5 Effective Finger Stretches For Guitar

Rolling Finger Joints To Improve Circulation

The first is the time-honored technique of rolling your fingers.

• Take each finger and thumb, one by one, between your other thumb and first finger and gently roll back and forth at and between each joint.
• You have plenty of blood vessels in the fingers, and gently rolling at each joint helps you check your mobility and get the blood flowing.
• Spend a little extra time at each fingertip, especially where your calluses are on the fingers of your fretting hand.

You’re not after cracking your knuckles here; keep the rolling gentle.

You just want to warm up your hands and fingers and help your circulation.

Your First Stretch

Once you’ve got your hands and forearms nicely massaged, it’s time to get a little more specific with the fingers.

• To begin, you can do a little basic mobility exercise with your hands.
• First, clench your fists, keeping your thumbs on the outside. Hold for a few seconds.
• Unroll your fists so that the bottom joints of your fingers are straight, and hold for a few seconds again.

Finally, unroll your fingers all the way and extend them as straight as they will go.

Hold that for a few seconds, and repeat the whole thing five to 10 times. Here’s a great illustration!

Actual Finger Stretches for Guitar

First, put your hands together in front of your chest, in “prayer position,” fingers pointed upward.

• Keeping your palms and fingers together, move your elbows gently upward and away from your body.
• You should feel a little stretch in your forearms. Your fingers may begin to point toward your body. That’s okay, but keep it gentle.
• To intensify this stretch, release your hands and take the fingers of one hand in the other hand.
• Extend the elbow of the held fingers so your arm is straight in front of you, and gently pull your fingers down.

Here’s what this should look like. Make sure you don’t hyperextend your elbow or cause yourself discomfort; we’re just going for a stretch here and not a full realignment.

Now you can do a similar exercise, but for each finger individually. Take one finger at a time and pull it back, making sure that the arm you’re working on stays relaxed.

• You should feel the stretch in the palm side of your hand this time, more so than in your forearm.
• Remember to stretch, not pulling too quickly or forcefully.

To stretch the outside of your hand and wrist, do similar stretches with your hand, palm side down, as shown below. Then take one finger at a time and pull it down toward your forearm.

You should feel this stretch on the knuckle side of your hand.

Finger Stretches For Guitar – With The Guitar

You can really improve your guitar playing by staying flexible, using the finger stretches for guitar discussed above whenever and wherever you can get to them.

Once you pick up the guitar, here are a few finger stretches for guitar that you can use to improve your “wingspan” (how far apart your fingers can spread), and increase your reach across the frets.

• You can play this exercise anywhere on the fretboard, but you may want to start up the neck, around the 9th fret.
• As you increase your wingspan, you can back it down to the 5th fret and eventually the 1st fret, where it’s the most difficult to play.

You’ll park your first finger at the 9th fret, use your ring finger at the 12th fret, and use your pinky at the 13th and 14th frets. Try it on all six strings, starting at the high E string where it’s easiest.

Here’s a favorite dexterity exercise that will stretch your fingers out and improve your functional skills on the guitar.

• It feels a little bit like doing jumping jacks on the guitar.
• You’ll use two fingers at a time.
• Start with fingers 1 and 2, then fingers 2 and 3, and then, if you’re feeling up to a challenge, fingers 3 and 4.

You’re essentially hopping your fingers back and forth across the strings. There are many variations on this exercise, but this is a good one to start with.

You can also do this anywhere on the neck of the guitar; we’ll start at the seventh fret because it’s relatively easy to reach.

Posture Stuff

Writer’s Note: If there’s one thing that guitar playing promotes that I wish it wouldn’t, it’s bad posture. It feels so nice to sit cross-legged on the floor playing guitar for hours, until I try to get up.

Guitar slouch is real, and it is easily preventable! The first step is to try whenever possible to avoid hunching over to try to look at your hands.

Also, create a space to practice your guitar that promotes good posture.

Pro Tip: The couch is not it.

There are some great practice stools on the market, and having a stand keeps you from having to stare at the floor to see your music!

• Here is a wonderful stretch that you should put down your guitar and do right now.
• If done correctly, it’s a great posture enforcer as well as one of the best finger stretches for guitar.
• Standing or seated, make sure your back is properly straight.

Put your arms straight out, palms facing the floor, so your fingers are pointing at opposite walls. Then extend your wrists so your fingers are pointing at the ceiling.

From there, gently move your arms back until you feel a stretch from fingertip to fingertip.

Plenty of guitarists practice standing up (especially electric guitar players), because it’s easier to control the height of the guitar with the strap than it is when it’s sitting on your lap.

• If you practice seated, try not to slouch over the guitar to look at your fingers.
• It’s helpful to try to get the guitar at a comfortable height so you can sit up straight and play.
• For many people, this involves either crossing your legs to raise the guitar or using a little footstool, classical-guitar style.

Keeping everything where you can reach it without craning, drooping, or twisting is the best way to prevent guitar-related injury. For more on posture, here is an excellent video!

Making The Most Out Of Your Finger Stretches For Guitar

Here’s a little list of wonderful things you can do for your body to extend your life and enjoyment as a musician:

• Yoga classes of any kind. You can keep your whole body in alignment with a good yoga teacher.
• The Alexander Technique, or Feldenkrais, two whole-body ways of examining how you move functionally.
• Regular massage therapy by a licensed bodyworker.
• Always stretching, and taking breaks at least every hour on the guitar to move around.

Recommended resources

If you enjoyed this free guide to finger stretches for guitar, you’ll love these other lessons we have for you below!

• How To Hold A Guitar
• Guitar Basics
• Best Online Guitar Lessons
• Rhythm Guitar Lessons
• Guitar Tips