Posted by four fret stretch on February 21, 2004 at 18:38:12:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: You HAVE to hear this posted by Rick Denney on February 21, 2004 at 17:02:00:
Rick, I can only barely palm a softball, but I can tell you how to do a four-fret stretch.
Start by putting the end pad of your pinky finger on the fretboard. Keep it there. THEN stretch BACKWARDS with your first finger to where you want to be. NOW you have the correct hand position for a fretted instrument. Your first finger, despite your basketball palming, may very well be pushing the string down with its side instead of its tip. Thass how it works, dude. Oh, yeah, it might be somewhat painful for a while. Even after quite a few years of violin playing, when I took up guitar, it still took me three months to be able to play a bar chord; it was partly strength and partly figuring out I had to put the mountains of my fingers on the string, not the valleys. And that first finger on its side, too.
MA