{"id":498,"date":"2013-02-14T05:06:06","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T05:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/?p=498"},"modified":"2020-05-09T11:13:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T15:13:23","slug":"left-hand-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/left-hand-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Left hand stretch on the guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hToXwpOlIkY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This nifty left hand exercise stretches the left hand fingers as you creep down the fingerboard from the twelfth fret to the first.&nbsp; The stretch gets further apart as you descend downwards and contrary to many things on the guitar, the slower you play it, the more difficult it is!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To begin, place your fingers like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4<sup>th<\/sup> finger on the 12<sup>th<\/sup> fret \u2013 4<sup>th<\/sup> string<\/li>\n<li>3<sup>rd<\/sup> finger on the 11<sup>th<\/sup> fret \u2013 3<sup>rd<\/sup> string<\/li>\n<li>2<sup>nd<\/sup> finger on the 10<sup>th<\/sup> fret \u2013 2<sup>nd<\/sup> string<\/li>\n<li>1<sup>st<\/sup> finger on the 9<sup>th<\/sup> fret \u2013 1<sup>st<\/sup> string<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Your fingers should be in a diagonal line from the fourth to the first string and this is a major seventh chord (D major seventh when you are on the twelfth fret)<\/p>\n<p>In the right hand you will be playing a <a title=\"Basic arpeggios on the classical guitar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/l109-thumb-and-fingers-basic-arpeggios\/\">simple arpeggio<\/a> starting on the fourth string with the fingering p, i, m, a, m ,i&nbsp; and repeating it as the left hand changes. After each right hand arpeggio has finished you are going to shift one finger at a time down the fingerboard. The first finger will shift from the 9<sup>th<\/sup> fret to the 8<sup>th<\/sup>, then the second finger with shift from the 10<sup>th<\/sup> fret to the 9<sup>th<\/sup>, and so this crawling down of the fingers goes until you reach the first fret with your first finger.<\/p>\n<p>If it hurts your hand to complete the whole exercise give it a rest and try it the next day, after a while you will be able to do it without any problems but you do need to give your hand time to develop the flexibility.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goal:<\/strong> To stretch your left hand fingers and warm up the hand<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tempo:<\/strong> Slower the better!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tips:<\/strong> Use a <a title=\"How to use a metronome\" href=\"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/metronome-technique\/87\/\">metronome <\/a>to keep from speeding up and stop if your hand hurts.<\/p>\n<p>This exercise appears in <a title=\"Classical Guitar Practice Routine\" href=\"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/store\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>5 Technical Routines for the Classical Guitar Level 3<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-499\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Classical-Guitar-Corner-Simon-Powis-Finger-Stretch.png\" alt=\"Classical Guitar Corner - Simon Powis Finger Stretch\" width=\"718\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Classical-Guitar-Corner-Simon-Powis-Finger-Stretch-300x214.png 300w, https:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Classical-Guitar-Corner-Simon-Powis-Finger-Stretch.png 898w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This nifty left hand exercise stretches the left hand fingers as you creep down the fingerboard from the twelfth fret to the first.&nbsp; The stretch gets further apart as you descend downwards and contrary to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[475],"tags":[35,65],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redirect","tag-left-hand-technique-2","tag-warmup"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The best left hand stretch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Use this exercise to develop your left hand stretch and warm up your muscles. Not everyone can do it!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/left-hand-stretch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The best left hand stretch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Use this exercise to develop your left hand stretch and warm up your muscles. 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