With this Pinky curved in.
Will I have to accept this limit or can I stretch my Pinky enough to play more chords?
It’s still a bit difficult to tell from this picture, what chord are you trying to play?
You are managing to fret the three thin strings there while your thumb is hooked over, anything more would be a challenge for many of us.
A lot of finger positions are restricted by the wrist and elbow.
Can you give me an idea of some chords you are trying to play and a few more pictures, zoomed out and from a few different angles so that we can see your wrist and elbow as well as the angle of the guitar how it is positioned against your body. All of these things can add up and cause limitations.
From this picture alone, I don’t see any major problems but that could just be the angle of the picture.
If I look at my own pinky, although it doesn’t curve like yours, it does still look clumsy and sometimes will hit other strings but they are usually strings that don’t matter. Either way, my wrist position will make most of the difference. If it’s at a steep angle to the hand and the elbow is sticking out too far, then I can’t reach much with my pinky.
It’s hard to know how you should deal with the F chord problem without seeing your fingers. If it really is a physical impossibility then you might need to use a different fingering or use partial chords in those situations.
The pinky on scales and pentatonics, if you are struggling then just use the other fingers. It’s not uncommon for guitarists to not use the pinky in lead playing, great if you can, not a big deal if you can’t, there;s still a lot you can do with three fingers.
Using the bottom strings, it’s not so much that I don’t advocate using them, it’s just that we probably spend more time on the thinner strings – but even on the thicker strings you can still do a lot without using the pinky.
Thanks for that.I will work on my elbow/wrist position. Back to the pentatonic /pinky/not pinky, would you say it’s a good strategy to decide whether to use it or not, and stick with that decision rather than mix it up? Perhaps I’m over-thinking this.
I would say try to use your pinky if you can, it will ultimately give you more options even if you don’t use it all the time.
I have exactly the same problem. If I look at other guitarists, they have four “sausage fingers”. My pinky curves round. Example: if I am playing an open F (top five strings, not barre) my pinky has a hard job getting to the D string, it kind of gets stuck under the ring finger as it bends so much.
I also have a related question about whether to use the pinky when playing pentatonic boxes. I was taught to do this, but it’s a real stretch especially for the E/A strings. I don’t see too many pros using the pinky either eg Eric Clapton. Having just bought your Pentatonic Scale Fluency book and read through for the first time, I see you don’t advocate using the bottom strings much anyway, so maybe that’s the answer? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts Lee.
I’m very hopeful to progress with your book btw, it seems to encapsulate precisely where I am “stuck”. !!