Guitar players need to have flexible fingers to master all those different licks and riffs. Insufficient finger flexibility is one of the biggest things that can halt your progress and make the whole experience more frustrating and even painful.

But you don’t need to have long, sleek fingers to master guitar playing. As long as you remember to regularly stretch your fingers, you can ensure you learn the more difficult chords and keep your fingers in good shape. These simple stretches are perfect for improving your finger flexibility.

Warm Up Stretch

Before you start playing, it’s a good idea to warm up your fingers. This simple stretch is both great warm up exercise as well as a stretch to do even when you aren’t about to play guitar.

Simply place your fingers one at a time on top of a table, or other flat, sturdy surface, and gently press the finger against the table. You want your finger to slowly bend backwards. Don’t over do the bending or force your finger to an uncomfortable position. After you’ve done each finger, gently squeeze your fingers into a fist and open wide again.

Use the Guitar’s Neck

Before you play a few stretching exercises on the guitar, you can use the guitar’s neck for a quick warm up stretch. Hold the guitar and create a V shape between two fingers (for instance, your index finger and the middle finger) by having the guitar’s neck between your fingers. Then gently push the two fingers apart. Do this for all of your fingers and hold the stretch position for 15 seconds.

After you’ve done it with all of your fingers, you should wiggle your fingers around a bit.

Simple Chords to Play

After you’ve done the above warm up stretches, you can play a few exercises with the guitar. These simple notes will help you ensure your fingers stretch into the difficult positions required by some licks and riffs. Make sure you know how to read tabs before you start!

First Example

The following tabs show you the notes to play. The numbers on the tab represent the fret you need to play. The specific fret will be played by the following finger:

12^th fret – index finger

15^th fret – third finger (ring finger)

16^th fret – fourth finger (pinky)

———————-|———————-|———————-|–12—-15—-16–|

———————-|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|———————-|–12—-15—-16–|———————-|

———————-|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|–12—-15—-16–|———————-|———————-|

–12—-15—-16–|———————-|———————-|———————-|

Second Example

This example also has other frets you need to play and you can choose the finger you want to use to play them. But again, the 12^th, 15^th and 16^th fret are played with the specific fingers mentioned above.

———————-|———————-|———————-|–12—-14—-16–|

———————-|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|———————-|–12—-14—-16–|———————-|

———————-|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|–12—-14—-16–|———————-|———————-|

–12—-14—-16–|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|———————-|———————-|———————-|

–15—-13—-11–|———————-|———————-|———————-|

———————-|–15—-13—-11–|———————-|———————-|

———————-|———————-|–15—-13—-11–|———————-|

———————-|———————-|———————-|–15—-13—-11–|

Third Example

For the final exercise, you have one more fret to play each time, but everything else is the same as above.

————————|————————|————————|————————|

————————|————————|————————|————————|

————————|————————|————————|-12—14—15—17-|

————————|————————|-12—14—15—17-|————————|

————————|-12—14—15—17-|————————|————————|

-12—14—15—17-|————————|————————|————————|

————————|————————|————————|————————|

-11—13—14—16-|————————|————————|————————|

————————|-11—13—14—16-|————————|————————|

————————|————————|-11—13—14—16-|————————|

————————|————————|————————|-11—13—14—16-|

————————|————————|————————|————————|

Few Tips

When you are trying out the following exercises remember to ‘listen to your fingers’. If it hurts a lot, then give them a break and try again later, and if the pain persists, check with your GP what might be causing the problem.

Don’t practice any of the stretches for too long. A few minutes, perhaps 10 minutes in total for all the exercises, is enough each day.

If you keep doing the above exercises, you will notice a difference in your finger flexibility and even the toughest guitar licks will become a lot easier to conquer.