Originally Posted by: sycleeHi, I've just joined GuitarTricks. First post here, nice to meet you all. I'm just starting out on the Core Learning System and I have a question.

I'm up to the lesson Lesson 2, 'Look Mom, Two Hands!', 'Spider Legs Warm-Up Exercise'. In this lesson, Lisa McCormick says to practice the scale, but she says make sure to keep all the fingers pressed on the frets as you go up the scale. Don't let go of the first finger when pressing the second finger, don't let go of the second finger when pressing the third finger, and so on.

Now, when I see Lisa do that on her guitar (which she said was a Grand Concert sized guitar), all her fingers, including the pinky seem to cover the first four frets easily.

When I try on my guitar it's a real stretch. I was feeling pain in my wrist from all the twisting I was doing. My posture was all ruined because I had to slouch so much to reach.

Now I'm sure part of the reason is I'm just starting out. And this is the 6th string, which requires the most reaching in.

But could it be that my fingers are too short to ever reach the fourth fret of the 6th string without discomfort?

My guitar is a dreadnought size (Alvarez AD30CE). My hand measures from thumb to pinky at exactly 8 inches. Maybe I should have gotten a smaller guitar?

You do not have to have your fingers planted dead center between frets. For example, most guitar players when making a barre chord place their index (barring) finger close to the fret. Key is to hit solidly between the frets. It doesn't matter where between the frets so much.