Overcoming Finger Dexterity

[tarsai]

I started off playing the guitar quite recently and my little finger is pretty weak and has a lot of affinity towards my ring finger.One of my friends told me that this could be overcome by playing scales.Is this enough?
I also want to buy an electric and after extensive research i have decided to get Ibanez Grx 20.Is this a good choice?It is not available in my country.Is it safe to ask someone who has no music knowledge to get it for me?.

[55'gibby]

Scales help dexterity, but there is more to it than just dexterity, there is also flexability and strenght. I have suggested getting some clay, modeling putty, or a old tennis ball and grip it with one finger at a time just like you were playing the guitar. this will help with the strenght. I do finger stretches all the time for flexability and keep my hands limber. I have come up with my own homemade stretches, you may want to find out if there is someone with some "known" stretches. This is to augment not to replace playing. Now the guitar, I have had great luck with Ibanez electrics over the years, although I'm not familiar with that model. I would look at seeing if I could buy it on line, you might get a better price. My question to you is have you played one? I can't buy a guitar if I haven't played it myself. I would suggest you do the same. I don't know how you can do this if none are around. Good luck

[Pezcore]

i completely agree with gibby, there's no way i could buy a guitar without first spending quite a while playing through either my amp or the closest they have in the store.

but then again ive never known anyone have any major probs. with ibanez's, so you should be ok whatever. It depends how much you want the guitar really i suppose.

[tarsai]

Thanks for your posts.I have always wanted an Ibanez but there is one place here which sells Jackson guitars under a different brand name.I can go there and check out the tone and other stuff. Is Jackson comparable to Ibanez for the same price range.
I'm confused.

[Slash]

Ive heard that the jacksons are actually guitars galled 'tansen' and are made in india.. A friend has one of them and it was quite good really.

Dont you like Fenders<g>?

[barbietta]

I do this exercise for about 10 or 15 minutes each day. It seems to be helping. I recommend getting a metronome if you don't have one already. That way you can measure your progress by seeing how fast you can play it and still sound clean. Good luck!

http://www.guitarprinciples.com/Guitar_Technique/Walking.htm

[gck]

about ring and pinky dexterity:

yes, I had/have the same problem: the pinky seems to be connected to the ring so that moving them individually is hard! I opened a thread named "I need some finger exercises please" also in the Beginners' Forum in which I was given very useful tips to overcome exactly this problem!

Also, the "classical lessons" at CyberFret.com which hide under "Misc. Wisdom" -> "Time Machine" (I think) have very very good tutorials on your left hand play!

The problem is that 1) your ring and pinky finger really ARE connected in some way (I'm no anatomist) and that the pinky usually follows your ring finger when do "normal actions" with your hand. Therefore, it's muscles will be rather weak and you are not used to moving it individually.

However, I regularly do the exercises from the Classical Lessons and the replies to my thread and really see some progress (even only slowly, but noticeable!). Sooner or later you will get the control over your pinky that you are up to.

[Krieselman13]

GCK, I dont believe that they are connected. I believe that it is the muscle that makes it do all that crazy schiznit.

[gck]

well, as I said, I'm no anatomist... But I've heard that there's a ligament between those two. Maybe I'm wrong...

Either way, you can overcome the problems by practicing, and that is the most important part!

[Slash]

They may be, for all you know... Just think, all the day to day jobs we do are really not dependent on the pinky. The pinky just supports and so a sort of dependence is developed on the other fingers. At first this dependence is very problematic, but pratice makes this go away.