How to increase reach/span of fingers

[LiveMusic]

As one who does not have long fingers, I want to be able to reach further. How do you do exercises to stretch further? Any non-playing exercises or playing exercises that help?

[michael saulnier]

I vaguely recall hearing the story that Eric Clapton, (in his Bluesbreakers days), cut the webbing between his fingers on his fretting hand in order to provide more "reach". Can anyone confirm if this is true... or whether this would even work.

 

OW! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/eek.gif

 

My real advice is the same as for stretching any part of the body... Slow, persistent stretching. Slight tension is OK, pain is not. Play guitar parts slowly that cause you to make the stretches you want, and keep track of your reach and flexibility. With enough time and effort, I bet you'll get the results you want... or find a way to play the material in a way that doesn't require the big hands.

 

One of my personal favorites stretches is to play a stretched barre chord. Place your index finger on any fret on the E or A strings, play the fifth with your ring (anular... Ted!) finger, and then add another fifth on the next string with your pinky. This "stacked fifth" chord sounds cool... isn't major or minor, and is movable up and down the neck with various levels of stretching along the way.

 

I found that after a couple of hours of playing with these chords, I had already gotten comfortable with the ring/pinky stretch and could jump to this chord with ease... meaning my stretch had improved.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

guitplayer