3 Finger Excercises

Just practice. Anything you practice, be it scales, patterns, runs, songs, or whatever, just use 3 fingers. In time, you'll get used to it.

 

Im starting to play with 3 fingers on my right hand...but after i have been playing it stop and it BURNS LIKE FIRE
any tips so i dont get the burning sensation or so i dont get it when i finish?

I also noticed that i cant move my 3rd finger without my middle finger moving with it..anytips?

I Hope im not taking over your thread!

 

I started out as playing with all four fingers on my right hand and later I figured out that my pinky wasn't dependable, so now I just use three fingers. My advice as to developing your ring finger: when you're not playing, practice moving each finger individually by bending it down from the middle joint of the finger. It's difficult at first, and you might have to hold your other fingers while doing it, but in the end, you should be able to have independent motion from each finger. By that time, you're ring finger should be up to the task of playing with your other two, and by practicing things like jumping from string to string with a metronome, you'll be there in no time. Plus, the big benefit of using three fingers is that you use less of the other two and divide the load; also, if you hurt one of the fingers, you always can go back to the two-finger technique!

 

when you're trying the three- or four-finger thing, try not to play triplets all the time.

also, try leading with your middle finger. it's the longest one on your hand

if you really want to try a different three-finger -picking position, try thumb, first and middle fingers.

 

i'm curious CJ, why lead with your middle finger just because it's the longest? i lead off with my index when using three fingers, it seems to make more "sense" to the rest of the buggers

all i can say on this is whatever you do don't get stuck in the practice of simply "brushing" the strings by starting with your ring finger - this is bad and is a shocking habit to develop unless all you want to able to do with this technique is play triplety things. then that's cool, go for it and play your damn triplets. i don't care

 

tones,

i got inspired to do middle-finger first (mostly with two-fingered fingerpicking, three comes into play only when called for with me) after reading an interview with the rollins band's andrew weiss. i was playing mostly with a pick at the time and what little finger playing i did, i led with my index finger. using the middle finger first ended up making finger-playing easier for me, and in my next band i ended up doing finger-playing on most of the songs.

cj

 

ah, a pick player! heathen!
i just get kinda put out when i hear stuff about someone who's developed a different way of using three fingers than i do - maybe your technique is more efficient than mine, maybe it's faster? with this knocking around in the back of my head i sometimes feel compelled to go and undo years of work and completely revamp my own technique!