They have for me to different degrees based on how hard they were and how different.
Peter Gunn is still a favorite I use to just do something or to work on timing when having a bad day!
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To allow all fingers to come close to their individual fret, a capo in the third fret helps, and once this way starts to have what I do sounding like the theme, I will move the capo to the left every couple of weeks till it runs out of frets. Makes sense to do this?
You can certainly do that. Be careful that you do not avoid the exercise part of this. You want to get your hand accustomed to reaching. If you make it too easy then your capability will grow slowly. Keep a safe balance between the stretch and causing too much stress on your hand.
On the guitar I have that is a medium scale length, the improvement you are getting is about 3mm (0.12 inches). It is not a lot. Are you being too detailed in perfect placement? Are you not giving your hand enough workout? Think about these things.
Yes, I shall be mindful of all you say. Even with the capo, the little finger just about gets to the wrong end of its fret so getting it to the right end that will produce a good note is itself going to be a large stretch. With my guitar if the finger is not close/adjacent to the correct fret, the low notes suck. The other thing is that the little finger needs to stop flying away from the string as if there was an electric current running in it, and that is another thing to deal with. Capo or no capo.
There are exercises to help get control of that. They come later in the lessons in various places. One towards the end of grade 1 (air changes), another in grade 2 (pinky workout) that I can remember. These kinds of exercises help to gain fine control over your fingers. It will happen, so donât get too concerned about making it happen now. You cannot practice everything you need to learn starting day one!
It is good to notice a flying finger and work to keep fingers relaxed. One thing that helped me was to realize that I didnât really need to actively pull up on my fingers - if I just stopped pressing, they would generally come off the string into a relaxed position. Sometimes they needed a little active control, just not a lot.
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This is the best exercise for finger control.
https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/minimum-movement-exercise-te-102
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Thanks; I see that this is part of a set of very relevant exercise work for technique. I am not sure that there is any suggestion as to when to weave these into the beginner lessons sequencing.
My pinkie seems to fly as if that movement is needed for one of the other three fingers to work. Very irritating to see.
The sooner you can start working on finger control exercises the less bad habits you need to break later on. So if you have a 5 minute slot to fill now would be a good time.
So, on this finger minimum movement exercise I see a new hurdle - to learn to first play a scale pattern. Question then is how to instead use just this Gunn riff to do the exercise while the riff is being learnt, but then the question becomes this: Doing the minimum movement exercise properly is going to need slowing down the riff to just a collection of notes if that is needed for finger movement control to start working. So does it make sense to do just that for some time, and then for a similar time, practice the riff at whatever speed can be achieved, flying fingers and all? Similar principle to chord perfect practice and one minute chord changes drill?
Not yet unless you want to. Sometimes you will want to adapt a lesson so that you are practicing the lesson but not the exact same song.
This sounds like you have the right idea. In general, exercises are initially NOT music. You can adapt something musical when it fits the intent of the exercise well.
Yes. you are doing two different exercises here. one is finger control, one is timing and stretch. You may be able to add finger control to the riff, but youâd need to slow it enough it would eliminate timing.
If your fingers already can reach all the frets then yes you can use the Peter Gunn theme for the minimum movement exercise. If your still working on the stretch part then just be mindful of what your pinkie is doing and try to control it.
This will in a round about way be doing both exercises together. Justin also recommends when learning something new to do it slowly and get it right. So if youâre just learning the riff you should be doing it slowly which gives you the opportunity to make your pinky behave.
Thanks, gents; So I will use Peter Gunn for growing both the skills, and bring in the larger finger control exercises when the scale lessons come up as part of the training course sequence.
As many of us, my pinky is⌠well⌠acting very inappropriately 
But I noticed that thumb placement is important, and helps me a lot to have that finger stretching.
Iâm used to place the thumb around the neck 
and this clearly does not help.
Okay I have long hands, but believe me that can lead into other issues, too. 
Like : where do I place these long fingers so they donât interfere with others cords? 
Straight in the air ? 
But, most important thing, today the pinky was at the right place half of the time. The pressure was inadequate, thought.
Did Justin mentions once âpractice is the keyâ? 
edit: typo
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Can we suggest songs that we would like to play?
Iâve reached this point. Pinkie cant get across so iâm moving my hand along slightly to reach at the moment.
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Welcome Paul! Youâre early in your journey, so this is not surprising. Soon enough Justin will introduce some exercises aimed at increasing your reach. Carry on in the meantime, and of course make adjustments when they are suggested. There is always a good reason for those suggestions!
If you have a minute, consider introducing yourself over on this topic.
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Very fun little riff for a beginner, particularly because itâs bassy. It definitely gets the individual finger movement going!
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I also highly recommend the intro riff to â25 or 6 to 4â of Chicago as a beginner exercise for individual finger fretting.