Hey,

 

I’m still getting to grips with all this guitar playing, but if there’s one thing that frustrates me it’s my fingers in ability to stretch across frets and stay put! I’m struggling to play Bliz Bop with the 5/7 chord because my fingers keep retracting on themselves if that makes any sense?

 

Are there any basic exercises I can do to help?

 

I’ve seen a 3/5/7 chord in a Linkin Park song I want to learn and thought I may as well give up now if I can’t manage 5/7!

 

Cheers

 

Rob

When I was first learning, I just put my hand in a fist, then stretched all my fingers out as far as they could go, I just kept doing that for ages.

 

 I'm sure there are some more effective techniques though.

I'll defer that this is a bad idea if someone more knowledgeable comes on and says I'm probably doing damage to muscles/tendons, but what has worked a bit for me (and I can do it throughout the day) is to hold my fingers together and wrap a rubber band around two or three of them and work at stretching them apart with the rubber band providing resistance.

 

Don't wrap it so tight as to cut off circulation.  you can do this curling your hand as if you are fretting the guitar or hold your fingers straight.  I do both.  You would be surprised the resistance one rubber band can provide.  If I need more resistance I will wrap the rubber band around three fingers and just stretch the outer two trying hard to not move the middle one at all.  This not only builds mobility, but dexterity and control.

I did a lot of finger stretching (In fact, I still do) whenever my hands were free, and after a couple of years I can see the results which let me play more complex songs. It's only a matter of practice, so the most important part is that you shouldn't give up. Everyone here knows that it's frustrating when you start playing and realize how hard it is, but keep practicing at your pace and I can assure you that you will surprise yourself one day, as long as you keep trying.

 

 

PD: I'm quite sure that this chord you're refering is in a place for my head, and yes, it's a bitch :-P

same chords 3/5/7 etc in the police's Message in a Bottle.  brutal.

Not sure which song I saw it in but its a 5/7 power chord then a 5/9 then a 5/12, Im getting close to the 5/9 after 4 monthes of alot of practicing..40+ hours a week, either way never die or quit, you can do it eventually as Im 45 years old next week and Im getting there. practice practice practice

I really like Justin. Maybe this will help you a little bit. Also if you don't know him already, check out his other vids.

 

Beat me to it! I was going to post that myself lol  :mrgreen:

I will never give up! Learning guitar is a life long ambition! I will try the robber bands :) cheers for all the advice!

Justin's exercice is pretty good, gets your muscle memory up to par for chords.If you are bored at work and dont have a guitar, this is what pianists sometime do:  they find a table and put their pinky and thumb against the edge, and then they push their hand towards the table which pushes the thumb and pinky apart.  You can try doing this with other fingers as well.  It seems like it works as my wife is a pianist and started doing those exercises to reach across octaves on a piano.  She has smaller hands than me and has an easier time reaching across the frets than I do.

There's a muscle that's really important to develop. It's called: Patience.

 

I suppose if you're a kid, it's not big deal if you force things and injure yourself, because you'll heal quickly enough.

 

Still, this problem is relatively easy to overcome: Choose a four-fret stretch of the fretboard. Say from the 8th to 12th fret, since they're close enough together not to hurt your hands, but far enough to allow you to work on your stretch. 

 

Playing VERY SLOWLY, start with your index finger, play the note, keep the finger down, play the next note with your middle finger, keep both fingers down, play the next note with your ringer finger, keep all three fingers down, play the fourth note with your pinky, keeping all four fingers down.

 

When it's time to release the notes in order to go back to the first fret, focus on keeping all your fingers close to the fretboard. Yes, even the pinky. Tell it not to snap back like that.

 

Do this again and again. You can change things up by going across the strings. As your fingers loosen up you can move down to the lower frets. You can move up to the higher frets. Later on you, you can change the order of the frets -- say 1-3-2-4 or 4-1-3-2 or 2-3-1-4, etc.

 

Once you get comfortable, play with a metronome, so you'll be working on your timing at the same time.

 

You'll see: 5-10 minutes a day will work wonders. And no rubber bands!

i watched the video and tried to do it with him, at this time my hand wont reach that far (one finger every other fret) i can barely do the first part, but im working on it

im gonna do this 3 times a day once i nail it, anyone else got some suggestions? im looking into every possibility

i saw this and though id post it

Credit: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/the_basics/4_finger_exercise.html?no_takeover

 

I have been playing guitar now for 6 years & having no lessons I have picked up some pretty bad habits, one of which is that I have only ever been using 3 fingers to play & not using my pinky. So I decided I wanted to ditch this bad habit and came up with a simple routine that I try to play every day to get used to using all 4 fingers. I would say just downpick at first as the main aim is to get used to using all 4 fingers, once you are accurate then try to play each pattern with alternate picking. Pattern 1. - Repeat until you can play every note comfortably.

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||-------4-------5-------6-------7-------8-------9-------10--------11-------||-----3-------4-------5-------6-------7-------8-------9--------10----------||---2-------3-------4-------5-------6-------7-------8--------9-------------||-1-------2-------3-------4-------5-------6-------7--------8---------------||----------------------------------------------------||----------------------------------------------------||---------12----------13----------14----------15-----||------11----------12----------13----------14--------||---10----------11----------12----------13-----------||-9----------10----------11----------12--------------|

Pattern 2. - Same as Pattern 1 but with descending parts added.

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||-------4-1-------------5-2-------------6-3-------------7-4----------------||-----3-----2---------4-----3---------5-----4---------6-----5--------------||---2---------3-----3---------4-----4---------5-----5---------6------------||-1-------------4-2-------------5-3-------------6-4-------------7----------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||-------8-5-------------9-6-------------10-7---------------11-8------------||-----7-----6---------8-----7---------9------8----------10------9----------||---6---------7-----7---------8-----8----------9------9-----------10-------||-5-------------8-6-------------9-7--------------10-8----------------11----||------------------------||------------------------||---------12-9-----------||------11------10--------||---10------------11-----||-9------------------12--|

Pattern 3. - Descending on the high strings, start with the pinky!

|-12-11-10-9-----------10-9-8-7---------8-7-6-5---------6-5-4-3------------||------------11-10-9-8----------9-8-7-6---------7-6-5-4---------5-4-3-2----||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||-4-3-2-1--||----------||----------||----------||----------||----------|

Pattern 4. - Descending from the high E.

|-1-------2-------3-------4-------5-------6-------7--------8---------------||---2-------3-------4-------5-------6-------7-------8--------9-------------||-----3-------4-------5-------6-------7-------8-------9--------10----------||-------4-------5-------6-------7-------8-------9-------10--------11-------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------------------------------||-9----------10----------11----------12------------||---10----------11----------12----------13---------||------11----------12----------13----------14------||---------12----------13----------14----------15---||--------------------------------------------------||--------------------------------------------------|

Pattern 5. - Alternating fingers, get used to the pattern then speed up.

|-----------------------------------------6-8-7-9--||---------------------------------5-7-6-8----------||-------------------------4-6-5-7------------------||-----------------3-5-4-6--------------------------||---------2-4-3-5----------------------------------||-1-3-2-4------------------------------------------|And now back down again|-9-7-8-6------------------------------------------||---------8-6-7-5----------------------------------||-----------------7-5-6-4--------------------------||-------------------------6-4-5-3------------------||---------------------------------5-3-4-2----------||-----------------------------------------4-2-3-1--|

That's about it for now, if you practise these simple patterns often you will get more speed & accuracy with all 4 fingers and it should also build strength in your pinky. Remember you don't want to strain yourself so if you start to cramp up take a few minutes to relax then when you are comfortable start where you left off. It will help to play with a metronome to keep a steady rhythm, if you don't have one then you can use an online metronome here. Remember to enjoy your guitar playing & this may seem boring now, but once your technique is strong you will enjoy your playing a lot more!

thanks guys great help 

By the way ... i've done JHammersleys sample as a CDLC here.