Fretting hand flexibility: 'Spider Legs' exercise

I'm a complete guitar novice, and I'm struggling with making my fretting (left) hand work properly. Specifically, I'm failing at the 'Spider legs' exercise (Link=> https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=22141&s_id=1777)

The basic intent of the exercise is to get one finger per fret for the first four frets for each string, keeping each finger 'down' on the fret as you continue adding frets. I've been struggling with even the first three fingers/frets, and failing completely on the lowest strings (E and A). With three fingers down (assuming I manage it) I'm pretty much guaranteed to be touching 'the next string over' as well as the one I'm playing.

I spend five minutes with this dang Spider legs warmup a day before my hour or so of lessons and practice, and my progress is minimal. I'm in my 50s, so I'm sure my flexibility is shot, but is it 'normal' to struggle this much? Should I persevere?

Hi Kelly,

Yes perservere. I am kinda new to playing, I played many years ago for maybe 6 months, now I have started playing I am now 42. I joined guitar tricks and even though I know most of the basics in Lisa's course at least the 1st fundamentals, I have picked up many tips I did not know and Lisa has been great.

With the spider exercise, I still have the same issue as well, I find the finger stretching exercises that Lisa mentions work, but what I have found is don't go too fast, slow it right down and look at the fingerboard and try as hard as you can to hit each note deliberately, if you speed up too quick you miss the notes, go slow and keep at it :)

Yup. Go slow. Painfully slow. Concentrate on form and placement.

All of us learn and progress at a different rate; some faster than others, some slower (raising my hand here). But it [u]will[/u] come.

Good luck. [u]Have fun![/u]

Clarky and John:

Thank you for the response and the encouragement!

Flexibility is definitely a struggle, but now I know to just keep at it, slowly and surely. What I need is probably two sets of eyes; one to watch my picking hand so I hit the right string, and one to watch my fretting hand so I get those darn fingers where they need to go.

Aw, heck: if I'm asking for extra eyes, maybe I should be asking for natural ability ;) But I'll try not to beat myself up too much.

One thing I've found that seems to help: taking a break and going to play a bit with Yousician. I find that when my lessons here on Guitar Tricks get a bit 'stuck' that keeps me plinking at the strings rather than throwing my hands up in disgust at my own lack of progress :)

Do we need to master the spider exercise before moving on to the next lesson? I'm worried I'm just going through the lessons and not sure how proficient I should be before moving on. Any suggestions?

Hi Kelly,

I am in kind of the same boat.

I am 53 and started GF 1 in October. I have giant monkey hands but was having problems with the spider drills. I would do them each practice session until we got into chords and i started focusing on functional flexablity and reach for the chords.

Yesterday, for grin and giggles, I did the 'ole spider drill and flew through it, frontward and backward without any issue. I was shocked that this gave me a hard time.

What is the take away? Stick with it! Let it happen and and have fun!

PS a couple of ibuprofin before practice helps too! :) :)

Originally Posted by: akolodin2

Do we need to master the spider exercise before moving on to the next lesson?

Akolodin, I'm the exact opposite of expert, but my understanding of the spider legs exercise is that it is like a 'warm up': something to spend five minutes or so doing at the the start of your hour long lesson.

I.e.: you don't need to 'master' it before moving on- it should be part of your daily workout. My problem is that I don't seem to be getting better- but from what other folks have said on this thread, that is a pretty normal feeling.

Mastering something is what you'll do throughout your life as a guitarist. As good as you get, there's always something you can't or haven't done. It's like juggling; first it's two balls, then three, then four...then chainsaws! Hehe...you get the idea. Always one more thing you can add to your bag of tricks.

With that said, don't hope to master something before you continue to play or learn.This is a Guitar World video posted today from Steve Vai on starting out. It's instructive but the key thing he says is that it is important to listen to what you're playing but also, just to play something you enjoy, even if badly to start. Don't let the idea that you haven't mastered it stop you from trying and enjoying.

The point being is to not worry as much about mastering something as to getting better at it. For instance, the issue with touching the 'next' string when fretting the third (index) finger. Yes, you are doing that now. Honestly, if you're not used to a pattern of something, that kind of always happens. Eventually you'll learn how not to do that. Not from a magic trick but by repeating things you practice. Your hand mechanics are different than mine. Our issues wouldn't be exactly the same. But practice teaches you how your hands work.

Oh, and this: "I'm in my 50s, so I'm sure my flexibility is shot". Unless you have arthritis, this is probably not true.

I sometimes give an example from my experiences...and for today's installment!

See this post from a few weeks ago. New guitars (a new Taylor too!) and yet....I hurt my wrist. It's been a longer recovery than I would have liked but I started with playing a little guitar and steadily improving.

For my church's Christmas program, my wife and I wanted to perform the First Noel. Easy enough with four chords cycling around (G, D, C and E). But a pain to practice when your outer wrist/pinky are stiff and ouchy. I've played guitar for a long time and those chords are a walk in the park..unless you can't seem to position your hand just so without yelping 'ouch!'. I trudged on and lo-and-behold, we did it. But it took some doing and given that it would have been otherwise pretty easy, darned frustrating to not be able to do it at first.

Now? I've decided I'm going to arrange 'Christmas Eve in Sarajevo' (TSO) for two acoustic guitars for next year. Guitar playing seems to be something of a rehab anyway so I'm rolling with practicing as part of rehab. It's hard to play some parts where I need a little more pinky extension and speed but, to my point above; I know my pinky ain't quite there yet so I continue to work on it and steadily improve. I'm still just learning and breaking down parts of the song so it's not like I'm in full performance mode. Just getting my hands back to speed.

That's the point. I can say that I am learning a harder piece of music and that's neato and all but the real point is your struggles and my struggles are still the same. The only real advantage I have is time playing but moreso, knowing that by stickin' with it, it does eventually come (back) to you and me.

hi there, my advice dont worry, I didnt start learning until 69yrs young and spent six frustrating months in music college one hour a week. I eded up packing up and have just become a member at gt, and already feel energised bythere methods. But getting back to spider legs it will come with practice. I found that doing finger stretches half an hour before practice then starting my warm up with spider legs helped a lot. regards Lou

Some awesome and encouraging comments here since I last checked- thank you folks!

I particularly like JeffS65's note, especially the words about not focusing on mastery before trying something different. That's a good piece of advice which is sometimes easy to forget. And I've found, even with my limited time practicing, that the 'break' of trying something different sometimes has a magical side effect. I.e.: a few days later, I come back to whatever had me stuck and it is suddenly a lot easier.[br][br]I've been at this learning guitar thing for about six weeks now. Its slow, I get angry some times at my stupid fingers, but... I think I'm almost detecting progress ;)

Hi there!

I think I belong on this thread in particular. Im 54, and just starting out. Ive tried in the past with youtube video tutorials, and gave up. I think this method on GT is a well rounded methodical approach, which no doubt increases your opportunities to succeed.

I found the spider legs exercise nearly impossible, on my first time trying this exercise yesterday.

I understand that coordination comes with time, and hopefully the flexibility comes in time as well.

Good comments here that help me understand that mastery of each step along the way isnt required to progress to the next step. I'll keep at it, trying my best on the spider legs drill each day.

Good luck Kelly, and hang in there. Seems the measure of success is not necessarily mastery of each exercise along the way, but an exercise that challenges, and simply helps in the development of skills, flexibility and coordination along the way.

Chris

Also a remark from my side. For me that excercise was also impossible at the begining. I was like: Now way! Human hand can't strech like that![br]But on all the videos it came so easy for experienced people so I forced myself.

First few days were hard but then it becomes easier and easier. Just don't treat it like something that you must master right away. Do it one or two times a day and it will become piece of cake.

I'm glad to see this discussion. I thought it was only me! The downtown song I can sort-of kind-of do ok, but those spider legs, especially on the E and A are hard.

Extra glad to see the 'it was hard but with practice it got better' comments; at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

I've been at this whole thing for about a month. I started out on a different site that went directly into most common power cords before making the jump to GT. Almost everything up to the 5 power packet is pretty new to me. I'm stuggling with the single finger cords and the transitions as well as spider leg excersie. Yet, I can jump up to power cords and keep up with Lisa no problem? I did spend about 3 weeks on another website just playing the 5 power cords and the wealth of 80's and 90s rock songs that I heard through strumming the cords.

All in all, keep progressing through the lesson. The Spider Legs Exercise is not the meat and potatoes of guitar. At least I hope not. It's just an exercise warm up, to prepare your fingers for the task at hand. If you look at the beginner page of lesson, just under guitar fundmentals one, there are 3 extra boxes. Click on the pratices box, on that page you will see exercises, check out stretching video. Add that to your list of things to do every day, and right you sit down to play. Use the Spider Leg Exercise to warm up, as well as your list of notes and cords learned in previous lessons. I don't use the videos every day, sometimes you just have to learn at your own pace. I started making my own drawings of the cords, in the same arrangement of the songs Lisa prepared. And just sitting in my play area, and working on the songs with out a video. If you get bored, change up your strum, instead of strumming each note 8 times, change it to 4. If you want to pratice changing cords, hit each note twice then change. Nothing say's you can't move on to the next lesson and try to add another tool to your bag. When you get frustrated with one set of notes, move forward or back and just change it up for 15 minutes.

My go to is the intro notes to "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica. All you need is your right hand and its 4 open cords on repeat. It's just a nice, easy, calm melody to play. When I get frustrated with my left hand or my right, I put the pick down, I sit back relax and pick out those cords for a few minutes with my finger. I've been playing that tune for over a month now, that I pretty much end every pratice session with it. No matter, how frustrated or backwards my lesson turned out for the day. Its the one thing I can end my pratice with that sounds exactly like the song.

First 8 seconds of the song is all I know up till the first E cord on the fretboard. I play it over and over again. The link is the complete walk through, however if you fingers get tired and your just flat out frustrated, give the melody a whirl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7silbMA9UME&list=PLzAbzNpL5avGq9bsR_KU5JrSMXuZbnePO&index=1&t=31s

Hi,

I just came across this post. I'm 48 and been learning for 2 weeks now and am in the same boat. Tell me you got through it after 3 years are now playing effortlessly. It just seems I'm never going to get it[br][br]

Originally Posted by: cserwin1047

Hi there!

I think I belong on this thread in particular. Im 54, and just starting out. Ive tried in the past with youtube video tutorials, and gave up. I think this method on GT is a well rounded methodical approach, which no doubt increases your opportunities to succeed.

I found the spider legs exercise nearly impossible, on my first time trying this exercise yesterday.

I understand that coordination comes with time, and hopefully the flexibility comes in time as well.

Good comments here that help me understand that mastery of each step along the way isnt required to progress to the next step. I'll keep at it, trying my best on the spider legs drill each day.

Good luck Kelly, and hang in there. Seems the measure of success is not necessarily mastery of each exercise along the way, but an exercise that challenges, and simply helps in the development of skills, flexibility and coordination along the way.

Chris

hi Chris,

tell me you've mastered the guitar now. I'm 48 and having all these same issues. It will be motivating to hear others like me can get through it

I am on the spider fingers exercise as well.

One thing I have been doing to break it up a little when I struggle is to do a little practice with just the right hand. I close my eyes, think of a string sequence, for example 2,4,5,6,3,1 and try to pluck each string in that sequence.

As well as adding a little variation, it's helping me find the various strings without having to look so much. That means I can focus more attention on the left hand and the finger positioning when I go back to the main exercise. It seems to be working for me as I can feel I am getting a bit better each day.

Hope that helps.