessons, and I'm working on the A Pentatonic scale. (3rd lesson.) I'm having a very hard time with the 1-4 off of the fifth fret on the lowest string. I just can't seem to get my pointer finger over the 1 and the pinky over the 4 at the same time. My fingers seem to naturally want to bunch up towards the 1. No problems with the higher strings, but I look like i've got some sort of deformity when trying to hit the 1-4 on the lowest string. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
06/10/2006 2:13 am
Eventually you'll be able to do it. It just takes times to gain flexibility.
Chuck Norris invented Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous secret recipe, with eleven herbs and spices. But nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear!
ChuckNorrisFactsdotCom
06/10/2006 2:21 am
There's only one cure for your problem.
Practice. Lots of it. :wink:
Do a few searches for "guitar finger exercise" or "guitar warm up" if you want to try something different.
One stretching exercise that I have been using as a warm up goes like this:
e--12--11--10--9--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-------------------12--11--10--9---------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------12--11--10--9----------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------12--11--10--9-----------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------------12--11--10--9------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12--11--10--9
e-------------------------------------------------------------------------------8--9--10--11---
B---------------------------------------------------------------8--9--10--11-------------------
G-----------------------------------------------8--9--10--11-----------------------------------
D--------------------------------8--9--10--11--------------------------------------------------
A-----------------8--9--10--11-----------------------------------------------------------------
E--8--9--10--11--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e--10--9--8--7---------------
B----------------10--9--8--7-
Etc.
...and so on all the way up the neck, and then work your way back to where you started.
As with any exercise, use a metronome or drum machine to keep your time steady.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
06/10/2006 2:39 am
StatsCan wrote: My fingers don't go that way!
:lol: I am definitely NOT laughing AT you!
Just laughing because I have said that exact same thing so many times. I'm still a beginner too, but there are several things I never thought I could do with my fingers, that now, given a little time, practice and patience, I can.
Bet many guitar teachers would love to have a nickel for every time they've heard someone say "My fingers don't go that way!"
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
06/10/2006 2:46 am
In time, with practice, they will.
Best thing to do: hang in there, stick with it, keep on keepin' on!
"That’s what takes place when a song is written: You see something that isn’t there. Then you use your instrument to find it."
- John Frusciante
06/10/2006 3:35 am
make sure the headstock is a little bit pointed "up"
06/10/2006 1:23 pm
If you can make the stretch at the higher strings but not that last, lowest string then your wrist position is changing through the exercise. Take a look at the angle of your wrist when you're on a string that you can make the reach and then compare it to the string where you can't, odds are there's a subtle difference that is responsible for your problems.