Help a 3 fingered brother out with some new licks.

[marshall2288]

I lost my pinky in accident at work so scratch that finger. I have found my laying really hasn't suffered to much at all really. Things are a lil harder but I'm still able to do 95% of what i used to do only now my middle finger is getting a good workout these days.

What I'm looking for is some interesting licks that sound real good repeatedly played back to back to back. I know the standard classic rock/Jimmy Page pentatonic junk thats out there and I do all that really good so I'm looking for some more. Whats some good runs/licks that sound cool repeated that only require 3 fingers? Thanks guys!

[binge]

Originally Posted by marshall2288

I lost my pinky in accident at work so scratch that finger. I have found my laying really hasn't suffered to much at all really. Things are a lil harder but I'm still able to do 95% of what i used to do only now my middle finger is getting a good workout these days.

What I'm looking for is some interesting licks that sound real good repeatedly played back to back to back. I know the standard classic rock/Jimmy Page pentatonic junk thats out there and I do all that really good so I'm looking for some more. Whats some good runs/licks that sound cool repeated that only require 3 fingers? Thanks guys!

You could look into some tapping licks perhaps? Reb Beach does a lot of tapping and he seems to use 3 fingers on his left hand a lot.

[Satyrist]

Check out some Django Reinhardt. Other than being one of the greatest players of all time, he did it all with only two totally usable fingers. His left hand was badly burned in a caravan fire and his pinky and ring finger were fused together and bent inward, so he sould use them a little bit but only minimally. He used a lot of horizontal movement, along a string. Dig into his playing. Other than the pure inspiration of his genius, the way he overcame his limitations is truly amazing.

[guitarjazz]

For what it's worth, one of my dearest buddies lost half his first finger right after he got back from 'Nam, ironically. We've played hundreds of gigs. He used his disability to his advantage and came up with his own way to play chords and solo. He still gigs in the Bay area.
Hands down one of the funniest cats I've ever worked with too.

[marshall2288]

I've defiantly readjusted my playing and no one can tell the difference from before or afterwards but I'm just looking for some new tricks.

[CowTipton]

You could try some string skipping arpeggios. Something like

Emajor
16 pull off to 12 on 1st string, (G# to E)
16 pull of to 13 on 3rd string, (B to G#)
14 on 4th string. (E)
Then back up with hammer ons and repeat.

Since you're up in the higher octave it's not much a stretch for index finger and ring finger and it really sounds pretty cool. You can always mix it up a bit with other notes from the scale, breaking up the ascending or descending pattern, etc.

The minor arp seems like a little more of a stretch for whatever reason since the 5-fret gap is on the 3rd string instead. It's more comfortable a little higher if doing it with 3 fingers. Maybe it's just my hands though.

The diminished arp is the easiest of all. It's only a 4-fret stretch so you can prolly do it anywhere on the neck.

[binge]

Here's some licks I wrote out in tab for you:


^Play over Bm or D major. If you changed the A note at the 10th fret to a G# you could play it over an E or E7.



^Play over Em or G for a start. There are lots of chords you could play this over. It'd work over a D Dorian kinda thing too.




^I was think of D7 when I came up with this but it would also work over E7 or Em or possibly G7.

[Mandoboy]

There is a lot of info on Django these days, books from Djangobooks.com that have notation and tab, so you can work with how he saw the fingerboard- many of his lines are easier to play with two fingers than four, depending on how you map them out.

Big hint- they never switch strings on an upstroke, there are a lot of d/u/d d/u/d patterns with three notes per string- often the 1st finger shifting...

[stevel]

What I might encourage is working on your basic 3 note patterns (which you may have already done) to get your fingers used to moving to specific places:

3-4-5

3-4-6

3-5-6

3-5-7

So you play half step-half step; half-whole; whole-half; and whole-whole.

Many players use their pinky rarely when soloing but if you used it a lot before, especially for a pattern like:

3-4-6

then it might be of benefit to get your ring finger used to taking the note the pinky used to take (6th fret) and "stretching away" from the middle finger.

You could also do this for larger intervals higher up the neck where comfortable.

HTH, and good luck,
Steve

[Jon C]

I don't have any tips but I admire the he!L out of your perseverance.

[dorfmeister]

Tony Iommi lost the fingertips on his middle and ring fingers in an accident when he was 17. Not the same as losing the pinky but it could be interesting to check out his playing to see his strategies for dealing with that.

[marshall2288]

Thanks a lot guys!