Quote:
Originally Posted by crockett
I picked myself up a used acoustic Guitar to try and learn while I travel. Despite the fact that I know I'll soon be a rock god and women will throw their panties at me, my pinky finger doesn't seem to agree..
When I try to play, it's like my pinky finger's mind is elsewhere and just can't be bothered to do his job.. Anyone have any tips on how to train my pinky finger to do what it's supposed to do? Is this a normal thing to have to deal with, when you first start out?
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Hi Crockett,
Congrats on picking up the guitar! I've been playing for about a year and a half and love it. It's relaxing, fun, and really rewarding when you realize you've just nailed a song.
To make your pinky do what you want it to do, just practice. Play scales a while until you're bored to tears. When you can't play stupid scales anyone and want to move on to fun stuff like chords, please your fingers on the chords pinky-first (on chords that use pinkies, duh). This will be hard to do at first but it gets easier.
If you really want to learn fast and have fun doing it, try this out :
Riffstation - Get the chords and tabs for any song in the world!
Enter any song or group you like and it will show you how to play it. Pick a song that has chords and notes you know how to play or find easily like E, EM, C, F, G, A, D, etc. Riffstation makes mistakes once in a while and sometimes the timing and changes are off, but for the most part it does a good job, and best of all its free.
The easiest are pop songs and ballads. Some of the easiest to play are
Maroon 5 - "Animals
Faber Drive - When I'm With You"
Songs that I love to play that are easy-ish but harder for me to master are
Billy Talent - "Surprise Surprise"
Hole - "Malibu"
Sheryl Crowe - "If it makes you happy" (Requires a special G and some extra pinky work. be warned!)
Also try searching Youtube for things like "Guitar Backing Track in e major". These are fun to play, sound good, and are repetitive so it helps you to practice your fingering without letting boredom set in.
Don't bother signing up for any online courses. Instead just go to youtube and you'll find all the free lessons you want. Or if you're on a Mac, Use Garage Band to help you learn.
Have fun and congrats again!