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Hi Barbara @BarbaraM , I saw this about your middle finger not being able to curl tightly enough and wanted to offer what I learned the hard way. There is more to bending a finger than just bending the finger. I had to get control of a little muscle in my forearm (I kinda start the flex in my elbow, right at the point) to lever my hand ever so slighty backwards to pop my hand bones out thus giving my finger the space to squeeze down. I have arthritis so any extra space I can provide to those tendons to move is relieving. It has taken 5ish years or so to get my muscles and brain all connected. I put the time element out there only to demonstrate it was not a week and done proposition. Even now after 9 years, stretching with the purpose of awakening kinesthetic awareness is about 1/4 of my sessions. Working the flexibility in these tiny tendons and muscles is a delicate practice. The stretching method is different than any I previously used (before becoming a guitar geek). I call it the silly putty method. Stretching barley feeling the tension and waiting until you no longer barely feel the tension, then increase…barely…repeat. When I do it slowly enough I feel a tingling relaxing of the tendons. Stretch slowly and the tissue is elastic…too fast and it starts to resist instead of relax, tightening up if you will…just release tension to where you don’t feel any and reapply less (barely feel and wait) and more slowly. It is a two steps forward one step back process. Give it a try.
Stick with it. It has beneficial carry over into other pursuits requiring digital dexterity.