Positive Finger Placement

Want to avoid finger pain when playing guitar? Don't skip this lesson.


View the full lesson at Positive Finger Placement | JustinGuitar

Hi Sir , Thanks for your nice Explanation, I do have difficulties with my index finger positioning in fret.
This is how I understand that the index finger should be placed correctly. On its own it’s easier but as I place the other fingers on the next frets it is almost impossible for me

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Hello @krishanpal67 welcome to the Community.

Your fingers will find ways of working together with small adjustments depending on the chords. Stick with it.

Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator

Interesting thing with this guitar learning. Things that seem impossible, like finger placement, fast enough cord changes, barre cords, strumming patterns, picking the right string and on and on, all slowly become normal and natural over time. It just takes practice.
Keep seeing the little things that progress, to remain encouraged!

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HI, I am new here. I find I can’t get my 2nd and 3rd fingers placed properly on the D chord. That 2nd finger is slightly fatter than the rest and I find sometimes my 3rd finger touches and mutes the 6th string. The A chord is no problem, but the D is. Will keep practicing but any tips would be welcome! thanks very much

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It’s the most common problem people have with a D but a few days of Chord Perfect practice and you’ll have it nailed. In a week this will be your strongest chord.

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The keyword is practice! @Jamolay said it best; these things slowly get better and better over time. I had a lot of trouble with that as well, but as my fingers toughened up and practice wore in, it’s now pretty natural (I started back at the beginning of last October).

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This lesson is unavailable to those who aren’t logged in or registered. I don’t think that’s intentional. GOod info!

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And then we find new things we can’t yet do! Sigh…

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Thanks for the heads up.
I will raise this with the JustinGuitar team.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher

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This helped me already. Immediately my fingers started to feel more… “right,” I guess.

I am well on my way to hardening these old fingertips. Working with my hands all my life, I never thought this would be the softest area left. :rofl:

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This is really useful, most guitar instructor said the same thing about finger placement but don’t bother to explain why. Thank you, Justin for your explanation!

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Great video! As a new guitar player, I felt immediate improvement in finger comfort and sound quality after applying the tips stated here. Question, though: what do I do with my pinky finger? As of now, my pinky finger instinctively curls up in such a way that my pinky finger’s tip rests near the base of my ring ringer, with the curled finger is pulled all the way up. I see that when Justin plays the guitar, his pinky finger tucks inwards towards the palm instead. Should I be doing that?

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Hi! Any guidance on position of the thumb on the back of the neck?

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I would suggest you “crook” your pinky finger in the same way that Justin does…if you can.

I missed this the first time around, and locked in a bunch of tension in some of my other fingers that I was completely oblivious to. Took weeks of practice to break that bad habit.

Post a pic of your hand fretting the chord if you struggle with this…will make it infinitely easier for us to troubleshoot!

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Justin recommends putting the thumb more or less in the centre of the neck…maybe you haven’t got to that video yet.

But if you make a good faith effort to do it that way - over several days - and it’s still uncomfortable, it’s probably ok to let your thumb come up over the top edge of the neck if it makes things easier.

This is a good position for thumb muting the thickest string, which you will probably want to do fairly early on.

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Hello @peterjwacks and @efbau02 - welcome to the Community plus Justin’s guitar course.

Check this to help.

Just relax it and, if you can, have it uncurled and hovering over the strings a little - as though poised ready to move to a string should the next chord you change to require the little finger.
See the above pic also.

I hope that helps.

Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator

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