I don’t like the term “anchor”… it implies something heavy, rigid, immobile…
…the exact opposite of the feelings you should be experiencing when playing guitar, which are ease, agility, lightness, etc (granted, it may take quite a bit of practice for this to develop)
I prefer terms like “guide fingers” or “pivot fingers”.
This may seem like semantic quibbling, but I think choice of language is important. My worry is that some beginner will take it literally, plant the finger hard, and create all kinds of parasitic tension.
@dantejms The short answer is yes, though I do tend to agree with the comments by @Tbushell that mean you need to think differently and the word used is far from wanting to be literal.
Hi! I’m doing the very same thing. But when sliding the the 3rd finger up one fret, I ear the slide… So I was asking myself the same question because of this slide…
Any advice for someone with bigger fingers? I am just getting started, but no matter what I do when playing the D major chord my 3 finger is ALWAYS touching the bottom string with my 2 finger. I have tried moving my hand up more and everything. Any advice for shorter/bigger hands?
I overlooked taking anchor finger practice seriously… and I think I made a big mistake! My one minute changes weren’t anywhere close to passing grade, so I’ve come back to this and am going to give it a solid week or two. Luckily I picked up a spare guitar that I can play on breaks at work, so here’s hoping it goes better this time.
Here’s my tip for switching from the A to the D chord: keep your anchor finger in place, slide the ring finger over to the B string, third fret and move the middle finger down to the E string, second fret - I promise it works! Good luck, mates!
I am a complete newbie to Guitar playing. I have been trying for years to get on to it but my fingers dont help me.
Actually my index finger nail is quite pointed out even after trimming them to the limit. For most people, the skin part is protruded out, but for me the nail is protruded out.
So whenever I put down my finger, my nail hits the fret first and not the skin.
Probably that it’s painful and bloody. I have the same problem, possibly to a lesser degree, but I cannot fret with my fingertip perpendicular to the fretboard, so have to be realy, realy careful not to touch the string below the one I try to fret.
There are many successful guitarists with huge hands and it is all about patience, micro adjustments of the positioning of posture, upper body, shoulder, forearm, wrist, hand, fingers, fingertips. Plus, in time, as your fingertips harden to form callouses, the soft flesh will spread out less and your approach to the strings will become more natural and mean less interference and muting of adjacent strings.
Whatever works, works. Are you managing to do all of that simultaneously yet?
A photograph is needed here I think. And I wonder how curled your fingers are when placing them to form chords.
Maybe a repeat question, but is it “wrong” to leave both fingers 1 & 3 on their strings, slide them back, and just move finger 2 up to string 4? I don’t want to miss the spirit of the exercise but at 57, I’m always looking for hacks to save time!
Timothy @StrumminMyTwanger
Not sure I understand what you are saying.
I am assuming you are using Justin’s suggested grips for A and D in which case only your index finger stays on the same string, or is that not your question.
By the way welcome to the community.
Michael
I’m playing around here a little by using my 2nd 3rd and 4th fingers to create the open D and open A. That makes the Anchor Finger exercises a little more challenging. But I’m thinking long term here in the fact that eventually you’ll need your 1st finger for bars when you get into CAGED shapes or you’ll need your 1st finger for the D string when working “D” shapes up the fretboard. So - now that I’m review, I think I may just switch to my 2nd 3rd and 4th on open chord were I can during these Grade 1 Beginner courses.
Not a good idea. You will need your pinky free to play sus chords and embellishments.
D shaped chords are usually played as triads on the e B and G string keeping the pinky free for the same reason.
I’m having a new issue, I had to stop playing for a bit because my first finger got too numb, I realised that playing without the strap (mine was old and falling to pieces) was putting a lot of pressure on my anchor finger and I couldn’t feel it properly, pressure or otherwise, on that one spot. It meant I couldn’t tell where it was while I was playing, and it had started sliding up the fret as I switched between chords, without me realising.
It’s much better now, and I have my new strap, but I’m still having the same problem as when it was numb: my anchor finger slowly slides up along the fret with each pivot and chord change. I don’t really notice it’s happening until it sounds wrong and I slide it back down. Has anyone had this issue before? Will it sort itself out as my brain gets used to pinpointing where my fingers are all the time?
Frankly, I appear to be getting worse not better, which is quite demoralising, and playing the A and D chord over and over is… not rewarding, lol. Either I do the chords kind of okay by going slow, or badly faster, or okay faster but I’m contorting my wrist because I’m focussing on my fingers. (If I could go back in time and shake 22 year old me with her faster brain and say “start learning now!!!” I would.)
Anyway, I’ll keep plugging away at it, but I would really like to just be slowly getting past existing problems rather than accruing new ones. Any insight welcome.
Hi @ConstanceClaire, I guess everyone starting out experiences this. I know I did, and still do sometimes. Keep trying and slow down, focussing not on speed, but on accuracy. When you get it reasonably right most of the time, speed up a little and so on. But limit the time exercising this one thing per session. If trying too long in one sitting, you’ll get frustrated, cramped etc, and things will seem to get worse instead of better. Better go for short sessions every day, maybe even a couple of times a day if you can manage.
If you can do the rest of module 1 sufficiently well and get bored of doing the same thing over and over and over again, move on to module 2 and just incorporate this exercise as part of you new practice routine. In fact, the premade practice routine for module 2 has changing from A to D in it, so it’s all ready for you
And most of all: keep it fun. Play songs, do fun exercises next to the boring ones, don’t go endlessly practicing the same thing, and accept that you’re not perfect - good is good enough. And never forget that you’re better at playing guitar today than you were a year ago
I second what Els @LadyOfTheCastle said. I wonder if your finger sliding in the fret is simply because you’re new at this - your hands are not strong enough or flexible enough to remain in position. I struggle with this all the time! For example, I have trouble keeping my third finger near the fret when playing C. This isn’t a bad habit, but rather something I continue to work on as I’m better able to stretch my fingers.
Move on to the next module for something fresh! Soon enough Justin will introduce various exercises that will help with flexibility and strength.
Regarding that feeling of getting worse, not better: I experience that too. For me, when I leave something for a few days (sometimes a few weeks) and return to it, my skills seem to have improved, and I’m able to begin making progress again. Maybe you’ll have a similar experience.
@LadyOfTheCastle@judi Thank you both. I will do some more work on the quick changes and crack on with the next module once I hit 30. Hopefully the sliding finger just goes away on its own.
