Grade 1 - Module 4 - Lesson 1 - Beginner Finger Stretches. I take on board your comments about your little pinky but some of us have small hands, full stop. So stretching the pinky over to the fourth fret just isn’t going to happen.
If I could attach a photo I would but…taking a line from just under the fleshy part of my palm and just above my wrist my measurement to the tip of my fingers are - Index finger 165mm, Middle finger 180mm, ring finger 170mm and my poor pinky 140mm. I know it’s a tad sad comment but I can see from the video your left hand is cupped under the fret nicely and your pinky reaches out ok. I know I have to improvise and the only way to do that is swing my pinky into position and let my index finger and middle finger off the stings. Now…bar chords…hmmmm, I’m on a loser there. Anyway, just had to say some of us still struggle but so far, what a great set of lessons and I will down load the app and pay my dues.
Hi Jerry,
I am not sure how you measure the length of your fingers. Is it from your wrist to fingertip, or from base of the finger at the palm to the tip?
From the heel of my palm to the tip of my pinkie I get about 138 mm. From base of finger to tip is 60 mm. Using the pinkie on the 6th string in fret 4 is definitely not easy and it is hard to get that note to ring clearly, but I can do it, although inconsistently at this point. In earlier days I would have said impossible.
Keep doing the finger stretching exercise. At first you will definitely have to let the other fingers “cheat” a little (or a lot). You will get the very unpleasant “thunk” sound a lot because your finger will not be strong enough to press firmly, especially since you will only be able to reach the back part of the fret. Very gradually it will improve if you keep working on it consistently. You will make tiny changes as your fingers teach themselves how to adapt. Your ability to stretch will improve. Your little finger will get stronger. These are all micro changes, and you may not even be aware of the changes because they really are tiny.
I am not saying this will ever be easy, but I think if you work at it patiently you will be able to do more than you think!
Good luck!
Hi @Jerry61 and welcome to the community.
Little hands / short fingers is a common cause for people to get frustrated or divert from some technique / skill / development.
Initially you may struggle to span four frets on all six strings. you should be able to do it on some strings. Start there. Then build up the stretch-ability bit by bit.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator
Continuing the discussion from Beginner Finger Stretches:
I just want to add to this chat thread and hope it provides encouragement. I just turned 68 and have been following Justin’s course since February this year. When I started the finger stretching exercise, I thought there is no way I can do this. But guess what! After three weeks of practice of 30 minutes, 5 days a week, I can do the exercise. I also notice that the D minor was also hard and my ring finger refused to get out of the way. Now I can play the D minor with the ring finger well out of the way! Just keep practicing, it does get easier and suddenly you can do it. If I can do it so can you.
Great support and encouragement @texasnick 
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
I’m 67 and started in February also. In a few more months we should meet and go on tour! And great news about your finger stretching. Mine still need work.
Well done, Texasnick! When I started a few years ago (at 66-67) I quickly realized that there were a lot of muscles that went unused for a long time. But strength and coordination came back with a little patience and application. Bravo!
#PAPA_G great to hear that old muscles still work after a long rest 
#wmlaven That would be fun for us, not so sure about the audience LoL. #Papa_G says it just takes time and practice
Hi all, my first post here and really enjoying and getting on well with the lessons.
Hit my first hurdle though.
I know small hands aren’t an issue to play guitar as little kids can play it. So just looking for a bit of advice with this exercise.
I have small hands and a really tiny pinkie, Justin mentions his is small, it’s way bigger than mine, mine barely makes it past the first joint of my 3rd finger and it has a bend in it from a break years ago.
When I have my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers on the 5th, 6th and 7th frets on the 6th string that’s fine, but my pinkie just makes it to the 3rd string.
The only way I could do Peter Gunn was with 3 fingers or my wrist very contorted to the extent I felt like I was putting it into a martial arts wristlock.
So should I be contorting my wrist to play the 4th, 5th and 6th strings to the extent that any lower strings would be unplayable as the pinkie has no choice but to press on them?
As that’s the only way I can do this currently, obviously hoping the stretches assist with this.
Couple of pics to help envisage what I’m talking about.
TIA
Welcome, Alasdair.
Firstly, if you intend to be active in the Community then I suggest posting an intro with a little personal background, guitar history, and goals/aspirations in #community-hub:introduce-yourself
On your pinky challenges, Justin has exercises that specifically work on stretch and you will also find over time just through playing stretch and control improves. You will see this in the long-term if you play regularly.
That said, the bend plus length may always make some things either not manageable or uncomfortable, you don’t want to be contorting and stressing as it will lead to injury in the long-term. In that case find alternatives.
For example, play Peter Gunn with three fingers and moving the hand up the fretboard to reach the note that one is ideally playing with the pinky and developing that stretch to cover four frets, with a finger per fret.
For a famous example of this, albeit a guitar legend, check out Django Reinhardt who developed a unique style due to a fretting hand disability through an accident.
Hi Alasdair and welcome.
Also thanks for the pictures as it clearly demonstrates the challenge. If you doing Peter Gunn I assume you are at the end of Module 2 maybe starting Module 3 of Grade 1. The stretches David refers to (well one of them) actually comes up in Module 4 but would benefit you now if you have not seen it already.
Justin talks about starting on the 5th fret but even that can be a little tough to start with. To get used to the exercise and limit the amount of initial fret try starting 2 frets higher at the 7th or even higher. This will gradually open the span of your fingers but be careful to do it slowly and as Justin describes. I still do this as a warm up and start at the 9th fret and work back to the nut.
The other thing that will help with playing riffs on the 6th and 5th string is placing your thumb lower on the neck, I notice in the 2nd pic its at the top on the neck. Having your thumb in the middle to lower half of the neck give you greater range and also help open you fingers up. The other thing is to raise the neck so it is at an angle of about 30 degrees, which effectively brings the strings down to where your pinkie is and places less strain on the wrist.
Hope that helps, let us know how you get on.
Cheers
Toby
Thanks very much, both for the assistance and suggestions. I’ll try them out in my practice sessions this week.
Hi @Al_TheNoob and welcome to the community.
That little finger certainly looks like an awkward little fellow and something to create issues that you will uniquely have to solve.
That said, solutions are there to be found with determination and creative approaches.
For instance, the Peter Gunn riff, and some others in the early beginner course, are designed to be played on the thick E string (the 6th string).
That is not a fixed unbreakable rule.
Playing that riff is meant to be fun - and have some hand dexterity and technique value.
But if you struggle then try playing it on the 5th or the 4th strings instead. There’s no rule that says you can’t.
In general, seek to utilise the exercises that are there to stretch and create finger independence and make your limitations a virtue, not an obstacle.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Richard
Hi all.
I hope, when going for the thickest strings, its ok to touch strings I’m not targeting, and/or touch the bottom of the neck with my palm a little bit. Otherwise I have to bring my thumb down to at least the middle of the neck, and bend my wrist quite a bit (which doesn’t feel great) putting the palm outward to get the reach I need in order to not touch anything I shouldn’t be touching. And I’m trying to not arch the fingers too much if I can help it. I realize we do want to arch the fingers on the thinner strings but I’m not having too much problem there.
Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement!
Stacy Hi !!
This is all about the stretch so it does not matter if you are touching the strings below. In some respects that is good as they would be muted when playing the strings you are fretting.
Thumb in the middle of the neck is also quite normal as you fret the thicker strings. Again don’t worry about the arch, concentrate on the stretch. You can arch to your hearts desire when playing chords, this all about opening the finger span and nothing else.
I have just picked up a couple of basses. My old hands always need a good stretch before I start to get practicing. So I now grab one of my basses and do the exercise from the 12th to first fret. Then practice on the “normal” guitars,
Just do it slow and methodical and you’ll song have a great span.
Cheers
Toby
Hello everyone,
I’ve been working on finger stretches all this week and thinking about the biomechanics of the hands and fingers. What I’ve found from my week of experiments is that most of the limitations to stretching my fingers apart depend on how much I bend the large knuckles of my hand. You can verify that yourself by holding your hand up with the palm facing your face and the fingers spread out. Try bending the big knuckles of your hand and notice how the fingers fold together and you can’t pull them apart. Now keep the largest knuckles of your hand extended and just bend the other two finger joints with fingers extended. It looks like forming the tiger claw in Qi Gong or for those who saw the movie “Liar, Liar” remember “The Claw”. Notice you can spread your fingers apart in this position.
To avoid bending the wrist and big knuckles it helps to drop down the elbow and not wrap your hands around the neck and fretboard and keep some space between the guitar neck and your fretting hand palm. Try bending more at the joints closest to the fingertips and that will help free up spreading the fingers. Another example is to put your palms together and slide your right hand down so that the right hand fingertips are just below the first or second knuckles on the left hand. Now bend the fingers on the left hand and see how you can spread your fingers apart. You can’t keep your large knuckles straight in these exercises, but focusing on using the smaller knuckles or joints for bending the finger tips to the fretboard will allow you to spread out your fingers.
I did this and starting at the 9th fret, was eventually about to spread out the fingers of my left hand at the first fret this week.
I hope this helps for some of you. It did for me.
My suggestion about bending the fingers at the joints closest to the fingertips helps with a short pinkie finger also. I have a 3 inch pinkie, but when I bend the small joints of my index, middle and ring finger but leave the pinkie mostly extended then the pinkie lines up with the other 3 fingers when I am playing 1 finger to a fret. It still takes practice and focus for me to get my pinkie to hit the fret correctly when playing.
I read my description, but even I had trouble following it, so for those of you that have small hands like me, I am including some pictures of what I have found works for me.
Just to show I can relate to others with small hands:
But I have still been able to improve my stretch to cover the first four frets of my guitar:
To illustrate the bending of the fingers to line up with the pinkie start with the hand with fingers spread apart and straight:
Then curl the index, middle and ring finger to line up with the pinky:
To make this even easier I use the illustration of gripping the ball
To make that work for the guitar though, you have to start with the ball resting at the place where the fingers meet the palm, not in the center of your palm (i.e. resting on the ring of the ring finger) :
Then curl your fingers around the ball:
Now the view without the ball
same pose facing you (note that you should extend your pink a little to line up with the fingers:
The next step is BIG - you need to bend at the wrist:
same view facing you:
just move your thumb to the middle for good grip at the back of the neck for classic grip:
I apologize if I have included too many pictures, but I think that this topic deserves a lot of discussion. I’ll be glad to hear from others if you think that I have some things wrong.