Josh keeps talking about micro shifting. I’d suggest that I’m maxi shifting. There’s no way my fingers will stretch between fret 2 and 5. Maybe I can just about do 2-4, but 5 is almost impossible without extreme discomfort. Should I buy a stretcher.
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Micro shifting is the best way forward. If you manage 2-4, you can get to the fifth fret by moving your hand slightly up the neck.
Later on, through practice, you might be able to extend your reach. I would avoid putting too much strain on my tendons using tools like stretcher.
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No, don’t buy a stretcher. Just keep practicing and your fingers will adapt the more you use them. You might never get that full reach unless you have massive hands like Josh does, but you’ll get closer and the shifts will get smaller, and you’ll develop muscle memory for the shifts too.
For reference I’m just starting Module 14, working on learning Hound Dog for the 50 Songs Challenge, and that song is all about bouncing between the 3rd, 2nd, and 5th frets. I cannot do it without shifting.
That all said, I’ve been doing this exercise as a warmup for a few weeks, and I think it helps:
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My fingers seem awfully close, I’m probably micro shifting to get 2 frets, when I come to use my pinky, I’d suggest that all 4 fingers re covering the same fret. There’s no pinky stretching going on at this stage.
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Just work on finger warm up. Play one note each fret keep going down the neck till the first fret each string. It’s not possible now but do this everyday by the end of the month you’ll build up enough strength to have and idea where you can go with this.
12 bar blues is an obvious exercise but if you can stretch your fingers out then you can really enjoy Pino Palladino kind of fills. 
I doubt this is physically possible 
Maybe it’s semantics: a “fret” in this discussion is the distance between two fret wires, i.e., the place where you’d fret one specific note.
You should be able to span at least two frets (i.e., two notes), and fairly easily three frets (i.e. three notes, each a half step from the next).
Beyond that, you will find people who can span 4 (and sometimes 5) frets and will often play like that. Most others will typically span 3 frets from index to pinky, and either stretch a bit more if necessary or micro-shift).
It’s important to note that doing micro-shifts is not “inferior” or like a handicap; in fact, even if you could span a larger range of frets, micro-shifting can be advantageous to re-position your hand for the next notes you will have to play in a certain bass line (hope this makes sense!?).
I’d study videos of other people playing and see how much they stretch and/or micro-shift. Head over to the “Post Your Covers” thread and check out how other people attack this “issue”.
You can see me here micro-shifting ALL the time
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Don’t hurt yourself trying to do a fret per finger. Shifting is absolutely fine and will get easier to do with muscle memory. Just keep playing, your body will figure out what works for you.
Also fine (for now) and perfectly normal for new players. Try and work on exercises that get you not clumping your hands together so eventually you stop doing that but don’t stress over it. Playing different major and minor scales, spreading your fingers out across the frets as you play for example. Do that very slowly (1 and a 2 and a…) focusing playing just behind the fret wire shifting as needed. That’s been part of my warm up the whole time I’ve played and still something I do every day.
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“micro” shifting is probably not the best way to describe what’s happening. if you can pivot to the frets you need to get to with the thumb anchored in one spot, great. if you can get there by needing to shift hand position a small amount then also great. if it takes shifting hand position up the neck a little more, fine. as long as you get there. the word “MICRO” shifting is just there so you don’t make more movement than you really need to do, ie no need to exaggerate it. i personally don’t really pivot at the thumb as that motion just doesn’t jive well with me, my hand always winds up physically moving up the neck some. ehh, it works.
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