Fret-Hand Stretches Exercises - Advanced
In a previous stretching lesson we introduced some of the basics of this technique, including one of the most common and standardized exercises. It has been used by many advanced guitar players. This lesson is for more advanced players who want to increase their stretch even more. More flexibility opens up a lot of possibilities for riffs and chords that span 5 or more frets.
Chord Stretch Exercise
One good way to practice your stretching is just to play a lot of drop 2 and drop 3 chords. These chords often require quite a bit of flexibility. This example uses drop-2, drop-3 and other chord types. Although it's nothing more than a chord progression, it's a good illustration of why flexibility is useful. Each chord (for each measure) should be formed completely before the first note is played, and all notes should be held down for the whole measure.
Standard One-Finger Fret Stretch: Review
This sequence was covered in a previous lesson.
Fretboard Rising Dog: Extreme Guitar Yoga
Key Points
- Absolutely do NOT push yourself beyond your limits. This exercise is a form of physical conditioning and it cannot be rushed. Take it slowly. If you try to stretch yourself more than you can handle, you may end up injuring yourself. Although it is uncommon, musicians do get repetitive strain injuries.
- For all stretching exercises, hold down all four fingers at once. For instance, in examples 2 and 3 above, it would be cheating to lift up more than one finger at a time.
