Finger Strectchin

I am having a lot of trouble getting my fingers (especially my pinkie) to stretch properly to make chords. I am stuck on easy 4 string chords. Any suggested exercises for getting my pinkie to cooperate?

Originally Posted by: rabernerI am having a lot of trouble getting my fingers (especially my pinkie) to stretch properly to make chords. I am stuck on easy 4 string chords. Any suggested exercises for getting my pinkie to cooperate?

Gaining strength & dexterity is a common problem for all levels of learning. And the pinky is often the biggest problem! First, make sure you are stretched & warmed up.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1525

Then, you'll be ready for the secret pinky exercise tutorial. :)

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1292

Hope this helps. Ask more if necessary & best of success!

i dont know what exactly you do in your life but i've been teaching guitar for 6 years now and i've notice that people have a lot of tension in their hands as a result of typing and clicking with mouse for 8 hours a day. also check you're tension while you play. you might be tensing up you fretting hand and not even realizing it. this could tension could prevent you form changing chords and stretching your fingers.

Originally Posted by: jure.golobici dont know what exactly you do in your life but i've been teaching guitar for 6 years now and i've notice that people have a lot of tension in their hands as a result of typing and clicking with mouse for 8 hours a day. also check you're tension while you play. you might be tensing up you fretting hand and not even realizing it. this could tension could prevent you form changing chords and stretching your fingers.

What do you mean by tension in the fret hand? There's going to be some tension from pressing down to make chords, so since I'm new to the guitar it'd help knowing exactly the tension you're speaking of.

Originally Posted by: jang7What do you mean by tension in the fret hand? There's going to be some tension from pressing down to make chords, so since I'm new to the guitar it'd help knowing exactly the tension you're speaking of.

hi man, there will always be a tension when we're playing guitar. otherwise you can't grab a chord or strum with a pick, but it's important to learn two things:

1. you have to be able to relax as soon as you're not playing or holding a chord. this means you have to relax your fretting hand while you're changing form one chord to another. if you're hand stays tens while your finger travel form one chord to another you're hand will sooner or later become so tense that you'll find it hard to change chords. how can you do this. play really slowly and pay attention and try to go inside your body and see what's going on. what are you doing with your left (fretting hand) arm, elbow, how do you place your writs. are you breathing normally while you play? and so on...

2. the other part of the equation is the tension that is unnecessary. and this can really go down to what your doing with your mouth, is you back relaxed, is your abdominal area relaxed. there is a type of tension called sympathetic tension. a lot of time some parts of our body tend to tens up in a respond to some other part of the body tensing up. for example if you know you have a hard to play your left hand pinkie might tens up (or your whole fretting hand might tens up) but on the other side, your right hand will tense up in the respond to your left hand, even thou your right hand has to only strum that chord once. and so on.

so there's really a lot about this tension, that goes on in our bodies, and it's really not about the tension while we play. it is a little. like usually when you begin playing you're use way to much tension to play the simple chords and so on. and sometimes this extra unnecessary tension builds up in our muscle memory and stays there for years.

hope that helps