Hi All,
Been working on the finger stretching exercises and I’ve noticed, my 1st finger is super bent LOL when doing the exercise.
I practiced moving my thumb lower and in different positions but 1st finger still stays bend. Will it sort of get better with time as fingers get more flexible?
Good morning, Rachel. That looks pretty normal to me. The first finger does have a tendency to lay over to the side like that.
If you bring the tips of your five fingers together an inch or so over the palm, you will notice they naturally come together to a point at the tip of the thumb.
You can’t really completely change this, so in certain hand positions the index finger and little finger lean and the tips of the middle and ring finger are hard to separate.
Experienced guitar players like Justin have, over decades, minimized this and developed techniques to compensate for it. This makes it look frustratingly like their fingers are different from ours, but they aren’t and theirs still do it to, just a little less and they know how to work with it.
I think if you shift the thumb a little up the neck so it is behind the middle finger, making sure you don’t torque the wrist or bend it inappropriately, you will be able to learn to straighten the first finger a little when needed and embrace the lean when needed.
I don’t see a problem with your 1st finger? Ideally you want your fingertip perpendicular to the fretboard when fretting a note, to avoid muting the strings either side, so fingers that didn’t bend would be counterproductive. That pinky finger, though, looks like it’s playing the 6th string and muting the 5th. You may find if you move your thumb closer to the centre of the neck that you get better clearance and less unintended muting
Hi Rachel,
I agree with @Jamolay and @theoldman66 that your hand doesn’t look too far off, pinky is a bit flat.
As you build the strength and control to widen your fingers on the fretboard, the angle may improve a little. Mine did.
One thing you can examine is some slight movement of your elbow away from your body. Watch how your finger angles change and see if that is something to improve and if it maybe helps. Eventually, you will want to feel comfortable with elbow movement since it will be a great aid to forming some chords.
Hi Guys,
Thanks for all the advice…
@theoldman66 - One day I’ll be able to do that stretch on the 1st fret 
@sequences - It was my elbow (good advice), moved it closer to my body and the fingertips went more perpendicular especially the pinky which stopped muting the strings.
I’ll keep that in mind now when doing the exercise and changing chords.
Happy Days 
More practise here we come
