Cornfedapache Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 Hey y'all What are good exercises for making your little finger mighty? Obivously practice helps, but I really need to lay down some strength in that digit! Are stress balls etc useful for this? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJA Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 playing lots of octave-skipping lines helps to strengthen the little finger- eg. disco stuff like Chic's "dance, dance, dance" (which will give your right hand a good workout too) articulating between your ring finger and little finger is hard to get to grips with (eg. to get the quick high A/Bb bit in the intro to Megadeth's "peace sells") but really helps open up your fluidity of playing scale-based lines using all 4 fingers. in Phil Soussan's bass vid he shows an exercise with 1 finger-per-fret (find a comfortable area of the neck if the stretch is awkward near the nut) and playing continuous 8th or 16th notes articulating between any combination of fretting fingers eg. 1-2-1-3-1-4, 4-3-4-2-4-1 Billy Sheehan shows something similar in his on bass/bass secrets vids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 Stress balls & the like are a waste of time, the chances are all you'll do if you use one is end up with tendonitis. The best way to build up the articulation, stamina and control you require is just to use your little finger more when you play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 (edited) Octaves are your friend - The main method that i got the strength up on my pinky. Dance Dance Dance is an amazing song to play as well. Another good thing is that you build up your stamina so that you can play constant octaves for ages before your hand cramps up. Another cracker of a song to play to build up the strength is Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. Sounds easy but if you play it in its original key of C# with your index finger on the 2nd fret of the D string and your pinky on the 4th fret you will give yourself a fantastic workout as immediately after playing the F# you have to drop your pinky down to the A string to play the C#. the main riff is - F# C# E F# E C# B C# A relatively simple octave song to get you going is Disco 2000 by Pulp Edited April 18, 2009 by Delberthot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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