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Guitar help!!

H

HYDRO_CHRONIC

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 23, 2001
Messages
2,994
I cant seem to not touch the other strings when trying to play ,well learn chords anyway im far from playing anything,maybe my hand isn't meant to play, i cancel out the other strings ,and don't have anybody to really ask about it guess I need to find a technique maybe that fits me,or maybe some general DO's and DONTS??


are all the frets used eventually,


I have acoustic
 
^ playing the guitar is a lot harder than it looks. playing, say, an a major chord:

A%20MAJOR%20CHORD.gif
)

without muting other strings is just plain difficult when you are starting out. the crappy news is that there are no short cuts - you're just going to have to practice until you get it.

alasdair
 
yep, practice practice practice, callouses are your friends- also, make sure your guitar isn't too big, for beginners especially on a acoustic having the right sized guitar can be like night and day
 
I still have this problem with chord progressions I'm unfamiliar with. But as with anything, with practise you overcome it. As far as do's and don't go; just make sure you're positioning your fingers as comfortably as you can. Keep repeating the chord progression, slowly, until your fingers begin to accept the movement and position better. I remember this process becoming quite frustrating, so you have to really want to progress, be determined and not give up.
 
lol i didnt know you played the geetar...when did you start? ive been playing for like 20 some years, last time we hung out if i didnt od in your truck i could have taught you some chords lol.
 
Nine North said:
yep, practice practice practice, callouses are your friends- also, make sure your guitar isn't too big, for beginners especially on a acoustic having the right sized guitar can be like night and day
Click to expand...
I was thinking the neck might be too narrow.

It'll take a while man, but you can do it. Toughen your fingers and practice.
 
yeah you're right, could be too thin a neck too, doesn't take much either way to make learning chords trickier.
Keep it up, OP, it's worth the effort, being able to play helps you get through bad times and makes the good times even better, if nothing else it's a great hobby
 
Work on hand and finger dexterity for a few minutes before you play. Stuff like this is really useful when trying to get used to the feel of the neck and frets as a beginner. Learn your basic major and minor chords, get to the point where forming them is comfortable and automatic, and all things will follow from there.
 
Yea build up the callouses, pinky too. One thing that worked for me was one of those finger exercize tools with springs under the little buttons for your 4 fingers. Another little trick is to start on the low e string going 1234 switch down to the next string but only using a finger while keeping your other fingers in place til u use them. That will def teach you how to play clean notes without getting that half heard buzzy note sound.
 
I got it for for x mas well 2 actually ,they are cheap but I still happy with em ,one is a estabaun (sp) steel string

other is a Gibson maestro :) the Gibson is smaller,and I haven't figured out wich one I want to keep yet

I feel like a damn fool when I try the chords

did figure out that I needed to cut the ol fingernails really short
 
As alasdairm said, people always underestimate how difficult it actually is to play guitar, especially in the beginning - probably took me about a year to manage to do bar chords properly.
Honestly, practice makes perfect - for your situation as far as I know there's no miracle solution. Just keep practicing and don't get discouraged, you'll get it eventually :)
 
When I first started playing I had a very similar issue with keeping my fingers on my fretting hand away from the other strings, until someone more experienced gave me a useful tip: keep your fretting fingers on their very tips. Any finger that isn't being used to bar other strings (laying flat to cover more than one string) should be kept on it's tip and just behind the fret like this:

NSFW:
how-to-play-guitar-chords.png


This will eliminate those annoying buzz sounds and accidental touching of other strings.
 
HYDRO_CHRONIC said:
I cant seem to not touch the other strings when trying to play ,well learn chords anyway im far from playing anything,maybe my hand isn't meant to play, i cancel out the other strings ,and don't have anybody to really ask about it guess I need to find a technique maybe that fits me,or maybe some general DO's and DONTS??


are all the frets used eventually,


I have acoustic
Click to expand...

Your hands are meant to do anything you tell them to do. It's just a matter of getting them stretched out. My left hand is so much more flexible than my right hand just from guitar playing all these years. It will take at least a year to get to playing most of the basic chords comfortably within any tempo, for what it's worth. But the quicker you practice with other people the faster you will develop. Metronomes also help.

Rules of thumb:
Every new person on guitar needs lots of time to get their hands comfortable with the instrument.
There's tons of guitar websites that have as much information as you'll ever need to learn to play what you want, and there's tons of videos on youtube and elsewhere to teach you the rest. A private teacher is incredibly motivating though, so there is a lot of benefit to going that route.

A good practice method I use for learning a chord is to place my hand on the neck in the shape of the chord repeatedly. Like, my arm will go from my hanging at my waist to on the fret board in say an E9 shape, then I repeat the process over and over until I get the chord down.

Also it's good to practice the transition between chords. Just play random chord progressions i.e A E D E repeated or C G F G repeated. It's important to get both timing and clean fingering down as each is pointless without the other.
 
as has been said, you have to learn how to fret the chords cleanly in order to get them to really ring well...

It's a very common instrument but a lot tougher to break through in the beginning than say keyboard.....

It becomes second nature once you get used to it but it can be very difficult in the beginning...

Just practice the open chords, G D C and transitioning between those....

Get the fingering right and take your time, you could figure it out within a month if you practice...

And as Pagey said, bar chords are where you'll start to use the whole neck, but it's better to master most of the opens first!

and it good that you're actually starting out with acoustic...
 
I personally would avoid tutorial books and opt for watching videos on youtube instead. I learned most of what I know by watching others play. It takes a lot of patience and practice, so you really do need to be serious about it in order to keep going with it. Start by learning classic, yet simple songs with a handful of chord changes. It's a good way to get used to switching strings and gives you something to focus on.
 
Warm up

Exercise one - repeat with each finger on each string starting with index finger on top E, ending with pinky on bottom E, you just strum the string up and down and you go from 0 to 12th fret, each finger, each string. Repeat several times until you feel like each time was a bit better.

Exercise two - The spider walk. I usually do this from the 5th to the 8th fret you start from the top E string at position 5 with your index finger and you go all the way down to C or the 8th fret. Once done on E string you continously go down, once your pinky reaches C on the bottom string, you do the same backwards.

I mention these two exercises in particular because they loosen you up while practicing your finger grip. I'd say the two most fundamental exercises in the world for guitar players. Then some scales and at the end, chord work, practicing last lessions song, and if satisfied, practicing a new one. And you keep building your scale and chord progression library. Once you get good at one you adopt another, but I personally always do the one I know how to do first a couple of times, then attempt a new one.
 
I had a similar problem when I first started, having huge hands my fingers always overlapped onto other stings. I was able to get a cheap Yamaha classical guitar which has a much wider neck and that helped a lot in the beginning. Another big thing is your hand position on the neck, if you don't have a good form not only can it be uncomfortable but makes playing much harder. There's lots of how to's on youtube that are fairly useful; here's a decent one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=redQh4h_zSE but there's plenty more too. Good luck and practice practice practice!
 
make sure your hand (your fretting hand) is straight and ur thumb rests on the area behind the fretboard (in the middle of the neck). This way you can grip the fretboard with ease. I think that's just classical technique, sometimes i play sloppy and get slanted and can't stretch near as far, then i straighten up and line up my hand and tough chords are much easier to play.

it also comes with practice, you should see the callouses on my fingers, once you have those, you will have a much easier time. I'd also recommend to play a nylon string to start out then an electric then an acoustic to murder your fingers. I still get very sore hands from playing acoustic barre chords after a few songs of them.
 
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