It’s been a year and I still cannot do a 4 finger monster G chord…or much with my pinky at all on the G and D string…Grrrrrrr…
It's been a year
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I wear a medium cadet golf glove so have a fairly small hand and short fingers and also can not finger the G cleany (and I have been playing a dozen years) . But I find that it is not terribly important to finger it perfectly clean if you are just going chop it anyway. I confess that I have not spent all that much time trying though.
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Hi Keith, Congrats on your first year anniversary. I am not a mandolin player but it took me about four years before I could get movement/stretch on my pinky in order to play the Em licks on the banjo. But through patience, persevere and lots of practice eventually I got there.
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That’s a great point. I remember working to clean up that chop chord and then when I started playing it a bunch, I just liked the sound of the lower pitch strings better anyway.
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I’m going to do a mando rhythm lesson next week and address some of this!
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Thank you sir! I know you said that you just laid the neck in the palm of your hand and curled your fingers around…and that it also only took you a couple of hours…you sir …are not of this world!
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Where did I say I laid the neck in the palm of my hand? I tell folks not to do that 
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You are correct. You didn’t say palm you said: “That part of the finger” - Basic Mandolin Rhythm -3
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Okay, good deal because putting it in your palm would cause the big chord to be impossible to reach–can you post a pic of your left hand for me to see?
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I will when my wife get’s back from out of town. She has the camera!
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Hand/wrist position is probably the main issue if you can’t make the full chop G. I have relatively normal-sized hands and was able to make the full G chop chord instantly upon picking up a mandolin for the first time. If your wrist is positioned too far towards the headstock, you won’t be able to reach all the frets.
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Oooohhhhh, the anticipation of a rhythm lesson. Yikes!
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I think I might have found something that has helped me at least. Instead of the monster 4 finger G chord I have been practicing it up in the A and B position. This makes it it a tad bit less of a stretch and my pinky is starting to come around a bit. I have a long way to go but it is getting easier to at least get the pinky trained to go where it needs to go.
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