Football 1, fret hand 0.

cur · Post by **cur** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:48 pm

Well, after 6 weeks of hoping it would just get better on it's own, I went to the hand doc and he said I have a torn ligament on my fret hand pinky. It has to stay taped to the other finger for 4 weeks. If it doesn't get better then MRI. So anyway I was hoping someone could suggest pick hand practice drills that I can do for the time being. I am self taught and have been playing for about 2 years now. I practice for a least an hour a day. I am going to view this as an opportunity to get better with my pick hand so hopefully this will be more of a benefit than a set back.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:50 pm

Get a metronome and pick as steadily as you can and as accurately as you can on one string.
Practise all downstrokes as quickly as you can (use metronome). Accuracy is key here.
Practise all upstrokes as quickly as you can (use metronome)
Practise triplets (three notes in the time of two, trying to get them quicker and quicker. Practise triple quavers followed by a crotchet, so count and play as follows:

d= downstroke
u= upstroke

1...2...3..|1...2...3...|1...2...3..|1...2...3...|
d...u...d..|d............|d...u...d..|d............|

Keep doing this quicker and quicker. Try messing around with the picking pattern:

1...2...3..|1...2...3...|1...2...3..|1...2...3...|
d...u...d..|u............|d...u...d..|u............|

1...2...3..|1...2...3...|1...2...3..|1...2...3...|
u...d...u..|u............|u...d...u..|u............|

1...2...3..|1...2...3...|1...2...3..|1...2...3...|
u...d...u..|d............|u...d...u..|d............|

Or for the ultimate challenges:

1...2...3..|1...2...3...|1...2...3..|1...2...3...|
d...d...d..|d............|d...d...d..|d............|

1...2...3..|1...2...3...|1...2...3..|1...2...3...|
u...u...u..|u............|u...u...u..|u............|

Practise switching between two strings whilst alternate picking:

e...........................d...u...d...u...d...u...............................d...u...d...u...d...u....................................
B....d...u...d...u...d...............................u...d...u...d...u...d.................................u...d...u...d...u...d.
B

etc.

Come up with more complicated patterns by yourself.

Practise the picking hand side of sweeping: palm mute and sweep the plectrum down the bottom five strings. Use a metronome, and start slowly. Sweeping is something that is tricky to do quickly, but very, very difficult to do slowly and accurately. See how accurately you can sweep the pick so that it hits each string a the right time. Use a metronome and put in, say 160 bpm. Aim to hit each string on each beat.

Try putting a capo at the twelfth fret to make this easier. There'll be less give in the strings this way, and it'll be easier to keep the pick where you want to during fast picking.

If you can still use the fretting hand a little, try this sort of stuff. It looks easy, but can be a bastard to get very accurate. Here, the beat is on the top. I'm counting crotchets (whole beats, the numbers) and quavers (half beats, the +'s mark the point half way through the beat). Count "one and two and three and four and." We're playing twice as many notes as we're counting. Try this at something reasonably slow like 90bpm (use the metronome again) and see how accurate you are. It's amazing how inaccurate you can be and still sound good.

....|1.....+.....2.......+.....3......+.....4.....+....|
A:.|0..0..0..0..2..2..2..2..3..3..3..3..2..2..2..2|
p:.|d..u..d..u..d..u..d..u..d..u..d..u..d..u..d..u|

That's all I can think of at the minute. The most important thing is to try to relax your picking hand. Whenever you tense it up, it's more difficult to move. It has to move. Also, be careful of straining it. Stop practising if you feel pain.

cur · Post by **cur** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:31 am

Thanks for the tips. That is just the sort of thing I was looking for.

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:51 am

I was going to say: play slide guitar in open tunings
BUT! I would recommend Dr. Paul's advice

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:17 am

Haze wrote:I was going to say: play slide guitar in open tunings

I was thinking that too, but it's his pinky that's gone, and it's difficult to switch to learn slide on one finger, then have to learn it on a different finger later on.

Chicago Mike · Post by **Chicago Mike** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 8:29 pm

You could play in some open tunings that only require index finger usage.

Maybe work on some finger picking patterns with your right hand.