This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he answers a question about why the pinky finger keeps popping up while fretting.
Here’s a question I got recently: “No matter how many times I practice, my pinky keeps popping straight up. What can I do about it?”
This came in through a contact form, so I can’t say for certain without actually seeing your hand in action — but here’s one thing worth trying: set your right hand aside for a moment and watch your left hand’s movement on its own.
Say you’re fretting the 3rd string with your index finger on the 1st fret, middle finger on the 2nd fret, and pinky on the 3rd fret, one after another.
A common pattern is that the pinky pops straight up while you’re fretting with the index or middle finger.
The pinky just isn’t a finger you move much in everyday life, so when you’re still getting used to it and you’re moving both hands at once, your brain can’t fully control what the pinky’s doing — and that’s a big part of why it pops up.
So: set your right hand aside entirely, go left-hand only, and fret the 3rd string’s 1st fret with your index, 2nd fret with your middle finger, and 3rd fret with your pinky, one after another.
While you’re fretting the 1st fret, consciously focus on keeping the pinky on the 3rd fret from lifting.
Doing this often makes the pinky noticeably easier to control than when the right hand was also in the mix.
Adding more moving parts at once often makes it harder to control things the way you intend. So if your pinky just won’t cooperate no matter what, try isolating the movement by setting your right hand aside and checking your left hand alone.
Hopefully this helps with your daily practice.
A habit like this is hard to fully diagnose from a written description alone — a teacher watching your actual hand can usually spot the exact cause in seconds.
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This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.