Natural dexterity and lack of it

Hello Trevor,

I'd really appreciate your advice to get over my problem.

I'm an adult (over 30 yo) who's been trying to learn the gutar for the last three years.
What troubles me is my extremely slow progress in getting my fingers used to the fingerboard.

I tried all kinds of exercises including various scales up/down and across the fretboard. I did this regularly and very meticulously and after three years I still feel like my fingers are very clumsy and have no dexterity.

This really upsets me when I come to a music store and see how normal people (not guitar gurus or famous perfomers) have their fingers flying all over the fretboard.

I try to resist this thought but it comes to me again and again that there are people with good natural dexterity who can pick up guitar pretty fast and there are others (and here you can imagine I feel like I'm in minortiy :) ) who will never get it.

When I get to my guitar every next day and set my fingers on the fingerboard I need to spend at least 5 to 10 minutes to get them moving and not miss the strings.

I know I'm a slow learner in general and live with the hope it will come to me but I think you understand how people tend to loose their motivation when they see no progress especially in such an easy thing like finger movement.

I've learned many things on guitar (meaning I know what to play) over the three years and would like to implement all my knowledge but this finger dexterity problem is so frustrating...

By the way thanks much for sharing your knowledge and lessons with others! This is so nice of you.

Thanks a lot,
Serge
(English is not my native language.)

Hi Serge,

It sounds like quite a perplexing problem. One thought that came to mind is what Anthony Glise said in his great book Classical Guitar Pedagogy...

"The most common question that arises with intermediate students is how to develop speed in playing. The simple answer is not to work towards speed, but toward complete finger independence and control."

I know myself when I started doing the correct finger exercises (including ones in his book) I developed a lot more finger independence, speed and dexterity.

Indeed there are quite a few exercises and loads of information on how to improve your dexterity (among other things) in the book. You can see the "Table of Contents" here...

I know this probably sounds a little strange but have you seen a doctor to have any tests of your reflex response and the like? It might be a good precaution to do this if not to just rule out the possibility.

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help at this time. perhaps there's someone else reading this whose had a similar problem and hopefully, a remedy?

Kind regards,
Trevor M.