I'm pretty good at self evaluation and determining where my trouble spots lie. I'm hoping someone can point me to a lesson video that specifically targets finger dexterity, strength and stretching. There must be a few exercises meant to only increase dexterity. Seems a few of the chords with baring are giving me trouble for various reasons. Often I need to bar with 2 fingers rather than 3 (my fingers are too large to fit 3 in between the frets). Other times I'm having a difficult time of baring with one and successfully spreading and applying enough strength on 3 or 4 strings. I can usually do the bar and a couple strings at once or 4 strings w/out the bar but doing a bar and a few strings at the same time are giving me repeated trouble. Apparently I don't naturally use some of my fingers independently and need to train/strengthen them into independent action. So that being said if I need to run through a few specific exercises 30-60 min a day for a month or 2 in order to gain the strength, dexterity and flexibility I need then that's what I'll do. Which lessons center on this topic? Something akin to the Pinky strength and dexterity video or the Spider legs exercise. I may just be missing which video it might be on the sight. I'm specifically looking for barring with different fingers then doing something similar to a spider legs with the remaining fingers (if I can even do that at my untrained level).

Boxer clamps like you find in workout sets with jump ropes and stuff can help build finger and forearm strength to make bar chords. It will not help with finger dexterity of course, but it will help strengthen your hand faster.

I'm starting to think its just the porkiness of my finger. The other fingers have callouses on the ends from the chords but the pads are all squishy. My hand is pretty strong I'm pretty sure I could break a few peoples hands if I squeezed full strength. The squishiness and the dexterity issues are whats got me. Do you ever get callouses on the pads?

Hi! I don't think I've seen an exercise tutorial only targeting barre chords like you mention, but it's not a bad idea!

You can try these exercises though, where you go through all chords while staying in one position on the neck. This forces you to practice all kinds of different chord shapes and ultimately strengthening every muscle in your fretting hand.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson....18125&s_id=1391

Also, you can modify this exercise and do it while holding down a barre the entire time:

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson....=14212&s_id=915

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GuitarFoo

No I don't have callouses on my pads, to answer your question. I'm a computer tec. for a living so while I really don't like to admit it, other than the tips of my fingers I have soft office worker hands now.

Thats why I brought up the boxer clamps. Opening and closing them slowly will build indurance and strength. Not trying to say you have week hands, rather it takes indurance to hold bar chords through a long song and the clamps can help build it, plus they do build strength.

Thx for the replies and the links! I'm making an effort to play and practice/replay all lessons involving repetitive finger movements like those you've linked and any other warmup style lessons from the site. I'm considering trying to toughen up my finger by callousing it on the low E string. Seems I can <sometimes> get the F chord to play when I lay my pointer finger on its side completely, almost the full width of the first fret (from the nut to fret 1) at an angle baring the 2 strings. It seems to place my hand in a very weird contorted position but its the only thing that seems to infrequently get it to ring true. I work construction at times and know sandpaper can produce callouses too but that takes quite some time.