"pinky" pull-offs

[DarkBob]

Hello all,

(Problem is that when I try pull-offs I can't seem to get the string to ring without putting a lot of force on my other fingers, hence the little one goes mental again.)

I'm currently trying to tidy up my abysmal playing, so I'm working though the Troy Stetina Mechanics book and some Paul Gilbert vids. My main problem has been controlling my little finger i.e. stopping it flying around when I move my other fingers. Alt picking up and down, and hammer-ons are now pretty neat, with my little finger being well behaved.

By practicing alternate picking patterns (mainly cromatic type stuff up and down the neck), I've got my fingers moving much more cleanly, and I'm starting to build up a lot more strengh and precision (only two weeks and I'm seeing massive improvements - I'm very supprised ).

Anyway... what I'd like to know is how you guys do legato stuff neatly with pull offs. It seems easy to slowly do alt picking and make sure my fingers are all behaving - I'm slowing building speed as the days progress without really trying too hard. Problem is I really can't figure a way to get the pull-offs neater -> I can't even think where to start.

It's driving me mad!

I was going to try and video my pull-off pinky antics for you guys to critique, but I can't find a good enough video camera...

Anybody that could show me what I should be aiming at would be very very cool. btw, looking at my Vai vids etc, I can't seem to see enough to guide me.

Long post I know, but thanks for reading this far (or skipping to the end at least ).

Thanks in advance,
-Bob

[elcid]

Practice

[supermau]

Originally Posted by elcid

Practice

I don't think it gets any simpler than that.

[mi2tom]

Originally Posted by elcid

Practice

+1

[RedShiftRider]

Originally Posted by elcid

Practice

...slowly!!! Slow down to a speed that you are hearing what you want to hear. Relax everything in your body except the muscles needed to practice the technique you are working on. Tension works against you. It really takes concentration to relax, believe it or not. It seems contradictory, but try it for a couple of weeks.

[C.Thep]

turn down the gain and sustain

[jem7vwh]

having just finished 3 hours of alt. picking and pinky practice-- all I can say is that it takes a lot of work, and you'll improve more if you play with no distortion or effects, just you and an amp with all the EQ knobs at 5. This way, you'll hear all the nuances of what you're playing with none of it hidden or covered up.

[S-man]

Once again practice...and lots of it. The advice about doing it without effects, etc. is good. Just think of how good it's going to sound when you start using that stuff again. Sometimes, when you are trying to hard it never seems to come. So relaxing is good advice too. One day your going to be practicing that and say...Wow I just did it. Yeah!!!

Time...be patient. Don't give up.

[Tom Gilroy]

Go very, very slowly, and try to work on finger independance.

[DarkBob]

Thanks guys, good advice from you all

I've been trying to break down my pinky movements a bit more, and discovered that I've got a lot of difficulty in controlling my little finger slowly. I've found that my finger tends to "snap" on and off the string.

Trying to do it really slowly didn't seem to be getting me anywhere - no matter how slowly I did it I couldn't make it look controlled (still "snapping" and p*ssing me off )

On the plus side, from trying to slow the movement right down (so that I'm hardly moving) I found that my pinky (and 3rd finger) are really weak. The past two days I've been doing "push up" exercises with my 4th and 3rd fingers. I've basically been holding all 4 fingers onto the string, and lift off one finger as high as I can (slowly and controlled) then moving it back down onto the string (slowly and controlled again) and pushing down on the string fairly hard. I've been doing 3 reps of 30 for each finger.

It's only been 2 days, but already I can feel the benefit.

It's weird, I've started thinking of this like going to the gym - focus on the muscle movement and do it as slowly and controlled as possible. I've given up trying to do a pull off for now, I don't think I have the finger strength to do it cleanly just yet - I think that's why I was having a problem in the first place.

Hmm, hope that's helpful to somebody.

Thanks for you guys advice - really helpful

Interested to see if anyone else has tried similar exercises?

Cheers!
-Bob

[RedShiftRider]

cool exercise. sounds like it's going to help you make progress...

[sniperfrommars1]

The tapping licks at the end of spanish fly are a good place to start. I learned these on acoustic no less, im not going to write the tabs out of course you can find them laying around anywhere, but they really isolate the pinky movement as its nothing but pullofs and wide stretchs at that point. Also any four note per string chromatic lick should be very useful.

[Wis Redz of Silvanost]

Wow, some real good stuff above. the exercise you just described is used in piano education to build finger independence and strength. Do practice a lot. I'm sure you know 1-2-3-4 exercise. Do it with hammer-ons and pull-offs. I mean hit the string only once when you change the string, hammer your way till 4th finger and when you reach the high E string go backwards (4-3-2-1) by pulling off. This will help really much. When you master this, do NOT hit the string with the pick. Just your hammer-ons should be enough. Steve uses this kind of string changin a lot and it reallt has a good effect. It's like having your guitar speak a really long and fluent sentence.
Try some trills. They will builg strength and stamina in your looooong legato stuff. try all combinations. 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 1-3 etc. You get the idea. And if you do the 1-2 trill 3 minutes, do the 3-4 trill 6 minutes.
When you do all of this stuff perfectly my advice would be that you take some long legato parts from Tender Surrender. Or even better, check out the solo. And Lotus Feet. These are two songs off the top of my head. I'll write some later.
Hope these help you in your studies...

Cheers

[GilkyBear]

This may be obvious, but try practicing on an acoustic, when you switch back to electric there will be a huge difference.

[john1880]

for guys that have been playing forever, we're on auto-pilot. not only are we pulling off, but without even thinking, sometimes we are muting strings with our palm or even fingers on the fretting hand that may ring.
like everyone said, practice. it'll get there. i like your dedication, and it's a matter of time before it all seems easier.
the pinky is of course the weakest finger(you will rarely see schenker even use his), so give it time. play a lot, practice a lot and it'll all become much easier soon enough.
its a great idea to practice clean, no distortion and all that, but also, when you add distortion, your guitar becomes alive, and you need to control the srings from ringing, feedback and all sorts of noises, so it is good to practice with distortion as well sometimes. practice, practice practice...

john