Flying Fingers and how to ground them

tovo
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Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:30 pm

Hi all,

After I posted a video of me working on my blues learning I got a heap of great advice for which I am very grateful, and I've been working to put many of the tips into practice.

One in particular was regarding what I'm calling "flying fingers"....lifting the fingers much too far from the fretboard.

I was aware that it is a bad thing, but didn't realise until it was pointed out how pronounced it is for me.

Apart from being cognisant (or cognizant) of it....does anyone know of any specific exercises or tips to work on keeping the fingers close to the board?

Just thought I'd ask. Cheers.


Lavallee
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Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:00 pm

Hi Tony, one exercise I learned was to do scales (which should be learn anyway to improve lead) and having each of the 4 finger in front of 4 frets . You try to have your fretting hand barely moving from right to left and away or closer to the fret board, only up and down to allow the fingers to follow the scale. So you leave each finger in front of its own fret and so that they are close to the string and ready to press on the string. So each time you hit a string, the movement of the other fingers should be minimized, in other word you try to move one finger at the time. You can try also to do a chromatic scale (you hit 4 frets on the first string, then the same frets on the second string and so on). The benefit of this is that you can do it over 5 frets to practice stretching ( like frets 2-3-4-6 or 2-4-5-6, etc...) as a variation.

Hope this helps
Marc


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daryl
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Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:24 pm

Try two-finger-trills: 1st finger 1st fret, to 2nd finger 2nd fret, and back to the 1st finger by lifting the 2nd finger off (repeat ad nauseum ), then try 1st and 3rd, and then 1st and 4th, etc. try it on all strings and on all frets. Another idea is to see how you do just tapping your fingers on a table top. Do your fingers fly then? If they do, just work on tapping your fingers so that they barely move. If they don't fly when you tap, then use that "ability" on your fretboard.


takhak
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Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:40 pm

The supported finger exercise then the pre-crab exercise and then the crab exercise should do the
trick. they are for classical beginners mainly and force you to keep your fingers very close to the strings.
Good luck.


tovo
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Sat Jun 16, 2012 3:29 am

Marc, Daryl, Takhak thanks guys. I'll apply all of those suggestions.


peleus
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Sat Jun 16, 2012 9:07 am

Sometimes, the fingers lock up during stage freight. Make sure to overcome that too.


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