Pinky power: strengthen and rebuild your fourth finger (VIDEO)

July 12, 2017 at 07:21 PM · Perfect timing as I am working on building my fourth finger. It locks up all of the time and the mental effort exerted to thoughtfully place it without locking it up is pretty extraordinary! Oy, long-term (bad) habits take ages to break, and it takes time to rebuild those muscles properly.

July 12, 2017 at 09:10 PM · Perfect timing for me too. Definitely trying that tissue tip. Thank you for the video!

July 12, 2017 at 10:30 PM · Great, glad this was timely!

July 13, 2017 at 05:11 AM · Yup!! Great advice!! I decided to tackle my weak pinky a few years back. With similar helpful advice from colleagues and alot of patient persistence it does works. Took about a year but we are good now. I'll never look back.

July 13, 2017 at 03:22 PM · Also! Thank you for saying that however the pinky falls most naturally to reach all strings is what should be done vs forcing it to fall on the string on the left/inner side of the finger.

July 13, 2017 at 07:43 PM · I feel like this and bow hold has got to be two of the top five issues with fundamental setup and technique (others being things like shoulder and neck tension and deathgrip on the neck).

July 13, 2017 at 07:52 PM · Yes Pamela, I struggled with that often "conventional wisdom" for years before discarding it.

Agreed, Jason!

July 15, 2017 at 03:32 AM · Thanks for the video. I've started to do some of the exercises in the hope that I can develop some strength and a curve to my 4th finger. Do you have any tips for promoting independence between the 4th and 3rd fingers, or will that come with general 4th-finger strength?

July 15, 2017 at 03:35 AM · It will certainly help to get 4 more equal to 3, since usually 4 is so much weaker. After that, you can do exercises where one stays down and the other lifts or even slides on the string. It's definitely a prerequisite to have strong lifting from each finger individually.