Fretting Hand Technique: Control Flying Fingers with this Exercise!

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Video Chapters
00:00 Fretting Hand Technique - Minimal Movement Exercise
00:30 Minimal Movement Exercise - Before vs after
00:59 Minimal Movement Exercise - Exercise requisites
01:22 Minimal Movement Exercise - Step by step
04:30 Minimal Movement Exercise - Get it right
05:02 Minimal Movement Exercise - Practice routine
05:34 Minimal Movement Exercise - Uncontrollable pinky?
06:22 Improving your Fretting Hand Technique

[Mustaineify]

I think this is one of the most important exercises when starting on guitar. It's incredibly difficult to fix flying fingers 👋

[SteelKicker]

As a new person I seriously am impressed at this dudes dedication to teaching people the guitair. I mean all that success and popularity and years and he's still replying to comments with 5 likes. Thats passion right there. Something to aspire to.

[mrtambourineman]

I'm amazed how my fingers seem to have a mind of their own, I'd never even noticed till now!!

[SunriseSuperThruster]

Incredibly descriptive and never wanting the right word. A joy to listen to.

[cblizard]

I've been noodling with guitar for 10 years, the last 6 months have been excruciatingly difficult breaking bad habits but the results are absolutely incredible!

[yttkuar]

I just tried this exercise. I took up the guitar at 70 when I retired, so my fingers have a lifetime of non-musical use.Thank you so much for this tip. It will help tame my wild fingers. You have given us many useful tips that bring music back to our lives. I always wanted to play guitar.

[bluesjesus]

The finger that flies on my hand(please don't laugh) is the middle finger. I look at old videos of me playing that wasn't an issue. I don't know when that started but it's more apparent to me then others. I play in church eventually somebody is going to notice and think I'm flipping them off. I really hope this exercise helps or eliminates it.

[AsifAhmed]

After watching 50 other "Solving flying pinky" videos your one is effective and made sense. Thank you

[dmike]

I started doing this exercise years ago after watching one of your videos. I think you called it the spider exercise? But it has helped me immensely. I wouldn't be the player I am today without your lessons so thank you brother!!

[xXriftdragonXx]

God, Justin you deserve so much more praise. Thank you so much for all you do for the beginner guitar players and the community as a whole.

[michaelgreen]

Being a drummer first, my fret hand movement is like a drummer hitting the notes on the fretboard like drums, and know that this is wasted motion which fatigues your fret hand. This is a great lesson, my friend!!!

[frogworth]

Thank you for posting this it's one of the few videos I've found on the subject. I am eager to try your exercise as I had the flying finger and worked on it a long while and I'm curious if I will have as much difficulty as I might have a year ago. I finally got control of my flying pinky and found two things helped me immensely:
1) Trying to focus on keeping my fretting hand as relaxed as possible.
2) I practise facing a mirror so I can see both my hands and it's easier to recognize my faults as I work on them.

[acidtears]

Started doing this myself a few weeks ago so perfect timing with the video lol I think at the end of the day this will lead to more conscious finger control - whether you're passionately improvising or strictly following tabs, there's gonna be a benefit one way or another.

[jamieg]

a better exercise is to actively press down with whichever finger flies. for example, at 5:41, if lifting finger 3 causes finger 4 to lift, then practice that finger movement up and down the strings, but keep finger 4 pressed down when you lift finger 3. you'll very quickly break the habit.

[nicolen.]

I started late in life, Benn playing 5 years and my fingers are still kinda stiff. 0:44 I can't do that. Thanks Justin for the lesson 👍🎶🎶🎶

[chronoshadow]

Just last night I was looking into exercises for correcting this, it's like you read my mind! Haha
It's a great exercise, but certainly pretty difficult, just gotta keep at it and I'm sure I'll improve. Thank you so much for this lesson!

[dgates]

Just wanted to drop in and say that I appreciate your honesty here.

"Keep at it for three months and..."

So sick of people promising overnight improvement and captions like, "shred by night!" Or something corny like that hahaha.

Cool video!!

[badgasaurus]

Had to consciously do this a while ago when playing the november rain solo. The runs towards the end of each solo were much easier to hit the notes on time when I reduced unnecessary finger movement. Brilliant exercise

[nixternal]

Psst, I did this for about 4 or 5 months, 5 minutes a day. I'm back to it, going every day with different scales doing 5 minutes of minimal with it. Yes, stick with it, I've gotten pretty low on my scales, not Justin low, probably in that 5mm range. If you watch Justin, Corey Congilio, and others doing scales you barely see their fingers move, that's what I'm trying to get to because I think that is the difference in the way my scales sound when going up & down in the box compared to those with 1mm to 2mm max movements. This was my least favorite exercise in 2019 & into 2021, but it was by far the 1 exercise that showed improvement way more than others. Gotta go practice, new version is good!

[noelmagouirk]

I'm 50 years old it took me forever to get the forearm strength to play the major scale but I did it now just to work on the minimal movement