I have a question for my fret fingers.

How do you place your left hand when playing something like this:

-7-5-3--7-5-3--7-5-3--12-10-8--12-10-8-
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With what finger do you fret the bold notes 5 and 10 ?

I already seen some video lessons of Guthrie Govan and Mark Tremonti, and the play it with their second finger...
But I can't spread my first and second finger so far out of each other... I can do it with my third (ring) finger.

My question: is it a bad habbit doing it with the third finger?
How do you guys do that ?

Hope you can help me!

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Here I've got an instructional video from Guthrie Govan:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7NITzAz_MfM

On 4:30 he plays a scale with index, middle, pinky.
I can play it too, but with index, ring, pinky...

So that's why I was doubting about trying to make my technique like he does...
Maybe for further exercises I get in trouble cause I was used to use the wrong technique..

Anyway, you can play his scale like this (on his video from 4:30):
-------------------------------...------------
-------------------------5-7-8---------------
-------------------4-5-7---------------------
-------------4-5-7---------------------------
-------3-5-7---------------------------------
-3-5-7---------------------------------------

But I used to play it like this:
-----------------------------2-3-...---------
-------------------------3-5----------------
------------------2-4-5---------------------
------------2-4-5---------------------------
-----2-3-5----------------------------------
-3-5----------------------------------------

Actually same scale but with 4 fret principle.

Sometimes I think, why make it different or difficult?

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How long have you been playing guitar?
Maybe your fingers aren't used to such a wide stretch yet.
Try the same pattern on upper frets with index, middle and pinky and move downwards as you progress. You should also try other finger stretching exercises.

Very nice video BTW, I very much liked the joke about Allan Holdsworth.

I use my 2nd finger. If you have trouble fretting it, try turning your wrist more at an angle (side motion) instead of the head on approach (classical style). You will see that your finger will stretch alot further when they can attack the string in a more natural position. If you don't understand, let me know and I'll get some illustrations to depict this.

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Well, around 11 years I guess...
But not really continuously. Last year I haven't even touched my guitar... I moved home, had lots of things to do, busy year.
And before, I wasn't playing that often, a few times a month.
Easy stuff, the beatles, nirvana, ... outlined chord songs.

But now I'm going to play more often, hopefully 15 minutes a day, or a few times a week. In weekends around an hour I hope.
I want to do more practice on more advanced things, arpeggio's, alternate and sweep picking and tapping.

I have some other hobbies, internet, television, girlfriend, making websites, going out, photography,... and still doing stuff like that... so it takes a lot of spare time.
But now I'm going to work on my guitar now more than the other hobbies. I don't live with my parents anymore so I also have to do the dishes, cooking, washing,... You have to schedule and plan your time.

The time you already play guitar doesn't matter, it's how frequently you play that matters. And you have a lifetime for your guitar. You can take a break for 5 years and pick it up again. A hobby. And now I'm going to play more often and frequently. I bought a few books for scales, finger exercises etc...

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It's not at all a bad habit if you do it with your third finger. As a matter of fact when I started out playing I would also finger it the same way with my 3rd finger because I was playing a lot of three-note-per-string pentatonic crap, so more ability was built up in that finger to work. For me it's still a toss-up between the 2nd and 3rd finger for something like that. It really also depends where you are on the neck and what you're going to play next.
I tend to find on the low strings I'll use my 2nd finger and I'll use my 3rd finger on the higher strings.
The ultimate goal is to have one finger per fret, so technically you'd use the 3rd finger because of the two-fret skip. BUT... I would just practice both until you naturally decide what is best for you.

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well you'd place first finger on 3, second finger on 5, and third finger on 7
then, when it's time to play 12 10 8, slide each finger down five frets

or, it might be more comftorable to you to play the 7 + 12 with fourth finger, but it's not more comftorable for me

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Just to add to the confusion, myself I've always tried to use the middle finger for riffs like that, and I've found it a good preparation for when you come to things like
-----------7-12---
-----7-12---------

Then again, my hands and fingers are about as much fucked up as my ankles and have always stretched pretty far. I'd say go with what feels natural and experiment with different fingerings on all new riffs you learn. Eventually you'll find a standard that works for you, and if some busy-body say it's wrong - give them a solo off "Peace sells..." and you're done.

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The 'proper' method would be to use your middle finger, but if you feel more comfortable doing something else, then it doesn't really matter as long as it works for you and sounds good.

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index middle pinky

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its personal refrence in my openion, in this case play it however it comes natural to you, unless its a song with hard transactions (which this lick does not at all) then it wont really matter. p.s. when learning to play other peoples songs or scales..use the fingering they use ONLY as a example but dont try to mimic his movements....only the sounds