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Needing Help on Lesson 25

J

Jak Angelescu

Guest
  • #1
    Ever since I really watched Jayden play (the little kid that Syn shared the video of) I’ve been more inspired to try things I thought I’d never be able to do because of short, weak fingers and hands. So I came up with a 3 string arpeggio on based off of the A shape arpeggio used in lesson 25. I sweep the G string to the B string to the E string and then I attempted to do a hammer-on pull-off with my pinky on the D note on the E string. So my finger pattern on the high E is index to pinky.
    I like the way it sounds but FUCK it hurt like hell to do it. Like literally it felt like the bones in my left hand were breaking. It’s an enormous stretch for me. I repositioned my left hand and it made it easier and less painful to reach but then using my ring finger was a big issue for the B string note.
    So my question is….
    Is that like a ridiculous stretch for the average player or will it get better over time? Any tips?
    Thanks everyone!
     

    Brian Haner Sr.

    Papa
    Staff member
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    Fucking Legend
    Nov 11, 2019
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  • #4
    So let me understand this. It’s an A shape on the 5th fret? That would be a D chord and you would be stretching from the A (5th fret on the E string) to the D (10th fret on the E string). If so, it’s a big stretch and will probably require some work – but it’s totally do-able. It will just hurt for a while. lol
    Stay with it!
    PG
     

    Kfir Yaakovi

    Hot Topic Tourer
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    • Nov 11, 2019
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  • #6
    Sometimes when I can’t reach a note or play a part of a solo I just create that note sound with my mouth. But this requires accuracy and timing which takes time to master. This is the technique I use to play all of Syn’s solos.. XD
     

    Adin Shepherd

    Music Theory Bragger
    Nov 11, 2019
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    Melbourne, Australia
  • #7
    That’s a pretty big stretch, but with time should become more comfortable. I feel your pain though, I am trying to get comfortable with the 3rd to 7th fret stretch for 3nps scales.
    Make sure you warm up and stretch before you practice it, don’t want to cause yourself any injuries.





    This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by  Adin Shepherd.


     
    J

    Jak Angelescu

    Guest
  • #9
    Thank you all so much for the feedback! I practiced your suggestions today of just giving it a little time and I was able to get it a lot better without pain Because of having small fingers I really always feel like I have to make sure something is actually POSSIBLE and not just being painful because it’s (pun intended) out of my reach.
     

    Firsty Lasty

    New Student
    Nov 11, 2019
    278
    284
  • #10
    “Reach” on guitar is generally just learning to warm up, relax, move in the correct way, and use the correct body/guitar positioning. Hurting yourself is wrong. As I recommend at every possible opportunity on this forum, massage the front and back of your forearm before doing anything requiring reach or economy of motion, and sometimes even every few minutes as you practice. You will NOT notice when your muscles accumulate tension and start functioning poorly unless you’re some kind of superhuman, which I’m not.
    Another shape to explore a big reach on the e string is the D-Shape sus 2 arpeggio. For example,
    index finger 7th fret g string
    middle finger 8th fret b string
    index finger 5th fret e string
    pinky 10th fret e string.
     
    C

    Christopher Lonski

    Free Bird Player
    Nov 11, 2019
    275
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  • #11
    One thing I did to get those really big stretches and to play them comfortably was to physically stretch each set of fingers out as wide as possible with my other hand. It’s kinda like doing the splits with each set of fingers i.e. thumb+index, index+middle, middle+ring, ring+pinky. And do the “splits” in multiple directions/angles.
    The other part is more technique based. It’s much easier to get more reach the lower your thumb is on the back of the neck. Really get your wrist under the neck, and make sure the very tips of your finger come straight down on top of the string perpendicularly.
    A good way to kind of understand where your finger should make contact with the string is tapping your finger on a table top, kinda like this:

    You want to use the hardest and boniest part of your finger on the very tip. The meaty parts will deaden notes.
    Also, here is a little video I did for someone on this forum when it first started about hand position for wide stretches:
     

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