How To Improve Your Fretting Hand Technique And Play Big Stretches On Guitar
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If you struggle to play big stretches on guitar and think you have ‘small hands’...
This guitar technique article will help you improve your fretting hand technique and play shred guitar licks that seem impossible right now.
What makes me so confident in making this promise?
My fretting hand technique was a mess for many years, I couldn’t play stretchy guitar licks if my life depended on it.
(My fingers are both short ‘and’ fat – making me struggle more than most guitarists,en with the simplest guitar licks.)
Yet, today – my fretting hand technique is in great shape (and I can play all the shred guitar licks and solos I’ve always wanted to play).
I’ve also taught thousands of guitarists to master their fretting hand technique and easily play big stretches on guitar.
What I found is – expanding the reach of your fingers isn't all that hard once you understand a few simple things about how your fretting hand works.
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Today, I show you what those things are, so you too can easily play stretchy shred guitar licks.
To begin, watch this fretting hand guitar technique video that shows you the fundamentals of playing big stretches on guitar:
Now that you understand the basics of fretting hand, here are 5 more tips for improving your shred guitar technique:
Shred Guitar Technique Tip #1: Control Excess Muscle Tension In Your Body. Here Is How:
Here are 3 simple ways to control excess muscle tension:
1. Tension audit – this means scanning the parts of your body that aren’t used to play guitar (such as your jaw, shoulders, stomach, thighs, calves, and feet) for tension and relaxing them one at a time.
At the same time...
Be mindful of the tension you ‘are’ using in the parts of your body that ARE used to play guitar and relax excess tension there.
The trick to doing both things is finding a slow-enough tempo that lets you scan your body for tension in real-time (as you play).
Watch this video that illustrates tension audit in action:
The more you can relax excess tension in your body, the better your fretting hand technique will become and the easier it will be to play shred guitar licks (and do big stretches on guitar).
Question: “But Tom Hess, I thought that to develop good shred guitar technique (and play big stretches on guitar) I should play guitar with NO tension?”
Answer: No. You DO need some tension in your fretting hand technique to play guitar licks and to do big stretches on guitar. The key is not to use ‘more’ tension than necessary to play your guitar licks at the speed you want (and make them sound good).
You can tell when you’re not using enough tension if the sound of the notes becomes weaker and/or you start to hear some string noise in your guitar licks. (Or, if you’re taking lessons with a guitar teacher, simply ask them to tell you.)
2. Exaggeration – this is a cool trick to make big stretches on the guitar easier to play.
All you do is slide your hand to the lower frets (that are further apart) to ‘exaggerate’ the fretting hand technique challenge in your guitar licks. Play this way for about a minute, focusing on using the proper guitar technique (and relaxing your body as much as possible).
Then, slide your hand back to its original position, and you’ll find that the original stretch feels much easier.
3. Exposure to stressful situations.
Often, you’ll feel tension in your guitar technique when performing or recording your guitar playing. But if you put yourself ‘into’ stressful situations enough times, you’ll find it much easier to stay relaxed and have a lot more fun playing guitar licks that ‘used to’ feel challenging.
Shred Guitar Technique Tip #2: Control Your Flailing Fingers
The better you keep your fretting hand fingers closer to the fretboard, the easier it becomes to play shred guitar licks and do big stretches on the guitar.
This video shows how:
But there is a little catch... or 2:
1. Most guitar players waste too much time worrying about this guitar technique “problem” when – in reality – their fretting hand technique is completely fine.
Here is what I mean:
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When you watch your fretting hand technique as you play guitar licks, you see yourself from the top down. This means you can very easily see when your fingers are flailing away from the strings.
But when you watch the guitar technique of your favorite players (in videos), you see their fretting hand technique from the front.
Thus, you cannot see how much their pinkie is flailing above the strings. And their guitar technique appears far more perfect than it is. (If you saw them from the same angle you see your fretting hand guitar technique, you’d often be shocked at how much more their fingers are moving than you suspected.)
Solution:
Watch yourself playing your shred guitar licks from the front as well. (Film yourself or play in front of a mirror.)
If your pinkie looks like it’s flailing away from the strings, even from the front, follow the steps (in the video about controlling your flailing fingers) to fix it.
But if it doesn't?
Then don’t worry about the flailing pinkie issue – you do not have that problem in your fretting hand technique (at least not to the level you need to worry about).
2. Most guitar players have a far bigger issue with keeping their index finger down when they play shred guitar, not the pinkie. This often gets in the way of their fretting hand technique and ability to play shred guitar licks.
Use the tips in the video above to get your fretting hand index finger under control.
Shred Guitar Technique Tip #3: Get Used To The 2 (Fretting Hand) Thumb Positions.
There are 2 primary thumb positions to master as you work on your fretting hand technique:
1. Having the thumb wrapped around the neck of the guitar to give yourself the leverage you need to do string bends and vibrato.
Watch this video that shows you how it should look when done correctly:
2. Put the thumb behind the guitar neck as you play shred guitar licks (and do big stretches on guitar). The wider the stretch, the lower your thumb should be (i.e., closer to the high E string).
Watch this video to see the proper thumb position for guitar licks that require big stretches on the guitar:
Question: “Tom Hess, how do I practice my guitar technique if there is a shred guitar lick that requires both string bends and big stretches?”
Answer: Simple: Switch from one thumb position to another as you practice the lick. First, clarify exactly at what point you will switch from one thumb position to the other.
Then, when playing your guitar licks with a metronome, pay attention to your fretting hand technique and make sure you are switching between the two thumb positions at the right moment.
As you speed up the tempo, ensure your guitar technique doesn't change.
The more consistent you can be with each repetition, the faster you’ll develop proper habits in your fretting hand technique, which will enable you to play shred guitar licks at the speeds you want.
Shred Guitar Technique Tip #4: Use Your Fretting Hand Index Finger To Mute Open String Noise. Here Is How:
One problem that can affect your shred guitar technique as you practice playing big stretches on guitar is... sloppy string noise.
Believe it or not, your fretting hand has a lot to do with keeping your guitar playing clean of string noise. In particular, your index finger (of the fretting hand) should be used to mute the higher-in-pitch (i.e., thinner) strings.
All you do is rest your index finger on the higher strings ‘as if’ you were about to play a barre chord. (Except – you don’t ‘actually’ barre the strings. Cover the strings, so they don't ring out.)
Pro tip: Here is how to tell if you have string noise in your guitar technique as you practice your shred guitar licks.
Turn on the distortion. (Don’t buy into the myth that ‘distortion covers up mistakes.’ It doesn't. Distortion makes mistakes far more obvious by compressing the sound and making every sound equal in volume.)
Set your metronome to 50-60% of your guitar speed.
Then, play your lick in quarter notes (1 note per click) or half notes (1 note per 2 clicks).
Why do this?
Playing long notes creates a lot of space between pick strokes. And that space makes any excess string noise much more audible (especially if you use a lot of gain in your guitar tone).
This is a fantastic way to test your ability to control string noise with your fretting hand technique.
And this approach also makes it far easier to mute string noise (because you have a lot of time between notes to spot exactly where the noise is coming from and adjust your technique to mute it).
Of course, you can also use your picking hand to mute string noise in your shred guitar licks.
My go-to technique for doing just that is called ‘thumb muting’.
All you do is simply rest your picking hand’s thumb on the lower (thicker) strings and slide the thumb up and down the strings.
This keeps your playing completely clean and mutes string noise from both higher and lower strings.
Note: when using thumb muting, it’s essential to hold the guitar pick the way I show in this video:
Shred Guitar Technique Tip #5: Practice To Develop Hand Independence In Your Fretting Hand Technique. Here Is How:
“Hand independence” means keeping one hand relaxed, no matter how much effort the other hand is applying to play the notes.
In the case of your fretting hand technique...
Your level of tension in the fretting hand should NOT change, no matter how much power your picking hand is applying to the strings as you play your shred guitar licks.
To develop hand independence in your fretting hand technique, do this:
Fret (any) one note on guitar and pick it using tremolo picking. Alternate between doing tremolo picking softly, with moderate pick attack and very loud pick attack.
At the same time, keep all your attention on your fretting hand technique. Make sure your tension levels do NOT change even as you pick the string with a lot of attack.
Gradually add more notes as your fretting hand technique improves, and you develop more hand independence while playing a single note.
Over time, you’ll progress to playing your normal shred guitar licks (where you do big stretches on guitar) and keep your fretting hand very relaxed, no matter how aggressively you pick the strings.
Now that you know how to improve your fretting hand technique, the next step to mastering shred guitar is to learn how to (literally) double your guitar speed (without practicing more). I show you how in my free eGuide Double Your Guitar Speed While Cutting Your Practice Time In Half. Download it today and discover the guitar speed secrets most guitarists will never know.
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