It’s also a matter of experimentation. You need to finger a D chord, say, and pluck one string at a time. If one or more strings are muted, you have to slightly adjust the position of your fingers, your hand, your wrist, perhaps your guitar neck, basically anything and everything, to see if you can get all strings sounding clean. Often only a very small adjustment is necessary.
A couple of other things: the fingertips (the distal phalanx, the last segment of your finger) should be perpendicular to the fretboard, very perpendicular. You have to cut your fingernails on the fretting hand short in order to achieve this.
Once you find the position that works, then you should start working on changes to and from that chord (not before).
Completely new guitar student here, and finding these chords remarkably difficult to play cleanly. As I experiment with finger and hand placement I came up with a few questions.
Wrt wrist bend, presumably this should be minimized for comfort/health reasons. How would you describe the acceptable range of wrist bend?
Wrt thumb/finger alignment, as your fingers move up and down the frets for various chords (say string 1-3 vs 4-6, or even minimally between the D and A chords) does the thumb remain “anchored” on the neck or does it “float” to stay in relative alignment with the fingers? Or is there some other dynamic at play?
Is there a preferred forearm angle (wrt the floor, or maybe the neck)?
Complete beginner here, I cant feel a difference on moving my fingers from one side to the other side of the fret, whereas Justin said it felt 10 times harder, can anyone please suggest if I am doing something wrong or if this is natural
I agree a little. The difference for me was subtle.
At the fret, you just need to press hard enough to touch the fret plus a bit to keep the string there when it vibrates.
Far back from the fret, you need to press harder to avoid the buzz on the fret. I wouldn’t say it much more than 1.5x, certainly not 10x. You will also notice that picking that finger up to move it will create a momentary buzz.
This question is not about the video lesson about fingers placement but I think here would be a good thread for it.
So I have a nylon string acoustic guitar (because I don’t have the money to buy a steel string one but I have had in the past, and they are my favorite) and I’m having a little bit trouble when playing on the first 3 stings, they are slippy, I guess because they are made of plastic. Although I can play it’s not a good feeling, it makes harder to play. Also, the frets seems to be too low (its a relatively low budget guitar), so maybe that contributes to it but I don’t know.
Renan, I started out and played for several years with just a nylon string (classical) guitar. I think that I got the nut sanded down at some point to improve the action or height of the strings over the frets. If the action is too high even a nylon string guitar can be harder to play.
Justin teaches that order 1,2,3 is his preference. This applies to early beginner stuff where you are just trying to make sense of how to get your fingers moving.
All at the same time is your end goal. There will be practices later to help do this.
okay so i’m very new to the guitar and as i’m playing an acoustic guitar there is a problem that i’m facing with the finger placement lesson so let me describe it for you as in the video sir justin is asking us to place our finger in the fifth fret on the third string i’m just giving an example maybe i’m wrong so on the third string i’m about to play the fourth string right? so i’m having some issues with it i mean i don’t know if i need to put it just above it, just below it or on top of it and how much pressure is okay i don’t know if i’m sounding right or something or no but uh i just want some help regarding this as I’m very new to it and I’m quite scared as well because of this as they said that it’s important. so please if somebody can help me even with just a video or something that would mean a lot.
I’m not sure I understand your question correctly, so forgive me if this doesn’t help.
Your goal is to get a clear sound with minimal pressure. To achieve this, put your finger right behind the fret -not on top of it, right behind it. Like Justin shows in the video:
As for the sound you’re looking for: you might be an absolute beginner, but you can be assured, you will know when the sound isn’t right when you hear it. You want your string to ring out clearly, like when you strum it without fretting. As long as your string rings out clearly, you’re fine. If it sounds muffled, you will have to take a look at your hand position and fretting technique.
Regarding the pressure needed, you want to play with the least pressure possible. Fret a string, no matter which, and give it a strum to make sure it rings clearly. Then lower your pressure each time by a fraction and strum the string. Do this until you reach the point where it starts to sound muffled. This will give you a feeling of how much pressure is needed.
Also, you’re playing an acoustic. If your guitar hasn’t been set up correctly (which means the neck and the string height have been adjusted by a professional to maximise playability), it could be a good idea to have it looked at by a luthier. A decent set up can make a world of difference in playability, often more so for acoustics.
Thank you so much for your help and definetly your answer helped me alot, i appreciate it. I now understand the pressure thingy too, just the placemnent of my finger will be a bit of a problem for me now, i still do not get it, but really thankyou so much, may God bless you!
For the placement of your finger, maybe this can help: put your finger on top of the fret and strum the string. You will hear it sounds muffled. Now slide your finger back (towards the headstock) just a fraction and strum again. It will probably still sound muffled. Repeat this until the string rings out clearly. That’s the point you want to put your finger, as that is the point you can get a clear tone with the least pressure.
I agree with Lady’s method, but I think it is easier to initially use a single note. The idea is that you learn what being too far over the fret and too far back sound like. That way, when you miss with one finger in a chord (and it WILL happen ) you can identify what is needed to fix it.
) you can identify what is needed to fix it.
Better to be sure it’s clear, thanks!