How to Improve Little Finger Strength for Guitar

The little finger of your fretting hand is one of the most important tools you can develop to help you play better. A strong fourth finger allows greater reaches, more complex chords and a wide array of flutter and vibrato techniques. But it is also one of the more stubborn tools to hone; it is the weakest of the fingers and generally does not operate independently of the others. To use it effectively for playing guitar, you must strengthen the muscles that control the finger and build its independence from the rest of the hand.

Things You'll Need

• Acoustic or electric guitar
• Metronome

Instructions

1. Always warm up before you begin any finger workouts. Play a few scales to get blood flowing to your hand, then stretch your fingers and the tendons running through your wrist.

2. Play a trill using your ring and little fingers. Fret a note with your ring finger and trill the next highest note with your fourth finger using rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs. Use a metronome and start slowly, making sure you stay in time, and smoothly build up speed as your finger strengthens. Try to play this exercise for five minutes each practice session.

3. As your finger progresses, trill using other fingers to fret the lowest note. Work up to trilling between your index and little fingers with a three to four fret spread between, and of course use the metronome to build up speed gradually.

4. Once you feel comfortable trilling between index and little fingers, increase the stretch between the fingers to five frets and work up from a low metronome speed. Depending on your hand size, you may be able to work up to six or even seven fret trills.

5. Work up an exercise that you can perform which uses three to four fingers on your fretting hand and varies the rhythm that your little finger plays. For example, play a note with your first finger, hammer on three frets higher with your fourth, and pull off to a note fretted by your ring finger. You could repeat this pattern, or adjust it any way you like. The main idea is simply to build independence of your little finger from the rest. Again, use the metronome.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to play each of the exercises for five minutes per practice session until you've acquired the strength to comfortably move on.

• If you have trouble warming up enough to stretch, try running your hand under warm water for a minute or two.

• Like any strength-building exercise, if you feel significant discomfort in your fingers or wrists, stop playing and rest your hand. You'll feel strain in the tendons as you build up strength, but there should be no sharp pain during the workout or aching afterwards.