"Fat" fingers

I started my 8 year old daughter on guitar lessons a couple of months ago and to help her practice, I borrowed a guitar to practice with her. Well I have to admit I like it (never played an instrument in my life) and I bought a guitar recently. I've been practicing with her for about 3 weeks and I can feel my left-hand finger tips getting numb and, presumably tougher.

I don't have particularly large hands or fingers, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to keep my fretting on the string I'm trying to play and off the neighboring string. I'm placing the very tips of my fingers on the string to play a note, but I still seem to be touching the next string down. Also, I seem to be pressing very hard on the string.

Is this something that gets better with practice or am I missing something? Seems like when I watch someone actually play guitar that they aren't necessarily using the very tips of their fingers, nor are then pressing down as hard as I seem to be.

Thanks...

Yes, it will get better with practice - at first it seems impossible.

Practice is good. :)

However, it's not always a bad thing for your fingers to be touching strings you're not playing. Sure, play with the tips of your fingers, but as you develop in skill and try to play more difficult songs, you'll find that they require you to muffle the other strings so that you don't get unwanted noise.

Of course, if we're talking about trying to hold chords and they don't sound good, well, that's just gonna take practice. Some good things to keep in mind are:

1. Most of the time your thumb should be at the back of the neck rather than looped over the top of it. Point it roughly towards the ceiling, too.

2. Don't cradle the guitar with your left hand. The guitar should be supported by your leg, your right forearm, the guitar strap--anything but the left hand.

3. If you have to look at what you're doing, tilt the guitar to form the chord or whatever and then tilt it back so that you can't see the fretboard. So many people twist the guitar back to see what's happening, but in doing so you create more stress on your wrist, because it gets bent back further.

Have fun. :)

Man,can I ever relate to this. I've got short fingers and i'm always muting a lower string. But, as all ready said, practice practice and then practice some more. It's slowly getting better. Also, i've noticed when I have a problem if I take a short break and come back to it all of a sudden I seem to have it memorized. Play things s-l-o-w at first and later pick up your speed gradually with the use of a metranome. Like 5 beats per minute. Trust me, it works.

Mark, your points are well taken, especially the one about tipping back the guitar. I've been doing that to see what's going on - just as you said - and I can see how it's more of a problem than a help. Funny thing is my daughter has a tendency to lay her guitar down flat on her lap and play - of course she's 8 years old and has the flexibility of Gumby. But I keep asking her to position the guitar "normally". I guess I should take my own advice, and all of that offerred here.

DW - I'll keep practicing and trying to learn to "touch play". When I started typing I used to look at the keys, now I touch-type. As I keep practicing I'm hoping I'll learn to do the same thing with the guitar. Keeping it slow at first is the key, just as you say. I guess I'm just eager and trip myself up.

Thanks for the tips and encouragement.

I too have Playskool fingers - I swear at times they look like Ballpark Franks and I had a heck of a time fingering chords without stomping all over the neighboring strings. Like has already been said, in many chords, that's actually a good thing. But when they get in the way when they're not supposed to, I find it's because I don't have my thumb positioned right and I'm attacking the strings at an angle rather than straight on. For me, keeping the thumb on the lower(bottom third of the back of the neck with the tip of the thumb pointed skyward) edge seems to allow me greater range and feel with my fretting fingers.

And great tip about tilting the neck back and forth to get a peek. I do that now. But I will say, it does get better. Like your analogy on typing, after a while, you just kind of learn where the strings and frets are without looking. It's actually really sort of exciting when your fingers go right where they should and you don't even think about it.

And major kudos to you for playing along with your daughter for encouragment. Not a lot of Dad's would do that.

Good luck. :)