I tend to tense my fingers when i fret a string, so basically when i remove them from the string i catapulte them far away from the strings. On the other side i see guitar players fingers relaxed and just floating or hovering above the strings very near.

 

How do you refrain from moving them away from the strings the same way you would away from a hot pan.

@@Overpopulation It's something you need to get used to, relax and take it slow. When you'll start getting really at ease with fretting an moving around you'll be way less tense and be able to use minimal movement.

@@Overpopulation It's something you need to get used to, relax and take it slow. When you'll start getting really at ease with fretting an moving around you'll be way less tense and be able to use minimal movement.

Are there specific exercises either for guitar or finger stretching exercises for that, or just keep playing and try to be relaxed.

I'm sure there is a lot of exercices for this, but i've never personally done any of that because i find exercices to be rather boring and uninteresting while playing random songs is way more fun and simple to go into.

 

So i won't suggest any specific exercices regarding that but i'm sure google or even the exercices available as CDLC here will be of great help to get you started.

In my experience I use  the riff repeater a lot, I practice in low speed until I do perfect. Then I raise the speed until I feel comfortable.

When I see I'm getting tense in my fingers I lower the speed until I feel comfortable again, practice practice practice, is all what you need.

If you can, record yourself and check what you are doing wrong.