The Gathering

Can anyone send, or recommend music specifically to help exercise the fingers (especially the 4th). I'm struggling not only to stretch the 4th but play with it when it does stretch.

(26-10-2010 05:16 PM)Beginner Sandra Wrote: [ -> ]Can anyone send, or recommend music specifically to help exercise the fingers (especially the 4th). I'm struggling not only to stretch the 4th but play with it when it does stretch.

I'd say that the key point here Sandra is the one you make right at the start - exercising the fingers. Our 4th fingers are generally the least used and therefore weakest, so require careful coaxing to bring them into use. On the mandolin I find that I tend to use the 4th much less than on the octave mandolin or my tenor banjo; this because of the shorer scale of the mandolin which allows us to cover 2 frets with one finger. Warm-up your fingers by gentle stretches first and if you feel discomfort do not push yourself - gosh, I sound like an HSE official now!
Play scales across the strings and use your pinkie on the 5th fret rather than your 3rd finger - e.g. G major on the 4th and 3rd strings is - String 4: 0,2,4,5 String 3: 0,2,4,5. Move to strings 3 and 2 and with same frets and fingering you are playing in D major, and on strings 2 and 1 you are playing in A major. Apologies if you already know this, but it is a good wee exercise.
A tune I was playing the other day, Coleraine Jig (in A minor) uses the 6th fret on the 3rd string (G#) and would be useful for training your pinkie, as would any other tunes which have C# (4th string),G# (3rd), D# (2nd) or A# (1st). It also has a run of E, F# and G# on frets 2, 4 and 6 of the 3rd string.
Hope this helps, and I will try to think up a few more tunes which give you stretches. You can e-mail me if you like and I can send you some Scottish and Irish tunes I have transcribed in standard and mandolin tabbed notation.
Interestingly, I have two young teenage pupils whose smaller hands mean that they are more ready to use their 4th fingers, and they have the advantage of being very flexible at their tender years, so can get their hands into shape at the right time in their playing development, though even they find the 4th finger is a reluctant participant at first.

Thanks John, I'll start practising those specific scales and try to build some "pinkie muscle"!! All music contributions are gratefully received so I'll email you separately.