that pesky pinky

Again, I remind myself: every single person around me has their own life, and their own experience of their life is as complete and immersive as my own.

Guitar practice last night was mostly slow, slow, slow work on the left hand pinky stretch between F major at the 13th fret (2nd string) and B diminished at the 14th fret (3rd string). This is a move from the Tony Geballe exercise in C Major triads that Curt showed me in calisthenics a while back. I can do it easily if I use and index finger stretch, but I want to widen my capabilities a little bit here.

I've been using my little mirror to watch my left hand, and I'm having to work really hard at releasing tension as I reach into my hand, find the muscle I need, and move the pinky. The index finger wants to react, and my entire body tenses; all of this has to be released as I proceed.

I get a little advantage from the fact that I'm stretching the pinky out while I have the ring finger firm and planted on its note; but, the shift to the B diminished arpeggio is still beyond my neuromuscular abilities. For the very next move, I keep the pinky planted and drag the ring finger over to its new position, but this is a whole other ball of wax. So far, it's impossible.

I'm generally debating the problem of pinky stretch when the pinky is the first finger down--think a 4321 First Primary where you are descending, fingers up, 4 goes down first, then you need a stretch between 4 and 3.

Do you begin with the left hand in a "pre-stretched" position with the thumb already set in its center of gravity for that position? So far that seems like the best answer.