I'm new, and I understand that its possible that this is just something I need to work on, but when I am playing and switching between my middle finger and pinky, I tend to subconsciously curl my ring finger under itself (towards my palm, sometimes removing it from the neck and sometimes just pressing it elsewhere on the neck).

Do you guys do this? At my current speed level, it doesn't seem to cause problems when I put it next to the neck, but i can imagine how this would be inefficient and cause slowdown if I start to progress. It doesn't seem like as much of a problem when i just press it down elsewhere on the board.

Every now and then i manage to not do this and just suspend it, which is now my ultimate goal.

your ring finger naturally has less mobility and independence than the other fingers

I read somewhere about the ring finger & pinky sharing nerves or tendons or neural pathways or something...

you can work on it and it might get better, but don't think you're handicapped or abnormal.. most of us have this to one degree or another

It's normal. I had the same thing.

I was able to correct it in about two weeks, if I remember correctly, by doing the simple chromatic excercise using 1 finger per fret. Just 1234 on each of the strings, then back up 5432, and back down 3456, back up 7654, ect...

The kicker is you must play ONLY with hammer ons and pull-offs only pick the first note to start and then every 4th note (each time you move to a new string). During this lesson the goal is to focus on finger control. Always focus on keeping that pinky where it should be, in position ready to play it's assigned fret. You are not doing the excercise properly if your pinky curls up or sticks out (you're losing control). Best piece of advice I got for this lesson is "it's too late to correct the problem after it has happened."

This really works good.

I think another really good technique at teaching your ring and pinky to communicate is by playing chords. Granted, on a 4 string, playing chords on the EAD strings sounds terrible, playing high on the ADG strings can sound pretty pleasant.

You'll have your fingers like this:

G: 1
D: 3
A: 4

(1 being index, 4 being pinky).

This is probably horrible notation, but it is what makes sense to me.

So this is a major chord. Imagine your pinky being on the 12th fret of the A string. Your ring finger will be on the 11th of the D string (C#) and your index will be on the 9th of the G string(E). There are 1,3 and 5 of the A Major. I've noticed that playing these kinds of chords have really strengthened my finger dexterity and they just sound pleasant.

Note: Sorry for making this idiot proof, but I'm at work and I'm not really the best at theory so this was just sort or proof-checking for me.

My ring finger sits a string or two above the other fingers, ready to play.

EDIT: whoops, I just realized you were talking about the fretting hand. No, I don't do this and I don't remember ever doing this so I can't help much. One thing is to always back-up the fretting finger with the others behind, especially the pinky. Practicing the "double-bass technique" (1-2-4) with the ring and pinky working together might help.

You really want to have all four of you fingers "helping" to push the string down when you fret a note with your little finger. Just practice making sure all your fingers are in a comfortable position on the string you are fretting and this issue will go away in no time.

Great exercise for fretting hand finger independence is one I picked up from Micahel Manring's website, based on mathematic permutations:

Pick a comfortable spot on the fretboard where you can put all four finger on a fret ( I use 7th-10th fret on the A). Then, in steady time with a metronome, play through this pattern:

(1= index, 2= middle, 3= ring, 4= pinky)

1234, 1243, 1324, 1342, 1423, 1432
2134, 2143, 2314, 2341, 2413, 2431
3124, 3142, 3214, 3241, 3412, 3421
4123, 4132, 4213, 4231. 4312, 4321

Once you get real comfy with that, you can throw in some string skipping variants that build great dexterity.

If you want more specifics, message me.

Great exercise for fretting hand finger independence is one I picked up from Micahel Manring's website, based on mathematic permutations:

Pick a comfortable spot on the fretboard where you can put all four finger on a fret ( I use 7th-10th fret on the A). Then, in steady time with a metronome, play through this pattern:

(1= index, 2= middle, 3= ring, 4= pinky)

1234, 1243, 1324, 1342, 1423, 1432
2134, 2143, 2314, 2341, 2413, 2431
3124, 3142, 3214, 3241, 3412, 3421
4123, 4132, 4213, 4231. 4312, 4321

Once you get real comfy with that, you can throw in some string skipping variants that build great dexterity.

If you want more specifics, message me.

That sounds pretty cool. After I made this, I started fingering 1324 on my fret board repeatedly, making sure to keep the ring finger hovering above the strings. It was tough, but I found a noticeable change in my playing after I did that for a little bit. I did some scales and such, and it was easier to keep the ring finger just chilling there. Your exercise seems to flesh the idea out a bit more, so Ill try that for a while. Thanks.