Hi guys
Any tips on how to get my little pinky to stretch when doing Em7
it always ends up at the bottom of the fret instead of stretching to behind the fret where it should be
thanks Brad
Em7 struggling advice, tips ?
I am afraid Willem is right. Practice, practice and more practice. Norwegian Wood is a great song for learning to stretch your little finger all over the place. Just keep at it, it will come. So much of learning to finger pick or pick out melody is muscle memory so hang in there.
Steve
Steve
Hi Brad there are also some stretching exercises that you could do like picking one note per fret over 4 fret and leaving all you fingers in position for each fret , going fret 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 on the same string and then move up a string. Then 1-2-3-5-5-3-2-1 making sure that the notes are clean, then 1-3-4-5-5-4-3-1, etc... This will help reaching those 7th easily.
Marc
Marc
Brad- as you develop as a guitarist become aware of when you need to play certain notes. Neil does a great job on several of his videos showing how to place your fingers as you need them.
It is the difference between sliding into chords or slamming into them meaning hitting all strings in the chord at the same time. I'm a "slammer" so I'm trying to learn Neil's much better technique.
Steve mentions Norwegian Wood, which is a good song to work on the Em7. I play that song and chord by first fretting the Em and then once fretted simply picking up the D with my pinky. By making it a two step process I buy some time to make sure I fret the D (on the second string) cleanly. This doesn't solve the problem of stretching the pinky but it buys you some time. NW is full of hammer-ons so playing the Em7 this way works perfectly.
Good luck on this Brad. Since I joined TARGET I've actually got a callus on my pinky which has never happened before. So practice is obviously the key. :cheer:
It is the difference between sliding into chords or slamming into them meaning hitting all strings in the chord at the same time. I'm a "slammer" so I'm trying to learn Neil's much better technique.
Steve mentions Norwegian Wood, which is a good song to work on the Em7. I play that song and chord by first fretting the Em and then once fretted simply picking up the D with my pinky. By making it a two step process I buy some time to make sure I fret the D (on the second string) cleanly. This doesn't solve the problem of stretching the pinky but it buys you some time. NW is full of hammer-ons so playing the Em7 this way works perfectly.
Good luck on this Brad. Since I joined TARGET I've actually got a callus on my pinky which has never happened before. So practice is obviously the key. :cheer:
Brad,
Great tips here so far. The pinky is a funny finger to work with on the fret board. At least for me. When I first learned NW I did exactly what BigBear was saying. Get the A and D strings down and then get the pinky on the B string. This is my most comfortable way of doing it for THIS song. When Neil reviewed my version of the song he did try and get me to get my pinky down at the same time as the rest of the fingers. So what I do now in this section is go from the Dm to the G then back to the Dm then the Em7. The difference for me now is that when I go to the Dm the second time from the G I use my pinky on the B string (instead of my ring finger) so that when the Em7 comes up my pinky is already there. Not sure if that makes sense or not as I try and articulate what I'm doing as I write this. So now I've trained my hands what to do and it gets better over time. Apart from that it's just practice, practice, practice. It will eventually get there. I hope this helps. If you have time go look up the review that Neil gave me and you'll see what he's talking about.
MarkM
Great tips here so far. The pinky is a funny finger to work with on the fret board. At least for me. When I first learned NW I did exactly what BigBear was saying. Get the A and D strings down and then get the pinky on the B string. This is my most comfortable way of doing it for THIS song. When Neil reviewed my version of the song he did try and get me to get my pinky down at the same time as the rest of the fingers. So what I do now in this section is go from the Dm to the G then back to the Dm then the Em7. The difference for me now is that when I go to the Dm the second time from the G I use my pinky on the B string (instead of my ring finger) so that when the Em7 comes up my pinky is already there. Not sure if that makes sense or not as I try and articulate what I'm doing as I write this. So now I've trained my hands what to do and it gets better over time. Apart from that it's just practice, practice, practice. It will eventually get there. I hope this helps. If you have time go look up the review that Neil gave me and you'll see what he's talking about.
MarkM
Thanks Guys
Big Bear do you mean think ahead of what is comming next so your ready, do you know which lesson Neil talks about this, as Im not 100% sure what you mean, but sounds like something I need to know.
1-2-3-4-5 great tip I must do those there just not as much fun as trying to play a song lol but i can see the value in this now as u feel you have made progress, then u go back to a number 2 song and feel retarded again (your fingers that is )
Mark I will check your video out thanks
Williem the old JEDI MIND TRICK i like it
seriously I understand what you mean
All great tips and gives me some direction on how to improve
so as Mcfingers said its time to practise, practise, practise
I will show the results on video one day soon I hope
Big Bear do you mean think ahead of what is comming next so your ready, do you know which lesson Neil talks about this, as Im not 100% sure what you mean, but sounds like something I need to know.
1-2-3-4-5 great tip I must do those there just not as much fun as trying to play a song lol but i can see the value in this now as u feel you have made progress, then u go back to a number 2 song and feel retarded again (your fingers that is )
Mark I will check your video out thanks
Williem the old JEDI MIND TRICK i like it

All great tips and gives me some direction on how to improve
so as Mcfingers said its time to practise, practise, practise
I will show the results on video one day soon I hope
rapsidy wrote:
If anyone out there remembers which songs Neil talks about fretting notes as they are needed could you help Brad out and mention a few?
Thanks! :cheer:
Brad- Neil mentions it in several songs but I don't remember which ones. I know he mentions it in From the Beginning but I know there are several more.Thanks Guys
Big Bear do you mean think ahead of what is comming next so your ready, do you know which lesson Neil talks about this, as Im not 100% sure what you mean, but sounds like something I need to know.
If anyone out there remembers which songs Neil talks about fretting notes as they are needed could you help Brad out and mention a few?
Thanks! :cheer: