5 fret stretch ain’t happening!

Yeah, that’s a tough one. I have a hard time with it too and so I stay away from playing a 12-bar blues. But – having said that – I know I could find a way if I really wanted to.

There’s a few things you can do to make it easier. One is to get a short scale guitar, like 23 or 24″ instead of 25.5″. Or you can place a capo on the 3rd fret or higher and practice like that. The frets up the neck are narrower so everything becomes easier to play. Once you’re really comfortable with that, you can gradually move down the neck and eventually play without a capo.

Another method: just practice anyway. It sounds lame, I know, and Brian makes it look easy but there were many “impossible” barriers in my experience that simply went away with practice. Sometimes a simple hand/wrist adjustment can help or even your whole posture and the way you hold the guitar.

And lastly, find your own hack. For example, I like to play classical pieces once in a while but sometimes the finger stretches on some chords are just ridiculous (for me). So I adapt the trouble chord to my abilities, maybe omit the bass note and just play the top 3 strings. Nobody would notice anyway 🙂

Hope this helps. Remember if there’s a will there’s a way 🙂 Django Reinhardt played jazz guitar with just 3 fingers and I’ve seen a guitarist without arms who played with only his feet.

I’m not sure what you mean, Clem. Are you talking about using your little finger? I play 12 bar blues every day and at no time do I have to reach my little finger up 5 frets.

Clem wrote:

I’ll admit, I got funky fingers ( connective tissue disorder), can’t see how near the end of the beginners course one is suppose to be able to select the “key” with a stretch to 5 fret blues. I mean I cant even get close to holding strings down across 5. OK sound off if you have similar trials.
Clem

Clem

Everyone’s hands are different. Jazz guitar great Tal Farlow has hands so large that he was able to play chords requiring 6-7 fret stretch and as JoLa mentioned, some of us have to find our own hacks, our own way to accomplish things.
As she and Steve mentioned, keep practicing what you can even if it doesn’t sound all that great. Your hands will stretch – some – and you will gain some added strength but look for ways to accomplish what is needed. JoLa mention Django Reinhardt and what a player he was. I posted a video of him playing his famous tune Minor Swing. For contrast, I’ve added a version by Gretchen Menn that gives a good indication of what Django was doing with only 2 fingers on his left hand. Seeing her version makes me appreciate Django that much more

For example, I can’t play the boogie pattern in the key of F in the manner that most do because of the way my left hand is made. Holding the bass note for the B flat chord at the 1st fret, I cannot reach the 6th fret of the 4th fret for the 7th of the chord. It just ain’t happen’! but a little hack is that if I barre the 4th & 3rd strings at the 3rd fret, I’m holding the 5th tone and root tone of the B flat chord. I then play the boogie pattern on the 4th string above that. Its the same as playing an inversion of the major chord. If you are in a band setting, the bass player will covering the low end root note and no one will ever be the wiser that you aren’t doing it as Chuck Berry did unless they look at your hands and if they are that much of a perfectionist, that’s their problem. LOL
Alvin Lee of Ten Years After said in the early days in London people would criticize him for not playing a song note for note as it had been recorded by Elmore James or some other blues great. Alvin as a rebel in music and believed in “shooting from the hip” – his own way of doing it and we each have to find that voice

As Tony Horton says in the exercise program P90X – do your best and forget the rest