Hand Stretching

I was trying to play scales on my bass and I was just wondering:

If a scale spans like 5 frets, F major first positon for example, when the pinky has to hit the fifth fret, should my whole hand just move with the pinky to hit that fret or should I be working on getting my hand to be able to comfortably stretch towards that without movign the entire hand?

Percussive?

I've always had trouble with this - how exactly do you do a percussive stroke (apologies to all those who are sitting their smacking their foreheads thinking I'm completely stupid. I don't know the correct term for this). Are all of the strings muted with your right hand while strumming, or do you just pull your fingers off of the fretboard a bit?

Hello

Hello all! My name is Sean, writing from Connecticut, USA.

I just recently started coming here after habitually reading Kris' postings on UG and I find everything here has been really helpful in trying to figure out what the hell I do wrong.

I started messing around with playing with a guitar roughly two years ago. I never honestly took learning to play seriously; I used to just sit around and practice chords when i got the chance and attempt to play through various songs I liked.

Now that I am actually bunkering down and applying myself to it and watching insturctionals on the site, I find my alt picking is sloppy as anything, and I have super difficulty keeping my pinky from stiffening up.

If anybody has any suggestions that are not mentioned in the videos (which are very helpful by the way), drop me a line sometime.

Oh, I also own a BC Rich Bronze Warlock, Ibanez AG acoustic and a Squier skull and crossbones bass.