Needing Help on Lesson 25

[Jak Angelescu]

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!

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I imagine you’ll stretch to it.

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

You will stretch it out eventually Jak! It might take some time though.

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

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

 

[idssdi]

It’s mostly just a pain when you first start doing it. After a while your muscles should get used to doing the stretch and you can do it comfortably.

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

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]

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.

 

[D K]

It might be easier if you fret the notes on the G and B string with your middle finger instead of your ring finger.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

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]

“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.

 

[Christopher Lonski]

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: