Flexibilty For My Fingers? Options

[ChordMaster345]

Hey guys, nice site you got here, and I just bought the one month membership today, and it is EPIC around here.
I was able to learn new stuff faster than I imagined unlike back then. I guess I lack one thing.

Chords and rythm have always been one of my two best friends when I just plug in my Epiphone Les Paul II into my Line 6 Spider 3 (makes a pretty good pair, but not the best), but with scales... I'm OK with it. Until, I found this and learnt a lot of scales, tricks and riffs.

Anyway, straight to the point, I wanted to ask, how can you be more "flexible" with my fingers? It's a bit stiff, ya know...

Cheers

--CM345

[maharzan]

Practice.

Determination.

Patience.

I joined this site some 2 years ago. 6 months went by and I was in the same boat though I was a 'lead' guitar player. I couldn't play fast. It was too late for me, thats what I thought. I was 30. I practiced a lot. Thankfully, I work from home and I have plenty of free time and I grab my guitar whenever I had a chance. Continuous practice is the key. Plus, you always have to push yourself and believe you can do it. I had nothing in mind but to breaking that "wall" I couldn't climb. I haven't been a fastest player yet (who cares) but I can play pretty fast licks now with some practice. Imagine, I couldn't even play Always with Me song by satch which I thought was the easiest song.

Just sharing my experience..

[Todd Simpson]

Well, as I"m always saying, "Do your stretches!" Just like a runner stretches before a run, players should stretch before practice. There are a couple of simple stretches we do each week during our Saturday Video Chat Lesson (5PM EST) to get warmed up. Also, we did a series of lessons on "Playing the Impossible" where we worked up to 7 fret finger stretch as a sort of scale/lick.

In short, add some stretches and play some things designed to work your stretch! Here is a link to all of our lesson notes so far from all 52 Video Chats. Search down the page for PLAYING THE IMPOSSIBLE in the 40 plus lesson range and do join us this Saturday for a video demonstration of our stretches!

In the mean time, here is a vid with a demonstration!

Practice!
Todd

Hey guys, nice site you got here, and I just bought the one month membership today, and it is EPIC around here.
I was able to learn new stuff faster than I imagined unlike back then. I guess I lack one thing.

Chords and rythm have always been one of my two best friends when I just plug in my Epiphone Les Paul II into my Line 6 Spider 3 (makes a pretty good pair, but not the best), but with scales... I'm OK with it. Until, I found this and learnt a lot of scales, tricks and riffs.

Anyway, straight to the point, I wanted to ask, how can you be more "flexible" with my fingers? It's a bit stiff, ya know...

Cheers

--CM345

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Apr 12 2011, 09:40 AM

[Cosmin Lupu]

Hey there mate!

Flexibility is gained in time as all the other guitar playing skills and there are a few exercises meant to deal with the development of finger flexibility. You could try stretching for instance:

1) start by placing your middle finger on the B note (14th fret on the A string)
2) place your third finger (annulaire) on the B note belonging to the G string (16th fret)
3) place your index on the 12th fret belonging to the B string
4) place your little finger on the 19th fret belonging to the E string
5) let your thumb free (do not press it against the neck)
6) hold your fingers in position as accurately as possible - this means that if you were to play the notes one by one or as a chord structure they would sound perfectly clean!
7) Stay as relaxed as possible and see how long can you resist before the pain comes in
8) Stop, get some rest and then try it again and you'll see that in time your stretching abilities shall grow
9) When you're comfy and can hold the positions long enough, move the whole hand one fret lower towards the headstock (this means you're holding 4 Bb notes) how long can you resist in this case?
10) how many frets can you go down towards the headstock?

hope this helps

best of luck

Cosmin

[Ben Higgins]

Hi there.. it's a good topic, and one that many affects all guitarists

Personally, I found that by introducing my hands to the scalar shapes that were 'common', my hand / finger flexibility developed naturally from there. It really is just a case of your hands adapting to what you ask of them. But, as the guys say, it has to be done with awareness so you don't ask too much of yourself too quickly.

I don't want to look like I'm obviously plugging my lessons, but I did a series on legato that is aimed at helping people free up their fingers. The shapes that I use in all of them were the typical 3 note per string shapes that helped get me on my way

This is one of them http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Bens-Land-Of-Legato/ There aren't massive stretches involved.. but by getting adept at things like this, your fingers will be so much stronger and more nimble which will set you up for even more stretchy licks !