Learn how to play guitar without looking at your fretboard and elevate your musical senses!
View the full lesson at Feeling The Frets | JustinGuitar
Good one! Thought it was just me, but I’ve found almost since day one, when I started the course four months ago, that once I’ve got the shape I seem to be able to make easier/smoother/faster chord changes when I’m not looking at what I’m doing. Thinking about it yes, seeing it in my mind almost.
It’s something evryone should try.
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Wonderful lesson! I always found closing my eyes and feeling the strings with my fingers very helpful when playing chords, but I never payed attention to feeling the frets… Incredibly helpful!
I also loved the comparison with meditation… I’m a meditator myself, and for me playing guitar is a wonderful way of meditation in itself 
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Wow, thanks Justin. Although it sounds like such a small thing, I’ve found this incredibly helpful almost immediately. As I age my eyes have been going downhill fast so I basically have been going through this course without looking most of the time. Once I thought about the feel of the frets my cord changes became faster and more confident.
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I feel like this lesson would be very useful also earlier in this journey because at this point I have thicker skin on my fingers so yeah I would love to see this lesson earlier too because I believe it help people a lot even earlier in the journey
It’s really funny how this made me aware that I always put my fingers way too far back. I thought that you would mute the string if you felt the fret under your finger, but obviously I was wrong.
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Hi Erik, welcome to the community forum. I don’t believe that you would want to have the fret directly under your finger. You are right. That would mute the string. You would want to be close enough to feel the fret beside your fingertip.
a weird thing that ive noticed when i try feel the frets is that ive been pressing down on the stings way more than i need to, and now that ive noticed that i can play the f chord a lot easier and more consistent
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This is quite common when you’re just starting out. It’s a good thing that you’ve identified this problem and are actively working to fix it.
When I had this problem, I followed Justin’s advise to practice holding a chord with the least pressure possible. It took about a month, but I was able to convince my brain that squeezing harder rarely fixes anything, and impedes your fretting hand’s ability to move swiftly between chord grips. This is even more important when starting with barre chords.
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