What to do about a challenged third finger?

[Gitarre]

I've been learning to play for a year and a half now. Just started taking lessons a month ago. Best move I've made for sure. All kinds of things are connecting but I almost feel more lost than before because the info is kinda overwhelming for me to process. But it's coming. Never thought 30 minutes would have been so full of challenges. Anyway, I've been having to use my third fingers a lot more and I am definitively challenged. I've always known my fingers were dumb but manipulating the third finger is just supremely difficult. I've never been able to make the Vulcan sign to much of a degree with either of my hands. I don't know if the gold band has numbed my third fingers over the years as I switch it to either hand. But I don't think this is the cause. For the record, my wife is awesome.

Specifically, if I try to move the third finger on my left hand in this case, it takes dutiful concentration and the movement is minimal. If I put the hand flat on a table and try to move the third finger, it takes a few seconds for me to mentally isolate it and then the finger only lifts about 3/4". Needless to say, on the guitar neck trying to move the finger independently is a challenge. I can do it somewhat well when doing a scale but lifting it in a chord shape is tough. So I'm wondering, is or has anyone else here been digitally challenged? Are there some exercises/training methods that can be used to improve my control over these alien phalanges?

[amyFB]

I will explain why I think it is just time and practice to improve this.

Recently I was shown a cool little 8 bar blues with a walking bass.
It requires two new actions for my fingers:
a) use new fingers to make old chords, so that
b) the unused fingers can walk the bass.

Now the challenge I am having with this is specific to the walking bass over the A chord.

The chord is a 2-note construction : xxx6x5 played with 3rd and 4th fingers.
The walking bass requires the pinky to hit the 5th string at the 7th fret.
9 days ago, I couldn't even get my pinky to reach that note.
7 days ago I could hit the note but damped most of the other strings in the execution.
4, 5, & 6 days ago I experimented with lifting the finger off the A note to get some added length for the pinky. BUt that just ruined th sound of the song which is relying on just three notes at any given time.

The last three days I've just persisted - slowly - and every day and every attempt gets me a skootch closer to a clean hit.

One of these days/weeks, I'll be able to start upping the tempo til it's where it is intended to be.

Don't give up - muscles have memory and muscle memory can be retrained. think about the little newborn baby who was curled up for 9 months before birth - takes that one a while to stretch out naturally without reverting to the well known fetal curl.

good luck! let us know how it goes for you.

[Howard Klepper]

To get finger independence, practice as slow as you need to--really really slow--pressing the string to the fret and lifting the finger again. Do it on the guitar--everyone has trouble lifting the ring finger with their hand flat on a table. A good simple starting exercise is to do each finger in sequence on each of the six strings, one fret per finger. As ridiculously slow as you need to to get each finger pressing accurately and coming up again at the same tempo for each finger. Don't worry about speed at all. Accuracy in placement and tempo is the thing to practice. Then you can make up other sequences, like 1-3-2-4 or 1-4-2-3 etc.

[rick-slo]

Practice. Play simple chord changes with strums. Then later you got hammer-ons and pull-offs to work on and some more complicated stuff with the right hand. See if you can arrange your practice sessions to be playing actual songs as much as possible. If you are like the majority of people you soon won't even remember have the problem you are asking about now.

[Gitarre]

Thanks for your responses. I shall continue slowly forward.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Gitarre

Thanks for your responses. I shall continue slowly forward.

I encountered the same thing as amyFB and I've been playing on and off for 50 years. Learning something new takes time. I'm learning Sweet Home Chicago and there's a part that has a alternating drone played with the two treble strings, fretting the 3rd fret of the second string and walking bass line on the 6th and 5th. I hadn't done something like this in a while (years) so I was like a fish out of water the first day. 2nd day a lot better, then not bad at 3/4 speed, getting to full speed will take a while. I can pick up my left ring finger off a table about an inch (at will, without thinking about it), but my pinky moves a hair when I do. It'll come to you over time.

To help develop left hand dexterity do the chromatic scales up and down each string, in other words 1st finger 1st fret, 2nd finger, 2nd fret, 3rd finger, 3rd fret, 4th finger, 4th fret, 1st finger, 5th fret, etc up to the 12 fret and then backwards, repeat for each string. Some people call this exercise "the worm."

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Gitarre

If I put the hand flat on a table and try to move the third finger, it takes a few seconds for me to mentally isolate it and then the finger only lifts about 3/4".

That's normal. I've been playing for 50 years and - while I can isolate that finger quicker - it still won't lift any more than than if all other fingers are touching the table. It's something to do with how the tendons in the hand are connected.

IOW, that's nothing to do with your problem! As the others say, practice will loosen up your hands in all the ways they can (and need to) loosen up. When away from the guitar, any exercise you can think of which stretches the fingers (sensibly) will do.
I don't know how old you are, but the older you begin the longer it takes (because your hands get set in their ways, which haven't included guitar playing). But being older means you have the maturity to realise that, and (hopefully) the patience required!

[Gitarre]

JonPR, I'm been wandering this planet for seven years longer than you've been playing.

I have been concentrating on these fingers this last week and as you all said, I do see improvement already.

I still cannot make a very good Vulcan greeting sign.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Gitarre

I still cannot make a very good Vulcan greeting sign.

Luckily, not many chord shapes require that.

I'll second TBman's chromatic exercise- maybe partially to start with:
Start wherever on the fretboard you can get all fingers down on the same string (any string you like), one finger per fret. Eg, frets 9-10-11-12 should be easy (go lower if you can). Play those 4 notes up and down first of all: as you go up, keep all lower fingers down on the string; release one by one as you play downwards. Then experiment with random orders - notice, btw, no finger needs to lift more than a few mm off the string!
Be as positive as you can in your fretting - bang those fingers down, in sync with picking. (But also experiment with how much pressure you actually need to get a note sounding clean. Right up behind the fret, it needs very little at all.)

Work your way down the neck til you get a position where you can't comfortably stretch to one finger per fret. That's your current limit: work above there for a while as your fingers loosen up. Gradually work your way down the fretboard. May take a few months, but you will eventually be able to have fingers 1-2-3-4 comfortably on frets 1-2-3-4 all at the same time.
(Don't spend too long on this exercise at any one time. A few minutes a day should be enough; treat it as a warm-up only. If you know scale patterns, they can offer more useful exercises, again randomising the note order.)

[s0cks]

The 3rd and 4th finger are most definitely less dexterous than the index and middle finger. IIRC the 3rd and 4th share a single tendon too, so they will never be physically isolated.

It's just practice and strengthening the neural pathways in the brain for moving the ring finger.

[macmanmatty]

I was born with 6 fingers on my left hand. When I was 2 months old they cut number 6 off due it not having a fully formed bone. My left hand pinkey never fullly grew due to this. It is 25% smaller length and diameter of the pinky on my right hand. Until I started playing guitar I could barley move it. Now 8 years later it makes F, B, Full C, Bm, F#m and C# chords all of the hard ones.

But the best thing to get it working , for me was time and practice just keep trying to make those chords and move that finger. It didn't happen overnight or a week month or even year it just takes time. Some people say one of those individual finger exercisers works to get better muscle control. I have never used one.

Also three weeks ago I over extended my middle finger on my left hand in a Gomer Pyle style hammer drill accident . I needed to extend the drill bit out and it was hot so I put a rag around it to avoid burning my fingers then held the bit, rag and the keyless chuck with my left hand and trigger with my right hand . The rag wrapped around bit and my fingers got caught in the rag I over extended them forward in one direction and then switched the drills direction to get my fingers lose. That painfully didn't work . That bent them about as far back as they could go and still be attached . Real smart. I know . I am now finally able to make D chord again properly and with no pain!! Again it just takes time and practice.

[Pitar]

I don't remember experiencing this. I play with all 10 digits. Self-taught, no books for reference guides, I assumed finger picking used all five on the picking hand and fretting...well, how can one not use at least all 4 fingers? I jumped right into open and barre chords simultaneously. I learned the A chord fingerings as they progress up the board, all other chords similarly, and that took careful exercises in placement using all four fretting fingers from the start.

Maybe ignorance can be bliss?