I know that a lot of guitar players have trouble gaining the dexterity and flexibility necessary to make and switch between the chords that they want to play. I get emails from frustrated students all of the time that are having trouble with this either because they are new to the guitar, have never taken the time to develop a good level of dexterity, or are just a little more advanced in age. In this guitar lesson, I want to show you a few practical little things that you can do on a daily basis to help build up your finger flexibility and dexterity.

Stretches

First off we are going to go through some basic warm up stretches that you can use to just get some blood flowing through your arms and hands. That will make for a much more productive practice session. Just jumping into playing without warming up can be a little dangerous, especially as we get older. These stretches not only feel great, but they will help you get ready to do some more extensive practicing. I’m no doctor, but you shouldn’t feel any pain while doing these. If you do, go see a doctor and find out what is going on.

Dexterity Exercise

Once you hands are nice and loosened up you can tackle the exercise presented in this lesson. It’s custom made to help you build the dexterity, coordination, and the stretching ability you will need to make any guitar chord you might be struggling with. Learn the exercise and make it part of your daily routine. You don’t have to do this exercise forever, but I would recommend doing it for a several weeks until you notice a difference in your playing. You will probably want to come back and re-visit it every once in a while too.