Guitarists, help a newbie out?

[Child of the grave]

I just started learning how to play the guitar about a week ago and I'm looking for some advice; you see, my fingers are very short, so it's a bit hard for me to reach, what are some good finger exercises that will help improve my dexterity? Also, if I'm not strumming, just fingering, I can switch between chords pretty well, but whenever I try to switch chords while I'm strumming, I just can't seem to do it, are there any exercises that will help me there, or is that something that only hard work and practice can help?

 

[Scarecrow Man]

not much i can add to the above answers^^^ but yeah, in a nutshell, practise makes perfect

 

[Kay Kay]

I play guitar too, what i do is I go 1234 on all the strings as fast as I can then go 4321 as fast as I can on all the strings. With the chord switches, you should just practice going back and forth between the two chords for about 5-10 minutes.

 

[I'm a Dapper Dan Man]

i don't have super long fingers either and found that just doing basic scales helps a lot. i think the first one we were taught in guitar class was the A scale which is pretty easy and helps with dexterity.