# 41 Question

a1075dd63aa12 · Post by **a1075dd63aa12** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:22 am

How can i get my hands to stretch far enough to play # 41 and Tripping Billies? Are there exercises, devices i can buy to stretch my hands out enough, just curious.
Thanks

DT · Post by DT » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:26 am

basically just practice songs that have larger stretches... one of the first dmb songs i learned was crash and that gives you a nice intro to those stretch chords- i dont know about other devices, my fingers have always just been flexible, if i couldnt make a stretch then practicing it made me get it eventually

a1075dd63aa12 · Post by **a1075dd63aa12** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:29 am

yea, i can play crash, but # 41 seems ridiculous, i guess ill just keep working at it, crash took me a while but i got it eventually.
thanks

2StepGranny · Post by **2StepGranny** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:32 am

I believe DustyDave has a stretch exercise in the Here Are the Videos Take Two thread. That should help you out a lot, it's help several people that have had trouble with that stretch. It's a few threads down from this I believe actually, hope it helps

a1075dd63aa12 · Post by **a1075dd63aa12** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:58 am

the stretch exercise isnt opening for some reason

dmfollower · Post by **dmfollower** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:16 am

can you atleast put your fingers in the chord prositions(not play the song but finger the chords)? if you can do that then your over half way to learning how to play the song. it does take time, the future is here but we still haven't figured out how to play the guitar the easy way. just practice fingering the chords one by one and then start struming them and with constant practice and listening(live at luther is awesome)you will pick it up.
i learned #41 with standard chords first and then when i found out that it was played with other chords i tackled it just like i explained above. you'll get for sure, good luck.

a1075dd63aa12 · Post by **a1075dd63aa12** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:40 am

i've only been playing for a little over a year, it's just lately i can pick up songs fairly fast and im just going crazy trying to learn as much as possible, but i guess #41, bowa and some others are a little too advanced still, haha. Thanks for your help, ill just keep grinding

Peace

GreyBlueAnt · Post by **GreyBlueAnt** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:43 am

no short cuts, just practice. give it a month or so and you'll wonder why you had problems in the first place. Guitar is kinda weird that way.

Rweden36 · Post by **Rweden36** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:51 am

what I did was used songs like satellite and stone as practice for stretching, at first I couldn't play them, but doing them a lot helps your fingers to stretch, and now I can play the chords in 41, and crazy. hope it helps.

2StepGranny · Post by **2StepGranny** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:04 am

wkpggrvn2001 wrote:the stretch exercise isnt opening for some reason

I think that you have to have DivX on your computer to watch it, if you don't have it, you can get it here... http://www.divx.com

Matty Boom · Post by **Matty Boom** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 6:07 am

try playing the chords in #41 and billies up a few frets and then work your way down...good way to build it up

mlee · Post by **mlee** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:36 am

Just keep practicing the stretch. Don't even play while you're doing this, just keep trying to hit the chord and then try again and again and again and again. You catch my drift? There is no substitute for practice. After a while of doing this (when you can make the chord) just pick each string in the chord to make sure nothing is muted (unless it should be). You'll have it in no time.

nugsta25 · Post by **nugsta25** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:19 pm

try using this exercise. One of my bud's taught it to me and it helped tremendously. I can do some crazy stretches now.

--1--2--3--4 --------------
------------- --1--2--3--4
------------- -------------
------------- -------------
------------- -------------
------------- -------------

just keep doing that on all 6 strings. keep each figer depressed when you move to the next note so when you get to the fourth fret all 4 fingers should de depressed. That will at least give you the bearing for a good 4-5 fret stretch. Hope that helps!

mdel21 · Post by **mdel21** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:49 pm

Dislocate your pinky and ring finger. Works wonders.

dbow · Post by **dbow** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 12:13 am

Just keep working on it and you will eventually get it no problem. I know I had some elixars with the polyweb coating and I couldn't hold that chord if my life depended on it, now I switched to the D'addario EXP15's the extra lights and even with there coating it's not a problem doing the stretch.