By stretching I mean left hand stretching (if you’re a right-handed person).

Stretching is especially important when it comes to mastering classical guitar. You see, classical guitar has a slightly wider neck than electric or acoustic guitar which makes all the positions on the fretboard situated further from each other. And if you want to be able to play fluently you can’t struggle to reach any given position.

If you want to have well stretched fingers you have to practice, obviously. What I like to do is start every playing session with a bit of stretching and scales practicing.

Here’s a nice exercise for stretching:

classical-guitar-stretching-exercise

(If you don’t know how to read tabs, check this out: How To Read Guitar Tabs: The Basis.)

In the first cycle (the first tab) we’re just moving down the fretboard strumming the E string, and in the second cycle we’re moving up the fretboard strumming the A string. Do each of the cycles a maximum of 2 times per session.

If you find this exercise a bit boring after some time, you can just stick to playing various scales. They work equally good when it comes to stretching. Here’s a C major scale.