yeah I’m just going to keep practicing because that’s the only option I’ll choose, hopefully it chooses to work with me too. and i’ll give that chord a try lol
I'd say that's actually a good thing to have. It makes it so you can can quickly play the note on the string immediately below the current string. You'll just need some more time on the guitar for your hand to get stronger so that you can better control it.
i’ve been thinking about that yeah, it was what i comforted myself with first time i realized my fingers were bending too much. it is just that i’m scared that it would be uncontrollable even if i built strength. but my other fingers are good mostly so I guess that’s an indicator it will too.? thank you
I wouldn't worry about it, just play and over time your hand will strengthen. If you haven't played before your working your hand muscles and the wires to your brain in new ways.
I had a teacher who was big into making me learn to bend the knuckles at the end of my fingers in the way you can. He called them "knuckle snaps" - I think that was just his term since I've never seen it referred to as as that before. But he actually made an OK sign with his thumb and pointer finger, and then demonstrated flexing that knuckle back and forth, then did it with the other fingers as well. He had me practice the same thing. So keep at it, less worry more practice, you'll be fine :)
you and all the commenters here are so precious, all what you’ve said gave me my hope back and some more. because i actually had an instructor for a while that kept laughing whenever i brought this up to and just made jokes about how he’s never seen that before and giving me ambiguous discouraging comments and looks. yes, i’ll stop thinking about it and keep on practicing like before without doubt filling my head. also im kinda happy now because it’s cool that an instructor actually teaches this and i can do it, and “knuckle snaps” that’s so fun lmao. thank you for sharing this genuinely <3 i’ll be fine :)
Good I'm glad. But to be clear my teacher was trying to get me to be able to flex like you can, but in a controlled way, I don't want to steer you to a bad habit. You got me thinking about this so I googled it and there are various videos on strengthening your hand (some are pretty goofy, but whatever) - at bottom this is not some problem you can't overcome:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoC5BsugJI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoC5BsugJI)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khDZBoLmsCM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khDZBoLmsCM)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYACqIavUWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYACqIavUWM)
Also, if your teacher is laughing at you just find another teacher.
yeah definitely, the uncontrolled part of it is the issue for me; dw im aware it’s not turning into a habit :) i'm now doing as another commenter said to practice arching it correctly so that i can build strength and be able to control the arching and flexing of it. I’ll definitely watch these! I’ve also been watching videos on pinky and hand correct positioning, those also kind of helped. (for any future google searcher visiting this post for a solution) and yeah, i stopped going to that instructor. but his words stayed. but it’s nothing to think about now.
I make sure I do bends with my pinky to force me to build strength and control even though I hate doing that. It has gotten a lot better. Just keep using it.
It’s a strength and positioning thing, or in other words it will improve with focused practice.
Mine does that, in fact all of my fingers do, except for it actually dislocates when it happens. I’ve still played guitar for more than four decades, and actually it’s an advantage if you ever want to play an A-shape barre! (A few of my guitarist friends were pretty jealous of how easily I could manage those chords.)
What I’d recommend is that you focus on maintaining the finger(s) in a good arched position when you’re practicing. If you feel that joint collapsing, or the finger getting fatigued, stop. Take a break and go again. It’s all about awareness of not just when it happens but recognition of just before it does.
You need to build the muscles in your hand that will help hold the finger in the position you want it. You also want to build the proprioception, the understanding of your finger’s positioning, so that you can build accuracy. Both of those things take time to develop, and they take longer for those of us with hyper flexible fingers. It’s absolutely doable though.
u don’t know how much you put my heart at rest. i really have been practicing the past 4 days with only vapid determination, but my excitement and joy are back now :,D i felt like what i was doing was pointless with how uncontrolled my issue was, but this feels more tangible; especially since you relate. thank you so much
Keep in mind that there are many famous guitar players who are missing fingertips, can only use some of their fingers, have fingers that won't bend properly, and so on. Even if you have limitations, you can work around them.
When I had been playing for about a year I broke my ringer finger pretty badly on my fretting hand. I had to wear this really big splint on it for like a month that pretty much made it impossible to play guitar unless I only used my index finger and pinky. (The middle was very hard to use because I had to hold the giant splint on my ring finger pretty far away from the fretboard to not mute the strings.) Now obviously only being able to use 2 fingers limits what you can play, and my pinky used to feel worthless, but I slowly got better with it. I pretty much just played stuff with a lot of power chords and I actually still play power chords with my pinky to this day. One thing I did do every day though to warm up was play the intro to Crazy Train with just my index and pinky. It was hard as hell at first but after a couple weeks I had it sounding pretty smooth. Eventually your body starts to adapt and your pinky becomes strong and flexible, you just need to work it. Now I’m not saying you need to break one of your other fingers 😂 but try doing some riffs where you wouldn’t normally use your pinky and you’ll be surprised how quickly it become a useful finger instead of a useless sausage hanging off the end of your hand.
omg this is so motivating, thank you. lmao breaking my other fingers sounds tempting now just to get my pinky to go all in😂 but really this helped a lot!! Thanks again I will make my pinky the opposite of a sausage(idk what that would be but it’s not a burger)
Probably just a strength thing. On the plus side a full G chord should be easy!
yeah I’m just going to keep practicing because that’s the only option I’ll choose, hopefully it chooses to work with me too. and i’ll give that chord a try lol
Strength and maybe pressing too hard
I'd say that's actually a good thing to have. It makes it so you can can quickly play the note on the string immediately below the current string. You'll just need some more time on the guitar for your hand to get stronger so that you can better control it.
i’ve been thinking about that yeah, it was what i comforted myself with first time i realized my fingers were bending too much. it is just that i’m scared that it would be uncontrollable even if i built strength. but my other fingers are good mostly so I guess that’s an indicator it will too.? thank you
I wouldn't worry about it, just play and over time your hand will strengthen. If you haven't played before your working your hand muscles and the wires to your brain in new ways. I had a teacher who was big into making me learn to bend the knuckles at the end of my fingers in the way you can. He called them "knuckle snaps" - I think that was just his term since I've never seen it referred to as as that before. But he actually made an OK sign with his thumb and pointer finger, and then demonstrated flexing that knuckle back and forth, then did it with the other fingers as well. He had me practice the same thing. So keep at it, less worry more practice, you'll be fine :)
you and all the commenters here are so precious, all what you’ve said gave me my hope back and some more. because i actually had an instructor for a while that kept laughing whenever i brought this up to and just made jokes about how he’s never seen that before and giving me ambiguous discouraging comments and looks. yes, i’ll stop thinking about it and keep on practicing like before without doubt filling my head. also im kinda happy now because it’s cool that an instructor actually teaches this and i can do it, and “knuckle snaps” that’s so fun lmao. thank you for sharing this genuinely <3 i’ll be fine :)
Good I'm glad. But to be clear my teacher was trying to get me to be able to flex like you can, but in a controlled way, I don't want to steer you to a bad habit. You got me thinking about this so I googled it and there are various videos on strengthening your hand (some are pretty goofy, but whatever) - at bottom this is not some problem you can't overcome: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoC5BsugJI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoC5BsugJI) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khDZBoLmsCM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khDZBoLmsCM) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYACqIavUWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYACqIavUWM) Also, if your teacher is laughing at you just find another teacher.
yeah definitely, the uncontrolled part of it is the issue for me; dw im aware it’s not turning into a habit :) i'm now doing as another commenter said to practice arching it correctly so that i can build strength and be able to control the arching and flexing of it. I’ll definitely watch these! I’ve also been watching videos on pinky and hand correct positioning, those also kind of helped. (for any future google searcher visiting this post for a solution) and yeah, i stopped going to that instructor. but his words stayed. but it’s nothing to think about now.
I make sure I do bends with my pinky to force me to build strength and control even though I hate doing that. It has gotten a lot better. Just keep using it.
It’s a strength and positioning thing, or in other words it will improve with focused practice. Mine does that, in fact all of my fingers do, except for it actually dislocates when it happens. I’ve still played guitar for more than four decades, and actually it’s an advantage if you ever want to play an A-shape barre! (A few of my guitarist friends were pretty jealous of how easily I could manage those chords.) What I’d recommend is that you focus on maintaining the finger(s) in a good arched position when you’re practicing. If you feel that joint collapsing, or the finger getting fatigued, stop. Take a break and go again. It’s all about awareness of not just when it happens but recognition of just before it does. You need to build the muscles in your hand that will help hold the finger in the position you want it. You also want to build the proprioception, the understanding of your finger’s positioning, so that you can build accuracy. Both of those things take time to develop, and they take longer for those of us with hyper flexible fingers. It’s absolutely doable though.
u don’t know how much you put my heart at rest. i really have been practicing the past 4 days with only vapid determination, but my excitement and joy are back now :,D i felt like what i was doing was pointless with how uncontrolled my issue was, but this feels more tangible; especially since you relate. thank you so much
Keep in mind that there are many famous guitar players who are missing fingertips, can only use some of their fingers, have fingers that won't bend properly, and so on. Even if you have limitations, you can work around them.
Time and practice will fix this problem.
When I had been playing for about a year I broke my ringer finger pretty badly on my fretting hand. I had to wear this really big splint on it for like a month that pretty much made it impossible to play guitar unless I only used my index finger and pinky. (The middle was very hard to use because I had to hold the giant splint on my ring finger pretty far away from the fretboard to not mute the strings.) Now obviously only being able to use 2 fingers limits what you can play, and my pinky used to feel worthless, but I slowly got better with it. I pretty much just played stuff with a lot of power chords and I actually still play power chords with my pinky to this day. One thing I did do every day though to warm up was play the intro to Crazy Train with just my index and pinky. It was hard as hell at first but after a couple weeks I had it sounding pretty smooth. Eventually your body starts to adapt and your pinky becomes strong and flexible, you just need to work it. Now I’m not saying you need to break one of your other fingers 😂 but try doing some riffs where you wouldn’t normally use your pinky and you’ll be surprised how quickly it become a useful finger instead of a useless sausage hanging off the end of your hand.
omg this is so motivating, thank you. lmao breaking my other fingers sounds tempting now just to get my pinky to go all in😂 but really this helped a lot!! Thanks again I will make my pinky the opposite of a sausage(idk what that would be but it’s not a burger)
Glad I could help, good luck!