Topic: 3 frets revisited 1 1/2 yrs later

[Don R]

After a few months of guitar lessons I am starting to doubt whether these old fingers will loosen enough to get more than 3 frets wide. I've been pulling on wrenches of one kind or another for over 40 years. Are there exercises that might help or just keep hammering away until they reach?  quitting is never an option. Playing a fender starter kit accoustic right now.

[Caaveman82]

After a few months of guitar lessons I am starting to doubt whether these old fingers will loosen enough to get more than 3 frets wide. I've been pulling on wrenches of one kind or another for over 40 years. Are there exercises that might help or just keep hammering away until they reach?  quitting is never an option. Playing a fender starter kit accoustic right now.

I will tell you this. I am not a pro, but I can play, and I could never go beyond 3. I played for 10 years till I needed money and pawned off all my stuff. Really though I got fast enough to where it didn't matter, though I could do chords. Just keep praticing, you will get it man.

[mlinder]

Hmm, I have stubby sausage fingers and can do 5 frets.

Just exercise and stretch them regularly. Violin teachers had me tap for 15 minutes on the back of the violin every day. Force yourself to play something that requires a 4 fret stretch, keep practising until yo can do it. Then move to 5 fret.

[bucky katt]

i'm in the same boat, i also have a problem controlling where my pinky goes. i cant seem to get it where i'm trying to put it 

[simon#42]

i mostly play in dadgad tuning so the stretches are pretty big , one trick to getting used to using more frets is to use a capo , if you put a capo on say the third fret then because of the way the finger board works all the stretches are smaller , also try to use your little finger more that way you will be able to play 4 frets no problem ! , dont get disheartened these things take time

[bucky katt]

i play in standard tune, i'd say that 75% of my playing is in the first 4 frets as far as chords go, i'm slowly getting a bit better with my hands but i know i'll never be able to really stretch out because of the arthritis in my hands, though playing a couple of hours a day seems to keep my hands a bit mess painful and more mobile.

[Inigo Montoya]

Do you know what scale your fret board is? If I am correct, guitars like fender and those modeled after fender, use a 25.5 inch scale. Gibson and their clones usually use a 24.75 scale. A smaller scale may help you some as the frets are a bit closer together.

Also, I have found that piano music transposed to guitar has a tendency to have some good stretches in it. I used to have a tab for a song by Niccolo paganini and it had massive stretches, one even hit 7 frets but at least it was about half ways up the board!

[bucky katt]

my Stratocaster is a 21 fret, 25.5" scale. the SG is 22 fret 24 3/4" scale. the Danelectro is 21 frets, 25" scale. the Dano has the narrowest neck with the SG having a wide-assed monster neck with jumbo frets.

[tramp]

had to check
i can do 5 on my acoustic
been playing for 39 yrs

[Burke]

Wrist and thumb position can play into the reach as well. Keeping your wrist low and your thumb low or centered on the neck will help. 

[bucky katt]

Wrist and thumb position can play into the reach as well. Keeping your wrist low and your thumb low or centered on the neck will help. 

i have to postion my hand not for optimum hand stretching but for the least amount of joint pain 

[mlinder]

Mine tends to move around. When I unlearned classical violin, I unlearned 'proper' posture and positioning.

[GammaFlat]

As I tell my 7 year old son, "head up", "body flat" which means head of the guitar up and body of the guitar flat against you (not bottom rotated away from your body).  He's got a 3/4 sized guitar (maybe that would be good?!) and is now working on "Pretty Woman". 
(E (open 6th) E (open 6th) G# (6th string 4th fret) B (5th string 2nd fret) D (4th string open) F# (4th string 4th fret) E (4th string 2nd fret) D (4th string open))  He loves to stomp his foot on this one. 

[Don R]

I've been working on old crow medecine show, wagon wheel. It did help with the capo on the second fret. I think keeping the guitar facing properly does help too. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm 57 and never touched one before Christmas but I really enjoy being able to create a familiar sound, maybe someday it will be music. I've been doing the pretty woman theme too.
 At some point I expect to be looking for an electric, not until after race season though.

[jhasewhite]

practice practice practice....

I am a professional guitarist now, but it took me 2 months to even play a clean chord. you'll do fine.

[Retro Rocket]

i mostly play in dadgad tuning so the stretches are pretty big , one trick to getting used to using more frets is to use a capo , if you put a capo on say the third fret then because of the way the finger board works all the stretches are smaller , also try to use your little finger more that way you will be able to play 4 frets no problem ! , dont get disheartened these things take time

Simon, try DADGCD, there are heaps of great sounding chords in this tuning.
My hands are small and i used to cramp trying to just do bar chords, now i can stretch up to 9 frets or more depending on where abouts of the neck i play. The more you try the better you'll get, just try and relax your hand and it will make it easier.

Mick

[azuredesign]

Hi Don,

Glad to hear you're making progress!
It sounds like you're talking about the lowest 3 frets, which are also the biggest.
There is an exercise for increasing finger independence and stretching that someone showed me back when.

Start with your little finger on the [4th string-12th fret](D), your 3rd finger on the [3rd string-11th fret](F#) , second finger on the [2nd string-10th fret](A), and 1st finger on the [1st string-9th fret](C#)

While you can strum these 4 strings, I'd suggest picking each one individually. It's easier to hear when you're not playing a note clearly.

After you get comfortable with this form, move your 1st finger down to the 8th fret while keeping the other fingers on the frets assigned above. Play this for the same amount of time you did the first chord.

Now move the 2nd finger to the 9th fret while keeping the other fingers in position. You should now have the little finger on the [4th string-12th fret](D), your 3rd finger on the [3rd string-11th fret](F#), second finger on the [2nd string-9th fret](Ab), and 1st finger on the [1st string-8th fret](C).

Next move the 3rd finger down to the 10th fret for the same length of time as the other two positions.
You'll have: the little finger on the [4th string-12th fret](D), your 3rd finger on the [3rd string-10th fret](F), second finger on the [2nd string-9th fret](Ab), and 1st finger on the [1st string-8th fret](C).

Lastly, move the little finger down to the 11th fret also for the same length of time as the other 3 positions. You'll have:

the little finger on the [4th string-11th fret](Db), your 3rd finger on the [3rd string-10th fret](F), second finger on the [2nd string-9th fret](Ab), and 1st finger on the [1st string-8th fret](C).

Now you can either start all over again and move each finger down one fret successively, or you can start with the little finger and move it back up to the 12th fret, then move the 3rd finger back up to the 11th fret, then the 2nd finger to the 10th fret, then the little finger to the 9th fret, and you'll be back where you started from.

Here's a video of a fellow playing this but starting 3 frets higher than I wrote above. He only shows the exercise descending, but it's great to try and do it ascending as well. I would suggest trying to shift down one fret to start, then ascending back to where you started as I outlined above. After a while you can go down a couple of frets, then 3 etc. etc.

Good luck and I hope it helps! BTW there are other finger stretching exercises on Youtube that I noticed when I searched for someone to illustrate the exercise.

[Don R]

Thanks! I'll give it a go. 

[simon#42]

i mostly play in dadgad tuning so the stretches are pretty big , one trick to getting used to using more frets is to use a capo , if you put a capo on say the third fret then because of the way the finger board works all the stretches are smaller , also try to use your little finger more that way you will be able to play 4 frets no problem ! , dont get disheartened these things take time

Simon, try DADGCD, there are heaps of great sounding chords in this tuning.
My hands are small and i used to cramp trying to just do bar chords, now i can stretch up to 9 frets or more depending on where abouts of the neck i play. The more you try the better you'll get, just try and relax your hand and it will make it easier.

Mick

thanks mick , will give that tuning a try , luckily for me i have pretty large hands so the 5 an 6 fret stretches are ok , now if i could just improve my tone!

[Don R]

Looks like a rubber ball to start, a few minutes loosens things enough to start, posture helps too. thanks.

[tramp]

play and experiment
try hitting those hard ones
work them into a tune then keep practicing

[bucky katt]

play and experiment
try hitting those hard ones
work them into a tune then keep practicing

+1

thats what i've been doing. with my arthritis i have had to figure out a different way to play. i just keep doing a chord change over and over and over and..............................................

[GammaFlat]

My pinkie looks kinda like that guy's in the video but I think he's doing that on purpose.  Mine was "eaten" by power window motor from a '62 Continental. 

[Don R]

I have some catchy tendons in my fingers that run in the family, like if I put a pill in the palm of my hand I can't open my fingers, after stretching my left hand last night this AM it felt better and was more loose then my right hand. I'm gonna exersize both of them. no JOkes please.

[GammaFlat]

I have some catchy tendons in my fingers that run in the family, like if I put a pill in the palm of my hand I can't open my fingers, after stretching my left hand last night this AM it felt better and was more loose then my right hand. I'm gonna exersize both of them. no JOkes please.

Is it tendons?  I have 2 "trigger fingers".  Both of them are from injuries.  I just hate it when they lock up.  It is very painful to unlock them.  ...but I digress.   All of this gitfiddle talk has me playing my Steinberger tonight.  This guitar is so sweet.  It is 31 inches stem to stern and plays at least as well as my Fender Strat.  You'd usually never consider playing a guitar while in a car or other tight space - not true with this baby.  I really don't care that it does not have a fancy curved body or "pretty head"... it has good pickups, controls and action - it just plays nice.