String indentations on fingers? Is an angle ok or should I work on getting them straight across?
Just learning - been trying for a little over 3 weeks. I have pretty hard callouses but they are at an angle and pretty deep. Sometimes if the string drops into them I have a hard time not muting another string.
My fingers seem to be picking this up. I never thought I had any aptitude. I am able to hit 30 - 45 changes for D, A,E,G,C,AM EM. Struggling this week with AM to F though. But I just want to make sure I start out right.
Question am I developing a bad habit by them be slightly angled?
Angled and even a little on the side is fine. Don’t think about the an angle of the indents. Think if the way your fingers feel on the string is right for comfortably playing cleanly. The angle will adapt to what you need to do to fret cleanly.
Be sure you are not pressing any harder than you need to and that can help a bit with muting neighbor strings.
I saw a lesson once where the teacher asked his students to press down in the centre between two frets and slowly release pressure until the string buzzed when played and the fret the string just behind the fret. He the asked the students what do you feel most noticeably different. The answers was they need to press much hard when between the frets, even as they released pressure, but much less when tight next to it. He then told them to practice grabbing the chords but aiming to get the fingers as close to the frets as possible and it will become easier.
Be careful if you are getting permanent indentations you may be practicing for too long, if your fingers are getting tired or hurting take a break.
Hello again Dan!
I agree with Adrian above… “played it till my fingers bled” is NOT good advice!!! It is pretty common to press too hard as a beginner - that can be hard on your fingers & also cause notes to be too “sharp” … you mention the C chord above.
Try this:
Use your tuner and play the 5th or A string. Make sure it is exactly in tune. Next fret the “C” chord. Play ONLY THE 5th string & notice whether you’re get a perfect C note. If it’s a bit sharp - C# then you’re using more foce than needed. My guess is that is what’s causing the indents… good luck!!!
Don’t worry about that. With time and practice, you’ll notice that it’ll get better.
You’ll develop hand strenght and calluses on your fingers.
What angle and where will become the least of worries.
Don’t waste too much time on watching vid’s on the yt that have people telling this or that of something other. That’s a fast track (at least for me it was) to demotivation, contradictory advice and ending up not knowing what’s what.
For now, keep working on the beginners course and, most importantly, have fun!