TE-001 • The Finger Gym

[asguard44]

OK. I am taking the plunge now and I am doing the finger gym to the letter with a straight drumbeat at 80bpm to keep the hammer ons and flick offs at a steady pace. I aim to do a complete run through before I play any tunes and after I have strummed about and I am going to aim for doing this about 3 times a day if possible. (Its actually good therapy for my shoulder stiffness aswell funnily enough) I want to just ask a quick question if anyone wants to answer it for me. my question is this - When hammering with the pinky, Is it ok to hammer it down with the 3rd finger hammering down with it for extra strength? I was trying it before and the pinky didn't feel as weak with its fat brother behind it Or should I get out of the habit before I go any further? Thanks.

[Sl8sh]

Get your third finger out of the way.  It's suppose to build finger strength and your pinky won't get any stronger if you keep hammering your third finger behind your pinky.  That's just my opinion. 

[Sash]

Took a first look at this today, tried it and feel like this is something I will never learn. Way to go but I still keep on keepin on...

[Cue Zephyr]

Alright, so I finally started doing this.
Things that I seem to run into are:
- I keep flicking into the adjacent strings
- Shold I be flicking up towards the ceiling or down towards the floor?

Note that I am doing this on my acoustic, with 13-56 strings.
Thanks.

[woodworm]

Took a first look at this today, tried it and feel like this is something I will never learn. Way to go but I still keep on keepin on...

I've been doing this excercise for around 10-15 minutes a day for the past couple of weeks which isn't much, but it's definately been getting 'easier' during that time.  I think you improve pretty quickly at something when you first start doing it.  It's obviously the getting good at it which takes the time.

On a slightly unrelated topic, I don't suppose anyone has any exercises that would help for when you don't have a guitar?  I sit at my desk all day long and could easily be doing something with my hands when I'm there?

[Cue Zephyr]

Hammer your fingers into the desk?
I'm gonna try that tomorrow at school, heh.

[powder]

Hello Justin,
Thank you for posting this exercise, I wished I would've started doing this stuff 7 years ago.
I am having a problem with my pinky on the flick-offs and it doesn't seem to want to bend very easily and when it does it kind of clicks. Is this a common problem that can be overcome with practice, or do I just have a gimped pinky??

[Cue Zephyr]

I still can't flick or hammer with my pinky, practice should do it I'd say.
Good luck and welcome.

[routerbooter]

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

I'd say if your forearm is feeling it in the way of fatigue from exercise (or "the burn" as fitness types like to call it) then it can only be good, and that part of your arm needed strengthening.  If you're experiencing actual pain then you're doing the technique incorrectly in some way.  My forearm and hand muscles get the most out of this exercise, and since the forearm strengthens the hand, and the hand strengthens the fingers it can only be good.

[bhaz]

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

Is this standard technique, or just a workaround until the flick moves in the right direction?

[Cue Zephyr]

If I'm not mistaken, the rolling technique utilizes that. Justin has a video on this somewhere.

[DSX_Guitarist]

Not so sure if this post goes better here or in minimum movement, but I know it can belong in either.  anyway...

normally I play chords and rhythm guitar so I don't worry too much about my finger dexterity but lately I've been trying to do lead, so I need to improve it. 

my fingers are...idk how to explain it.  I know its common, but idk what its called.  to put it simply, when i move my middle finger, my ring finger moves with it.  not necessarily as much, but it does move and vice versa.  then when I move my pinky, my ring finger also moves, but slightly.  so is there a faster way to get that habit to go away?

the finger gym is helping me with this, but it's progressing a bit slowly.  I'm just looking for a faster method so I can do the gym a lot more accurately.

[Tourniquet]

the finger gym is helping me with this, but it's progressing a bit slowly.  I'm just looking for a faster method so I can do the gym a lot more accurately.

Building up finger independence takes time... no two ways about it.

[Berry]

Hey, I've been playing guitar for a few years now but I still have a problem keeping my fingers close to the fret board. When playing 2-3 notes, my first and fourth fingers seem to go all over the place. Im trying to control it but just wondered whether this was a problem and if you had any tips?

This is fine when playing scales, but its just when i have to play things with the second and third, its as if my other two fingers are replicating my other two just further away from the fret board, must be something to do with the muscles in my hands..

Really like the site,
Berry

[Cue Zephyr]

Justin has a video lesson on minmal movement, I think.

[Berry]

Yeah i know i just saw it thanks! I can play scales fine quite fast without taking my fingers off the fret board by more than less than half a centimeter of so.. but when i play just with my 2nd and 3rd fingers it just goes complete out, im trying doing the minmal movement practice just with those fingers now, seems to be helping a bit but need to practice alot more for it to be perfect 

[Sl8sh]

Do it slowly berry.  It's a self discipline thing but you will get there.  Once you can do it slow, then speed it up a little bit.  This should help. 

[Berry]

Its quite alot better now   But does the minimium movement exercise realy relate to lessons like this because its all hammer ons and pull offs (flick offs)? I find it quite difficult not to lift me fingers more than 0.5 centimeters when hammering on 3 or more finger combinations.

[Berry]

I've been practicing this a bit more today higher up the fretboard and this along with the miminium movement one really does seem to be helping. I have problem keeping my fingers straight higher up the fret board, my first finger always seems twisted. Do you think the Stretching exercises will help with this?

[Berry]

I know this is just me talking to myself at the moment but Im having a real problem with my first finger. Recently I've had to change my technique because it wasnt good enough, my thumb was perpendicular to the fretboard and my fingers were too irratic. I had hit a block where i couldnt really improve so i've had to re evaluate everything. Ive found by changing my techique my first finger is crooked, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx2j-dQBCIs , I know the video has no sound (laptop mic is really bad) but it still shows what i mean. I cant get the first finger to posistion properly.

 I dont really know what to do, I feel a strain in my hand at the moment when trying to include this new fretting hand posistion but thats probably just me getting used to it. I struggle even to play the songs i used to be able to  

Old Hand



New Hand



+ My finger isnt that high on the neck its further down, i think its the camera angle

[Linsen]

I'm not sure what you mean exactly when you say your 'first finger is crooked', but from the video your finger position doesn't look bad at all. If you take a look at Justin's scale picking vid you see that his first finger is at a slight angle, too. It might be a little more pronounced when you do it, but it's not that much.

That said, you may want to experiment with your posture as a whole if playing feels too awkward to you. It's not all in the finger and hand position. The way you sit and hold the guitar can make quite a difference, too.

Admittedly, my posture and hand position is probably a lot worse than yours, so I may not be the best person to give advice here...

[Berry]

What i mean is on my first finger, the left side of the finger/nail borderline (when you are fretting) or the right side of the finger if you put you hand out on a table palm side down is what is making contact with the fretboard. Its not the upper tip of the finger, ive started getting really hard skin around that area and the nail is virtually gone now from that side. I probably didnt phrase it properly 

[routerbooter]

Berry, I think this is quite normal.  There are times in the finger gym where my only the right side of my first finger is holding down the string in order for the other fingers to stretch to the frets they need to get to. It may not be the most comfortable or natural position for the finger to be in, but you get used to it after a while.  The fact that you're developing hard skin around the side of the finger where you're fretting the string indicates that you've been doing it that way long enough for the position to become less of an issue.

[K2LU]

I the video was said about 'finger independents' I have a question about that i can't move my ring finger towards a other string, when my other are contact witch a other or the same string. My ring finger can only move when my middle finger or little finger not making contact witch a string. I hope there is a solution for my problem.

[Berry]

Does anyone else find when pulling/flicking off from either 3-2-1 or 4-3-2-1 that the little finger flys off from the fingerboard, i can't seen to control it at all even when playing very slowly.

Anyone else have this problem?