Justin, I know that you know but still I'm gonna say it - you are a marvelous teacher! The way you put yourself in our shoes (mentally but also literally by learning to play with your left hand) is awe inspiring for me. The amount of patience, encouragement, engagement, and emotional support is enormous. Thank you!
some tips I have for this would be to make sure your guitar is in the correct posture, if it's tilted so that you can see the fretboard easier then this becomes a lot harder (common mistake). Also remember to move your wrist and the position of your thumb along with the fingers while they're going down, try to keep your wrist relaxed, too much tension makes it harder to move the fingers and causes wrist pain
I know this video is a little older and this may not get seen but I just want to say thank you. I’m am glad I found your channel. I saw your name mentioned on Reddit and you really have helped me. I’m going to work on this exercise to help stretch my fingers. I have big hands and short fat fingers and I was getting really frustrated. Thanks again
Wow, the kind of control you have on your fingers is amazing. I don't see any flying of the pinky from the fret board, nor are any fingers on the board displacing. I am also fighting the accidental pressing of the lower strings. This is the most disheartening stage. But you have motivated me enough to keep going. Thanks alot.
No matter how advanced I feel I've become, I am always returning to one of Justin's lessons for a specific exercise or idea of how to improve. I've been trying out some new Jazz chords that require quite a bit of stretching and it can become frustrating. I knew though, that Justin would have what I needed to get me straightened out.
Any tips for not muting the next string down? I’m muting it every time with my pinky finger so it doesn’t sound good until I move the pinky down to the next string. I’ve tried everything and can’t figure it out
Amazing, mate. I'm getting back into guitar after a 15 year hiatus and I've found I can't do 90% of the stuff I could do back when I was playing more regularly. I have seen this exercise before but nobody ever bothered to explain that it's important to keep the palm horizontal. By the time this video was over I felt like my hand was stretching more and it became MUCH easier to curl my fingers around the fret board to reach the strings.
Thanks again Justin!! You're the first person on youtube to address this issue. It's very frustrating. I keep shifting my hand to make some fret changes. You are special young man!!! You give me hope I can overcome this.
You are awesome! This is exactly what happens to me when I do this . I feel like I can continue trying now that you showed me that it’s ok to do it wrong and to keep going. I’m inspired to pick up the guitar again. Thank you!
There is a level zero of finger flexibility many of these finger flexibility / strength exercise videos start way beyond. As someone picking up guitar at over 50, this video starts at the right level for my stiff pudgy fingers :)
This is a great beginner exercise and it was good that you picked up the curling of your fingers. I was lazy and play the first (high E) and second strings with a flat little finger. It is a bad habit that I am struggling to get out of. As a beginner, I enjoyed watching this one. Also, good to know that you struggled with it left handed. Puts my struggles into perspective.
I started learning a few weeks ago and the G chord is what sent me here specifically. My fingers feel so short and tight but I have hope that with practice things will change! Thank you Justin!
Of all open chords, I had most issues issuees with G and it took me a while. Don't worry! Btw, As part of your study, check www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/the-g-chord-hacked-b1-602 | LievenDV | JustinGuitar Official Assistant
Justin, this is exactly what I was looking for. Stretching my 69 year old bones is rather tough, as is finger independency. By the way ... what is it all about that blanket behind you in all your videos?
The blanket is the thing itself... It started without Justin knowing it until people started to react to it... So he kept it as part of his "corporate branding" :D | LievenDV | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Community Moderator
Amazing exercise,will practice. I was struggling with this. Thank you for showing the way. The guitar tone is very nice. Which guitar is that ? . Thank you very much 😀🙏❤️.
This exercise pisses me off so much -.- Edit: But I think I found some ways to approach this if you really struggle: Start with the e-string, not the E-string. Or start in a fret that's nearer to the body and work your way up the neck.
This is a really tough one for me, I cant avoid trying to place my hand higher to be able to reach some strings and that causing my wrist to hurt really bad
The farther up the neck I go, the harder time I have. Especially reaching trying to reach the low E string. I have short stumpy fingers and would think the smaller the stretch the easier, it it's the opposite for me.
First of all, thanks for a decently explained exercise! And a huge thanks for being nice about failures. I struggled a lot years ago cuz I was afraid of making failures. So this is pretty important to have someone remind you that it's okay :)
Many thanks for this tip I'm having problems playing power chords. And I think a lot of it is because I don't have enough stretch in my finger's, so hopefully this will help 👍
I find my wrist bending 45 degrees when doing this exercise when high up the neck. Is that normal? Or am I using my wrist to over-compensate my finger strength?
Hi Justin, great lessons as always. Could you also post a lesson on bit complex John pettruci finger exercise/runs for intermediate players please. Thanks for all the great video lessons
I am 66,about 1.5 years in. I was an auto mechanic for 40+ years, the job kind of twisted my fingers,especially the left pointer. I need finger spread increase and I need to straighten out my left pointer finger. At least you are not repeating the "easy lesson" line. Thanks.
this is where my almost addiction of stretching, cracking and tapping my fingers way before starting guitar pays off, didn't struggle with this really at all, only small struggle was with going downward while trying to keep my other fingers on their positions on the upper string, I'd sometimes mute the lower ones with them
Thanks for the video! I have a strange problem - I can do this exercise easily on the first four frets, but when I try to start from 5th, I struggle with positioning my pinky on the thickest string. Just a fun observation, because in theory it should be easier. 🙃
You are not alone! Yes in theory it should be easier but if you run your hand down the fretboard you will notice that it gets wider and thicker, making it hard for your fingers to spread out. I also notice that when my hand gets closer to my body, the thumb and the pinky lose quite a bit of strength, adding to the difficulty. Hopefully more practice can help😬
I think it's because when your hand gets closer to your body your hand is in an angle where the fingers start curling outward a bit, meanwhile on the further frets you can put your hand at an angle where they're a lot more comfortable. I also find the first 4 frets to be easier to do this on than 5th onward
i LOVE this Advice! "There is NOTHING Stopping you from Playing Guitar!" that is 100% TRUE! Keep up all the AWESOME vids! and Letting Kids and Beginners know...It JUST Takes Practice! ;)
Hey Justin. I endorse all of the positive comments here but I was just wondering if you could say where the thumb should be? I'm guessing it's straight (not splayed, which is a bad habit I have) but can you confirm this as my (bad habit?) is so ingrained I'm finding it difficult, and would just like confirmation as to the exact positioning. Thanks.
Sometimes I feel like a dwarf being told that I can get into the NBA, if I only try hard enough. That being said, I enjoy playing the guitar and I'll definitely keep stretching and practicing ;-)
I love Justin's knowledge and laid back teaching style but in this video he said he has a stumpy little finger. His little finger is as long as my ring finger.
I wish I had bigger hands. Stretching does help somewhat, but unfortunately there is a limit. All my hand size went into my feet. I have small hands but size 11-12 feet(depending on the shoe).
Hey Justin a very nice session again but my fingers are very small i cant stretch it further will it make me comfort for over and over again with month of practice
hey Justin i just started playing guitar my self but late to party i am 36 when i play i cant stretch my fingers all stuck together lol hopefully theses exercise will help me in long run thanks for all videos
I'm having a hard time keeping my pinky finger from muting the other strings especially when trying to stretch to the 6th string. It is almost flat across 5th and 4th strings. Is the end goal to have each finger only touching one string or preventing the slide up and down the fret board?
i feel like i missed the part about how I make my fingers move to the proper frets. Even on the first string my fingers are all basically touching, so how do I begin to get them to do anything.
I couldn't stretch my fingers out to the frets until I tried a few times but I must admit I probably should've been doing them from the beginning. my fingers are all over the place now.
My problem is that the tip of my ring finger wants to gravitate to the tip of my middle finger. No matter how hard I try it won't move away from it. Anyone else have or had this problem?
I'm a 64 yo beginner and the tip of my index finger curves over to my middle finger. I keep trying but I find myself shifting my entire hand to get to the right fret. Don't give up but use a work around in the mean time.
my pinky doesn't want to stay square to the fret, it keeps bowing outwards and end up pressing the string with the outside of pinky. Any tricks to fix that? I can physically place my pinky correctly with my other hand but as soon as i let go of the pinky it pops out. Very frustrating
thanks for the vid man! Although the stretch seemed to not be really stretching my fingers, and it was easy to reach all the strings on the first fret. Am I doing the stretch wrong? Is there a certain way my hand should be positioned against the neck of the guitar?
The first teacher I saw who actually told that this is not about speed otherwise all other guitarist used to amaze uss with their fantastic speed on the fretboard and me wondering how could I get even close to that
Hey uh, how do I make a chord that spans from 3rd to 7th fret stop hurting? I'm trying to play strawberita by remo drive and that thumb muscle you're talking about is hurting and so is my wrist. The thumb muscle of my fretting hand is like twice as big as on my picking one tho lmao
I measured my hand its 17cm long and when my fingers are together pressed together, the base of my 4 fingers, ie the width of my hand, measure just 7cm I actually think it's physically impossible to do this exercise. to even touch the thickest string with my pinky I need to jam the palm of my hand into the neck. stretching my fingers across frets is possible when there is space between my palm and my the neck but impossible when my whole palm is sticking to the neck. I guess I will be sticking to micro shifting when handling the thicker strings
I've got a short winkie (Whoops! Freudian slip! I mean "pinkie", not "winkie"...!), and I find some chord shapes quite hard to get...particularly the "John Lennon" type banjo-style D-chord.
i have a condition in my fretting hand , its called carpel tunnel, its very light, but its there, like a constant tingling feeling in the pink and ring finger, the pink is frequently missing the string or fret im trying to hit, i have less control in my left pinky , its mostly occurring i want to add a note to a D , any exercises for that?
M a self taught guitarist so joined for basics luckily not even one complete day and half of the course is done . Don't feel bad I practiced it enough to do this moving on forwards and best of luck to all
I was wondering: For some reason my hand prefers doing constant up-picks instead of down-picks. Is there anything wrong or bad about doing that, instead of constant down-picks?
It's not uncommon but try to do them both. Revisit the strumming technique video's to get a solid strumming technique going on: www.justinguitar.com/modules/strumming-techniques-1-2 | LievenDV | JustinGuitar Official Guide
This exercise is really hard because my 2nd and 3rd finger just don't want to sit together. Well, the tips of those finger are almost glued together, but the rest of the fingers repel eachother like they're super strong magnets..
Hi Justin.... I can play chords but not Barre... Also I can sing a little bit.. wanna learn finger style picking and without pick strumming.. let me know what videos should I follow... Do u take online classes also??
Check out this search result, it has several lessons on fingerstyle for you: www.justinguitar.com/advanced_search?q=fingerstyle | justins schedule is filled up alread! | LievenDV | JustinGuitar Official Guide