3 or 4? 4ths?

[billbowen]

how may fingers are you using and why? i use 4 fingers/one per fret on my left hand when playing normally. touchstyle it seems much more difficult to use my pinky, especially on my right hand. but making 3 and 4 fret stretches between 2 fingers is awkward and not so smooth (like when i am playing 4ths legato, say c to f to ab.) i can relieve a lot of this awkwardness by planning out my fingerings very carefully, but this doesn't work well for improvising. also, i am alternating between playing 4ths with alternate fingers and doing a 5 fret stretch between my index and pinky. but the pinky is so weak!

[jean_alexis]

Well I started playing a 8 strings long scale instrument a year ago.

I'm using 4 fingers in each hand (I tried the thumb but with no success so far).
I have played piano for 20 years now, so the pinkies are strong enough (especially in the right hand), especially since you don't have to use much strengh to tap on the strings. I play uncrossed with the bass in right hand.

I do agree that some stretches are difficult to play legato near the neck. For instance the pattern 1-4-5-1 (C-E-Eb-F).

As for fingerings, I really don't think about it unless I have difficulties. I usually use whatever finger is available and close to play the next note and it works. Especially if you want to repeat the same note legato, you have to use another finger to tap the same fret. So often you can't keep a finger on the same fret for a long time.

These are my experiences so far.

[rpmartino]

For melodic/improvisational playing I use 3 fingers on the melody side, and add the pinky for more chordal/rhythm oriented playing. The three finger melodic approach seems to work the best for avoiding tricky fingering situations and seems a lot more fluid (Emmett Chapman and Greg Howard promote this technique).