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Difficulty Reaching Frets
Just starting out. I found today that I couldn’t reach the 2’nd and 4’th frets with my index and ring fingers (as Tony showed in his video). I had to use my index and pinky fingers instead. Can anyone recommend any stretching exercises? At my age, I’m not certain my tendons will ever stretch enough. Thanks.
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This discussion was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
TomJabz1973. Reason: Typo
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This discussion was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
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10 Replies
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Improving your reach takes time. It’s fine to use your pinky in most cases although most people struggle using the pinkie in the beginning because it doesn’t have a lot of strength
Tony has a stretching routine in the Skills courses, it is less about up improving your reach but does help.
Another thing to pay attention to is your technique. Lower the thumb on the back of the neck, and make sure your knuckles are parallel to the bottom of the fretboard by moving your elbow close to your side. If your knuckles are not parallel it is very difficult to get the stretch needed (it took me 9 months to figure that out).
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This is one that really helped me a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2onjflSqHNo&t=40s-
Hey Peter thanks for posting this I am adding this to my daily practice.
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You’re welcome, glad you found it useful. In the beginning when I was just starting out this routine helped me so much when I couldn’t play certain chords cleanly. For example the C, G and B7.
But I discovered I was messing up my E chord, which is actually a simple shape that I thought I had fully learned. Not so! The G string was getting muted and I hadn’t noticed it at first since you’re strumming all 6 strings. But if you transition back and forth from E to E- and don’t hear a difference, that’s a problem.
I would do this exercise, usually 20 reps for each pairing of fingers, and then come back and suddenly I could make the shapes so much better and play with less “thud”.
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Hey there @langerking, that is one heck of a finger exercise lay down. Going to add this to my routine for sure.
Thanks for posting
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<div>Justin is great.</div>
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I like this as well, Paul! You can feel the stretch right off the bat going for the low E but it’s also very quick to run through so I’m more likely to do it.
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@TomJabz1973 All the stretching exercises are helpful but if you want an instant gratification push in the right direction, try tuning your guitar down a full step
(D-G-C-F-A-D) and then put your capo on the 2nd fret. You will still be in standard tuning to play along with Tony’s video, or with anyone else, but you will also not have to stretch your fingers as far to reach the notes because you’ve just eliminated the 2 longest frets. Also you have instantly lowered the action so it should be easier all around. And why not make things easier where ever possible???
Hope this made sense and hope it helps!!
C
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Ooh! Sneaky! I like it!
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Thanks for posting Peter, I will give it a try.
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