TE-001 • The Finger Gym

[justinguitar]

Questions...

Lesson Link: http://www.justinguitar.com/en/TE-001-FingerGym.php

[abernethyfj]

Hey Justin,
Just a quick question about my technique doing the finger gym. I didnt feel much on some of the hammer-on / off parts of the excercise so i changed it a bit till i felt something. It seemed i was getting tired in the forearm, but not really my fingers. Is this where I am aiming to strengthen or is my arm just tired because I'm tensing it up too much?
Regards, Frank Abernethy

[ToastedSoul]

Hi Justin

I've been doing the (complete) finger-gym now for about five months now on a more or less daily basis. About a week ago, I stopped doing the complete routine and started doing the 1-2-3-4 / 4-3-2-1 (and some variations) up and down the neck (positions 1 - 10).

On the top position (near the guitar head), my flick-offs produce a clean sound and I can keep up the volume of the picked string without any problems (all without muting). But when I move down the neck (index at fret 6-10), I'm having trouble getting the same results: my fingers always hit adjacent stings or I loose too much volume. It gets better when I use my index to mute the lower strings (those closer to the floor). Is this practice technique alright (even required) or am I learning something completely wrong? The sequence 1-4-3-2 is my killer-sequence so far, even at very slow speed! I find it quite hard to position my hand comfortably from around fret 8 and moving toward the bridge.

[bananajoe]

Hello Justin,
also having a question on the flick-offs. Don't know what is the best way to do them. What I'm doing so far
is I'm using the very tip of my finger, pulling the string down a bit and then flicking it off by pressing it a bit harder
against the fretboard and releasing the finger in a downward (to the floor) motion. The finger gets stopped then
by the following string. Is this the correct way or am I missing something?
And also when you have your hand in the "bending position" with the thumb over, do you flick-off by turning your
wrist a bit or how do you do it? Thanks very much!

[DaSilvaRenegade]

the only issue i am having with pull offs is that i tend to flick the string im on as well as the string underneath it so i ring two notes. how can i eliminate the extra note.

Duo

[Guitarhead]

Hiya Justin, well, i'm not a very experienced guitarist and only recently started out with hammering and pulling-off... the pulling off is really getting a bit frustrating, i'm not sure if i'm doing it correctly(P.S: Doing it exactly the same way as 'bananajoe' and sometimes having the occasional double string flicking problem as 'DaSilvaRenegade'... can u make a kind of 1 minute video, showing the exact way of pulling-off while focussing entirely on the fretboard? Thnx a lot...

[ToastedSoul]

I asked my neighbor the question about how to correctly do a pull-off a few days ago (he plays since about 10 years, started on acoustic guitar and now plays electric guitar too). here's what he said:

Just let the finger that does the pull-off fall down onto the next lower string (= pull it towards the ground and mute the next string when releasing the string). You should put more strength into the finger that stays on the string that you pull off from, making sure that you keep the string nailed down in that position.

well, that's what he said. I haven't had much time to try it myself that way yet. What worked for me up until now was muting the adjacent string with my first finger. I still hope Justin can show us a close-up video in the near future to make it more clear.

[routerbooter]

Questions...

Hi

This may sound a bit strange, but on portions of the finger gym where the little finger is used extensively, my first finger has a tendency to develop a mind of its own and point upwards whilst the rest of my fingers are doing the work, and I find it quite hard to get the first finger under control and remain bent like the rest of the fingers. This doesn't necessarily affect my ability to perform the exercise, but just looks very strange and I notice that my role model in these exercises, justin, doesn't have this problem.  Has anyone had this problem, and if so was it managed to be overcome?

Thanks

MJC

[Rezn8r]

Play it really slowly, concentrating on keeping all your finger tips as close to the strings as possible, until it's easy, then increase the speed again.  My 2c.

[Blade]

Hello,

Just started playing again after 18 years. And only knew the basics back then, stoped playing for other reasons.

Have to say the Finger gym is an awsome practice tect for someone who hasn't played in years, and would recomend to anyone learnging for the first time. Helps to get the fingers limber and get them built back up again. After only 5 to 10 mins of doing this I can feel it working. I love this practice tect 

[NathanB]

I was just wondering when I should be doing this exercise. Usually I do it after I'm getting to being done practicing and playing all my stuff or when its late. i go through all the orders pull offs and hammer ons. and my hand gets really tired afterwords. I also feel like I'm not doing the exercise as good i could if i would of done it right away. I usually play for 2+ hours a day. when do you think i should do the exercise?

[stymye]

I figure once you are able to hammer and flickoff ...( hopefully after  every day for 5 months!)
you should be doing it with scales. I mean don't just pull and flick the finger gym.

 mabey practice some of the hundreds of scales and modes with hammer/flick so you are learning ...scales and modes.
you can always go back and do the finger gym  at any time , or mabey as a warm up each session

I hope people aren't just doing the finger gym every day than quit practicing hammer/pulls the rest of the time
I practice everything I do with full alternate picking AND Hammer/flicks.. so I don't really need to go back to the finger gym everyday.
 once you can do it , try incorperating hammer and flick into your entire practice routine.

 mabey Justin can clarify that, but thats how I always thought of it

[Tomps]

That's a good idea stymye!

I have a problem with flick offs. Well I don't know if it's a problem yet. I can't do flick off with these combinatons: 2-3, 3-4, 2-4 or atleast it's very hard. These things keep happening: My "upper" finger (near top nut) keeps slipping off when I flick the string with "lower" finger, when I flick the string I accidently hit the thinner strings and thay start ringing and some times I can't even flick the strings cause, they simply don't work. They just raise a little bit and... well the string tone changes to where it's supposed, but the way is wrong. I watched some videos from youtube to see that my tachnique is right. I have done this finger gym only a 4 days so maybe this is not a problem yet. Will my hand improve when I keep doing this every day?

-Tomps

[Pusur]

I seem to have some trouble with this one. It really doesn't feel like a workout, my hand doesn't get tired or anything like that. I was wondering if this may be caused by my fingers being too angled? Justin tells you to keep your fingers as square on as possible, but I don't seem to be able to keep them aligned with the strings at all. Or anything even close!

[Sawdustboi]

Ummm....  Yeah...  im havin a little troubles with my pull-offs.  when i do them, most of the time i get a bend in the note, is there anythin i can do to fix this?

[aman0]

Hello Justin,
As I was browsing for some finger workouts on youtube I came across this video and website.
From practicing this exercise, I noticed that my wrist is pretty bent, especially if I do this on fret 1-4, and on the upper strings (around string 5 and 6).
I heard that bending the wrist too much may lead to injuries in the future.  So I was wondering is there anyway to practice this exercise while having little or no bending on my fretting hand wrist?

Thanks a lot.

[justinguitar]

@ aman - it has to bend a little for this one - but try and keep it as straight as possible...

@ Sawdust - try and keep the finger you flick off too more solid to get rid of the bend. If the flicking note is bending then lift it off at more of an angle.

@ Stymye - I see it just like going to the gym - a 5 minute warm up when I need to get my fingers working, and when I was learning it was an essential part of technique development. There is no answer - it depends on the stage of development you are at.

@ DaSilva and Guitarhead - try letting the finger staying on the string lay a little flatter so that it mutes the string under it!

[jscruz27]

Can we/I apply the minimum movement lesson on this lesson?

[Hos988]

I've been doing the finger gym only for about a week and a half or so.
When I do the finger 2-3 hammer-on, I'm having a lot of trouble keeping my fingers spread out on the frets.  A lot of times as I hammer down on the third fret with my third finger, my 2nd finger will tend to slide over to the third fret as well.

Is it important to keep my second finger down on the 2nd fret while hammering onto the third? And is there some trick to help with this, or will it just come with time?

It seems very naturally hard to spread the 2nd and 3rd fingers, more so than any other two.
 

[MichelleMendoza]

The whole pull off versus flick off thing is still rather confusing, i think.

Hammer on and pull offs are opposite to each other.

Having looked at the Wish You Were Here lesson, Justin appears to actually pluck the string with his left hand, which he calls flicking.  This is def. different from pulling off, where you are just taking the finger off the string and leaving the note to ring out from before.

[ToastedSoul]

Trying to clear things up a bit:

Hammer ons should be clear to everyone.

Pull/Flick offs:
They are not called "Lift offs" for a reason: just try it! Play a fretted note, then (slowly) lift off your finger: the resulting sound will be muted a little (even if you do this fast) compared to the previous fretted note.

Therefore, you need to "pluck" the string using the finger that pulls off. What you want to achieve is that the note after the pull off has about the same volume as the one before the volume. There are two possibilities to do so:
1) just pull your finger downwards, towards the ground and let it land on the next thinner string (and thereby muting that lower string).
2) pull diagonally down and away from the fretboard, thereby gaining a little distance between your finger and the fretboard.

Which one of the above methods you need also depends upon the circumstances (song, speed, effect you want to achieve). Also, the simple "lift off" method can come in handy when you need to play very fast thrills and the equal volume across the notes isn't that central.

[Nathalie168]

I had some problems with this exercise first, cause i'm a girl and have small hands. So my father gave me some good advise, he said i can start more up the neck, so my fingers don't have to stretch too much and after a week try to move down one fret and so on untill i can do it starting at first fret.... I hope this can also help with your problem Hos988.
Also would like to know what Justin thinks about this...
Thanks for the lessons, Justin!

[ToastedSoul]

...he said i can start more up the neck...

Here are my tips for all kind of those exercises:

Play them at different positions on the fretboard!

- Do the whole exercise at position 1, then at position 8, then position 15. (or anywhere else...)
- Shift the position when going from one string to the next (1-2-3-4 | 2-3-4-5 | 3-4-5-6 |...). Go up and down the neck.
- Try doing larger shifts (on the same string and from string to string): 1-2-3-4 | 5-6-7-8 | 9-10-11-12 | ...

this will help you get accustomed to the different positions: you will be using different fret hand positions and the fingers will have to behave differently too.

[thevadercrucible]

Dear Forum--

When I preform the 'flick-offs' especially the 4-3-2 combination, I inadvertently hit the next higher string.  Even though I'm not using my first finger for this combination, should I be lightly resting my first across the higher strings?

Thank you all, and especially thank you, Justin, for the great lessons.

TVC

[ToastedSoul]

Even though I'm not using my first finger for this combination, should I be lightly resting my first across the higher strings?

short answer: yes

longer answer:
to mute the thinner (unused) strings use the index finger of the fret hand.
for the thicker (unused) strings, use picking hand (place it near the bridge).

for more on muting:
http://www.justinguitarcommunity.com/index.php?topic=12408.0