Bent little finger

My left hand little finger (actually both little fingers but only the left is a chording problem) is bent away from the other fingers when I simply hold my hand normally. When I try to fret with it it comes down at a 45 degree angle and thus is almost flat when pressing down. It's never been broken...just that way. Any solutions? No surgery please.

Although I don't have that particular issue, I have been studying classical guitar for 5 years, and my left hand pinky was always away from the fretboard and when used it would bend in not over like an arch on the string....

After doing finger independent exercises (from the Pumping Nylon book) and after years of working on my technique, my pinky as well as the other 3 are not close to the strings when I play and my pinky behaves like there rest including bending down in an nice strong round arch.

So if you can gently and slowly move your finger into a correct position and bend it the way it should, you could do some isolated exercises for finger independence for 5-15 min a day, and it might help with muscle memory and technique?

Since you have not broken your fingers it is probably just a matter of training your hands...

It might not fix it completely but it should help a lot, and become more natural as your fingers get stronger, and muscle memory sets in.

Good luck.

Thanks Olarte,
Just ordered the KINDLE version of Pumping Nylon. Looks very helpful.
John

Great, while pumping nylon is meant for guitar, I'm sure you can't go wrong with it on the Uke.

Funny I can now play from a huge classical guitar down to a pocket Uke.... Lots of fun. My fingers adjust automatically.

Just he patient and give it some time.

I almost always use my pinkie flat on the A. works for me

Django Reinhardt. thats all.

ncbackwoods said:

Django Reinhardt. thats all.

Click to expand...

Always good to remember!

The tendon in my little finger got snapped as a kid - so I've got no use in the end joint at all! I just have to make do with versions of chords that I can fret with 3 fingers ........ where there's a will, there's a way ......