View the full lesson at Minor Pentatonic Pattern | JustinGuitar
I canāt get there with my pink without resting on the snares. My hands are not so big and I canāt curl so high eitherā¦ (maybe I need some muscle training to get there)
But is it a big fault to do it with my hand resting on the snares to get that pinki up on the highest strings? Or should I try to curl (but that hurts allotā¦)
Thanks
Hi Nathalie,
What do you mean when you say your hand rests on the snares?
I can play the minor pentatonic but my pink is short (2 inch/5cm) and canāt reach to the highest string without touching the lowest snares. But since I donāt need them to ring out it doesnāt matter but maybe it will matter in the futureā¦ that is why Iām asking.
I have little hands. (My 13 year old has slightly bigger hands then me)
I think the confusion is over the word āsnaresā. Weāre not sure what you meanā¦ Iām guessing something is being lost in translation? Do you mean youāre muting strings without meaning to, or resting on frets perhaps? If you could maybe take a photo it would be really helpful.
@animal1dancer
Nathalie, when you say āhighest stringā I assume you mean thickest? But you can manage on thinest two strings? You should try adjusting your hand position. If all has been tried without success, then I suggest you use the ring-finger to play that one note. And in the meanwhile follow some of Justinās lessons to aid in developing stretch. In time your stretch will improve and you may be able to play the note with the pinky
@Goffik I assume this is a translation. Sounds like the word for string in our local language, Afrikaans, which is similar to Dutch.
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Ah, I see. I have a similar issue talking guitar with my Wifeās sister-in-law. The Romanian for guitar string is coarda, which can lead to obvious confusion when speaking in English. 
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Indeed, snares - string (and yes Iām Dutch 
)
Sometimes my head translates in Dutch-English
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Hoi Nathalie, @animal1dancer
Welcome and how nice to see a dutch lady ā¦ in public you are not with manyā¦ maybe you like to let us hear a little more about yourself, ā¦ I hope soā¦ I wish you have a lot of fun here and a fantastic and long guitar journey
Door bij Hi te klikken you find the introducion sectie
Greetings Rogier
Hi Nathalie. Hopefully by this time you have solved the issues with the minor pentatonic pattern. Justin also has a short pinky he sometimes complain about. From what you described I was wondering if you were trying to reach the thickest (top [higher from the ground]) strings while pressing your palm against the lower edge of the fretboard. The fretting hand should be floating close to the fretboard, thumb behind and fingers ready to fret the strings but not touching them until needed. Maybe a reduced size guitar may help if you donāt have already one.
I want to share my experience doing these minor pentatonic pattern exercises. I was expecting than after being able to go up and down the scale playing the notes sequentially, playing the patterns was going to be not so complicated. I added the four exercises to my routine, one minute each, but after my first practice, I realized that they were far more trickier than I expected, and then changed to doing only the first and third exercise two minutes each, and gradually added the two other exercises, also two minutes each. For the three-in-a-line exercises it took me a while figuring what the pattern was as I was reading sets of four notes instead of the three of each triplet. This problem I didnāt have it with playing in 4ths as reading sets of four notes is the way to go. I am not running away of alternate picking but I wonāt attempt it for now, same with using the metronome or making up my own patterns. I will gradually step into that, before heading to Blues improvisation.