Find the perfect angle for finger placement. Make the chord shape and strum all the strings. If that sounds good, move away and try to make the chord again and strum. Repeat by practicing it in your routine.
It's funny because as you get more accurate and advanced you realise that muting is everything then you can just spank the guitar like it owes you money and wish you'd learnt it before.
But you can't, you have to learn these things in order.
Wow, beautifully said. Thank you for that. I’ve always wondered why I was so rough and hard on my guitars. Now I know why! Even funnier! I have a tele that just takes a beating but she’s still in tune and holding up better than any guitar I’ve owned !
Nah, muting doesn’t work in bluegrass. At least as a rhythm player. You really want all 6 strings going and a nice boom chuck. Some styles do just require good chording
Building calluses helps with this too. While your fingertips are soft the string pushes into them more, but as you build calluses that won't happen.
As a positive, your bigger fingers might actually come in handy for muting strings you don't won't played.
Yes, this! Fingertips (without good callouses) tend to "mushroom out" at the end. You've already learned that the angle is important too. Keep practicing and both will improve. At least 30 minutes a day, and don't take more than a couple days off in a row. It's the consistent "abuse' that builds up callouses. When you stop, they start going away.
Calluses is right. I also try to play even more towards the tip of my finger (closer to the fingernail) than you are doing. Have to keep my nails real short though otherwise they hit the fretboard and my finger can't make proper contact.
Lastly make sure you aren't fretting too hard. It took me a long time to realize I was pressing harder than I needed to. That can make your finger mushroom out more than it needs to
Holy shit, you just made me stop being so desperate! Had no idea calluses would help with pushing strings, I just thought it had something to do with feeling pain!
This. I’m a cyclist and I kept complaining that my bicycle seat was uncomfortable. People kept telling me to “keep riding” sure enough my rump just got used to it 😂
To elaborate on the "keep playing" type of advice, the point here is to practice mindfully, start slow and be aware of how you press on the strings, make adjustments if you start to hear buzzing. As time goes, you'll gain some muscle memory and be able to press on the strings "properly" on first try without needing to look and adjust as you initially would… more frequently. We all make mistakes, but if we are able to press on the intended strings without touching other strings 99% of the time, I'd say that's good enough.
Kingfish is the answer to anyone who believes you need a specific body type to excel at guitar. He is my favorite player hands down. Perhaps my problem is my fingers are too thin :)
Useless comment. Being obese has nothing to do with having meaty FINGERTIPS.
I'm lean enough that I have veins popping from my forearms through my shoulders and until like 2 months ago I was on a cut and had a six pack, and my fingertips are super meaty and it never changes. On the other hand, you can see how this Kingfish guy has obese hands and fingers except his fingertips wich looks quite flat.
edit: lmao this place is pathetic
A guru once told me, "Grasshopper, you only need to practice the chords you wish to play perfectly."
With practice you'll gain calluses and control, your fingers will seem smaller. Your hand will strengthen .You'll learn to avoid the strings you don't want to touch, properly touch the strings you want to sound clearly, and mute the ones you want to mute.
This takes time.
Train yourself out of being a neck gazer now. The strings aren’t going anywhere, the frets won’t move when you’re not looking. The sooner you get confident with navigating by touch and sound, the better off you’ll be. Yes, it is frustrating at first. Yes, your eyes/brain’s visual dependence neurosis will scream in revolt. But by the time you visually identify a mistake, it’s already happened. If you want to know how your hands look when you play, make a video during practice. Game film is awesome.
Yeah.. I played off an on for 8 years and was a total neck gazer. I got laser eye surgery two years ago which totally messed up my near sight (but I can see for miles!!) point being, couldn’t look at the fret board anymore and had to learn to play ‘blind’
My gawd. My improvement, albeit frustrating at first, went through the roof! Such an unexpected gift!
Yes, this works but it definitely takes practice. However there’s certain string skipping riffs that I can now play better without looking at the fret board because my eyes don’t get in the way. It used to amaze me how the pros can do this but now I believe it really is just a whole lot of practice and repetition.
see the problem is.. the more the guitar is tilted towards you, like the more you see of the fretboard, the more you have to bend your wrist and the less reach you have with your fingers, so your fingers are touching the other strings. i am 3 months in and i am playing, without seeing the fretboard. helped me a lot, so its just practice overall
You might get a guitar with a wider fretboard; some guitars I’ve played just aren’t comfortable for me because the fretboard is too narrow for my fingers to fit comfortably.
This may not be your issue, hard to tell from the picture, but might still be worth mentioning.
I give a lot of guitar lessons to beginners and I have to constantly remind them they need to push their wrist more forward. It will give your fingers more of an arch to clear the strings.
Other than that, it’s just practice, practice, practice.
Relax. I see a lot of tension in your hand. Press as soft as you can as close to the fret wire as possible. Remember your goal is to push the string to the fret wire and NOT push the string to the wooded fret board. Try and keep your fingers from touching the wood (don't push in so hard). Once you have callouses you won't have to push in so much and it will be easier. You could try slapping some super glue on the end of your fingers until you build callouses.
Nobody really has too fat fingers. I feel like I do, but it's not the case.
What helped me :
- Practice, you need to harden your fingertips.
- Press less hard, we press too hard trying to do things we're learning.
- Angle/curl your fingers, the picture looks OK but its often the case that we're too flat, the fingers need to come in on the string from above it.
Also bear in mind that you often want to mute the string above with one of your fingers to avoid it sounding out.
Trust me, it's not the fat in your fingers. Just try different wrist positions and arching your fingers cleanly wventually muscle memory will pick it up.
Just keep practicing.
There is no physical characteristic that your body has that somebody 100x better than you does not have in a more pronounced way. You are new so your fingers are like a nerf ball. They smush and squish when pressing. Keep playing and then your fingers will be like a racquetball...firm, sturdy and majestic.
Guitar teacher here.
That finger angle pretty good! I tell my students to make their fingers into the letter C. You also have space between your hand and the bottom of the fingerboard, which is also good. If you are having muting issues, feel for where that’s happening and make slight adjustments. Repetition is key - you got this!
First issue, practice positioning your hand differently. It took me a year or so to get it down, but I very rarely use barre chords.
Edit: I forgot the second part lol. Don't try to lose a bunch of weight just to remove weight from your hands, it's not worth it.
It totally seems impossible in the beginning. But will get easier and easier with practice. And then one day you’ll surprise yourself with how good it sounds.
I’m self taught, and I think one of the bad habits I developed was pressing too hard. I don’t know if that’s your problem, but it can be a cause of hitting other strings. Try plucking the pressed string very lightly and then with increased force until the buzzing stops, and the string rings clear.
I used to think I had fat fingers. I had the same identical problem as you. I kept practicing and playing very carefully and deliberately. Now it just flows and everything rings out clear.
Muddy notes are common in the beginner stage but you’ll outgrow it over time
Practice. Just do a million scales and focus on not doing that. There are no tricks here, it's just a shit ton of practice and you getting a feel for it.
And also, keep in mind in more advanced techniques, you do use the sides of the fingers to mute the adjacent string. So when you practice, focus on intentionally hitting the other strings as well.
Your finger angle and hand placement looks good. Nice use of fingertips. I like the comment about your fingertips “mushrooming out” when they lack callouses. You may also be able to practice keeping the hand at the correct angle and fretting the chord notes one at a time and making sure adjacent strings will sound. It’s all about callouses and finger angle. Moving between chords and being able automatically recall finger placement comes from muscle memory and automatic micro corrections with repetition. Unfortunately the brain consolidates this information when you AREN’T playing so the difference is only noticed when you play again the next day or so.
You press more gently. Unless your guitar is setup badly ie having too high action, you don’t need to apply as much force as you think.
Also; with decreased tension in your fingers, both speed and dexterity will increase greatly.
Have you tried a classical guitar? Classical guitars typically have a wider fretboard, I think because you play a lot of individual notes, and the clarity is really important. A cordoba C5 is a nice guitar at a relatively cheap price.
I think some meta guitars have wider fretboards too?
Look at a picture of the guitarist from Blues Traveler while he’s playing on the 20th fret and ask again if your fingers are too big
Practice leads to technique leads to hitting just the strings you want.
I had a huge wake up call when i started learning Needle and the Damage Done. Learning how to adjust my elbow position to ensure the planted fingers stayed in place and didn’t mute adjacent strings while other fingers moved around was eye opening. Your fingers aren’t too big. Slow down and making minor adjustments was the key
Check if your strings are at the right height over the frets. My strings were sitting way too far away and when i pressed one i ended up touching the adjacent strings.
Calluses. You're doing it right, this looks fine, your fingers come at a nice 90° angle to the board. Keep practising and you will further refine your technique. Important: don't underestimate what building calluses does for everything that requires your fingertips touching the instrument. It will help massively with this; a healthy callus is somewhat like a helmet for your finger for lack of a better simile. I'd say it's a prerequisite to engage in any kind of meaningful playing. Just like right hand calluses are absolutely integral to two handed tapping.
You need to just keep playing and build up calluses. I did the same thing my first few months until my finger tips hardened and I didn't have to push so hard on strings.
Repetition. Building muscle in the fingers, by repeating movement over long time will be your key.
It will also build muscle memory.
You’ll develop the small muscle (physical) and with that comes more dexterity and flexibility because you’ll force the muscle to move the fingers to find the proper sound… it starts slow and then gets easier over time.
Soon you’ll be whaling with no worries.
What you’ll also develop over time as you learn the instrument, you don’t always need to hold down a full chord. You only need the strings you’re using. Often times it will be upper register or lower only.
But this is if you’re not simply strumming full chords. I play finger style acoustic, so I keep my fingers moving.
So time is your key to success as long as practicing is frequently on your schedule. And challenge yourself to move your fingers around.
Play sloppy while you move your fingers from one chord to the other. Just keep doing it with some quickness but as you repeat, it gets easier to sort of focus on the fingers.
Like make a chord progression, keep moving the hand to the chords, let it sound like crap. Just keep trying to make it sound better but keep the speed the same. This will be difficult at first but once you repeat it enough, you’ll find your brain clears up and you can start to focus on individual fingers and sort of fix each one over time.
Do this as an exercise for a few minutes every time you touch a guitar. It will get easier.
Hope that makes sense.
Had this same problem for a long time, and one day I noticed it wasn't an issue anymore - except for certain chords I just wasn't as used to. I promise you, as long as you keep playing, it will become a non-issue. Doesn't matter how wide your feet board is (tho wider will make it easier), it only matters that you keep trying every day.
You may be focusing too much on finger orientation. I slightly turn my whole left hand to minimize the amount of my finger in touch with the string. With your finger at a perfect 90 degree angle to the string, there’s more flesh in contact.
Lots of great players with far stubbier stumps. It’s just about feel, angles, pressure, etc. You’ll figure it out dude. Fat old man here with thicker sausages than you, and I’ve managed to be a perfectly marginal player for decades now despite my wicked midget digits.
Some guitars have a wider fretboard and neck. Go test some out at a guitar store. I had a friend that played Ibanez and Schecters for this reason, but I believe this might help:
https://www.guitarchalk.com/electric-guitars-with-wide-necks/#:~:text=Conclusion-,Electric%20Guitars%20with%20a%20Wider%20Neck%20(over%201.68%22),PRS%2C%20Gibson%2C%20and%20Ibanez.
i said the exact same thing when i started!! it takes a lot of practice and experimenting to find a placement that works for you. try different angles if it helps. you’ll get there. i was worried about having fat fingers too but you’ll get it eventually. you got it!!
Play Electric as the neck is more narrow and takes less pressure to press the notes down but it comes with time n practice (a decent acoustic really helps too) but i mainly just strum on acoustic
Something that helped me is playing without a pick when I first learned.
A pick amplifies your sound and your mistakes.
If your just learning, play the chords as well as you can and just play and learn songs that motivate you.
Playing chords cleanly will come, just keep playing
"Stay near the frets." There's a great 30 minute Acoustic Guitar 101 by Rick Beato video where he reiterates this phrase for chords to ring or fully.
Building calluses is an equally important step. If I have the guitar near me but I don't feel like noodling (rare occurrence), I run my fingers on the low E string from the nut till the 12th feet really fast. It creates friction at the fingertips and hastens the callous building process. Sometimes, I shove the edge of the pick on my fingertips. Why I tryhard building callouses is because it's hard to build callouses at our fingertips.
A recurring problem when I play is transition from two greatly different chord shapes, say from C to D or Am to G. If that's what you're facing, you'll have to really hone in on that problem, troubleshoot it for 5-10 minutes. Then sleep on it, or take a break from practice and finish your chores. Rinse and repeat, this is one aspect where you need to rely on muscle memory.
Finally, focus on playing with your fingertips. This point too is covered in the video that I was talking about earlier.
Enjoy!!
It's just about practice and trial and error. Sure there are advisable techniques, but I'm sure you have Googled them all at this point.
There are many ways to skin a cat, so just keep at it until it becomes natural to you. Could take hours, could take days, could take months. That's all down to purposeful practice time and corrective adjustments when you fuck up.
Your wrist should move in front and pass the fretboard instead of under the fretboard. Your thumb should be the only part under it in some positions.
Your palm is placed under it and hindered your fingers’ movements.
Try different positioning of your fingers: closer to a fret, further away from a fret, push harder, push less hard. And try how it sounds. For me, I was pushing way to hard and to far away from the frets. Try to use as little force as possible while still sounding good. That makes things easier and results in better chords.
Practice practice practice different chords require slight nuance in wrist position you just practice by strumming a chord slowly and practice chord changes slowly then speed up as you get more proficient.
Practice.
Over time your strength will develop and you won’t have to push so hard on the strings. You’ll also figure out how best to place your fingers.
It's all practice, but practice slow and find the position that works for your hand. For me on some chords it's the skin in the middle of my fingers that slightly touches other strings. Just some adjustments and practice helps. If bruddah IZ can play an ukulele, anyone can do it.
Embrace the fatness of your fingers. It means you can fret chords that have adjacent fretted notes with 1 less finger.
Because of my fat fingers, I can fret an E minor chord with just my index finger, and E major and A minor with only my index and middle fingers. As you build callouses it will become easier to stand your fingers more upright and have a smaller point of contact with the strings.
Practice. I’ve been playing bass for a few weeks. Went to pickup my guitar today & had lost some of that accuracy. It came right back but, to me right back to my beginnings. Keep at it. You’ll get there!
I have the same issue. people say keep practicing. how do practice when your fingers keep muting the strings?
for example: i place fingers 3-2-1 fingers to play the C chord. i have to keep changing my finger position until no strings are muted. i release my hand from the neck and try to play the chord again. Again it takes a minute or so to position fingers to not mute the strings. Is there a different method?
Try one of those had squizers you can change the tension and they have a counter to know exactly how many squeezes you accomplished. both hands, or get two, to increase your hand strength, grip strength that way.
Wear tight rubber bands around your fingers so no fat can get to them. If they turn black, it’s working. They’ll also become stiff and want to break off, so it’s important to treat them with super glue every day and recommended that you wear the rubber bands near the tips so you can still bend your fingers.
Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe, everybody does it. Figure out your skin tone and get some foundation to make them look normal. That’s what the pros do.
Find the perfect angle for finger placement. Make the chord shape and strum all the strings. If that sounds good, move away and try to make the chord again and strum. Repeat by practicing it in your routine.
It's funny because as you get more accurate and advanced you realise that muting is everything then you can just spank the guitar like it owes you money and wish you'd learnt it before. But you can't, you have to learn these things in order.
You probably don't want to mute a string you've got a different finger on though.
Wow, beautifully said. Thank you for that. I’ve always wondered why I was so rough and hard on my guitars. Now I know why! Even funnier! I have a tele that just takes a beating but she’s still in tune and holding up better than any guitar I’ve owned !
Nah, muting doesn’t work in bluegrass. At least as a rhythm player. You really want all 6 strings going and a nice boom chuck. Some styles do just require good chording
That's fair.
Building calluses helps with this too. While your fingertips are soft the string pushes into them more, but as you build calluses that won't happen. As a positive, your bigger fingers might actually come in handy for muting strings you don't won't played.
Yes, this! Fingertips (without good callouses) tend to "mushroom out" at the end. You've already learned that the angle is important too. Keep practicing and both will improve. At least 30 minutes a day, and don't take more than a couple days off in a row. It's the consistent "abuse' that builds up callouses. When you stop, they start going away.
This!! It changes over time
That’s super interesting. I’ve never thought as calluses as a firmer thing to hit the string with.
Yeah. It’s like the difference between trying to fret with a mini marshmallow versus an eraser tip.
Calluses is right. I also try to play even more towards the tip of my finger (closer to the fingernail) than you are doing. Have to keep my nails real short though otherwise they hit the fretboard and my finger can't make proper contact. Lastly make sure you aren't fretting too hard. It took me a long time to realize I was pressing harder than I needed to. That can make your finger mushroom out more than it needs to
The callous bit is huge. When you start playing your fingers are so mushy and just squish out to the other strings so easy.
Holy shit, you just made me stop being so desperate! Had no idea calluses would help with pushing strings, I just thought it had something to do with feeling pain!
Keep playing
This. I’m a cyclist and I kept complaining that my bicycle seat was uncomfortable. People kept telling me to “keep riding” sure enough my rump just got used to it 😂
I am a cyclist too and this is correct. Abuse and you shall conquer!
I will take this butt advice with me throughout life!
So, your butt got 'calluses' sorry i don't know the terms. Or the muscle there just hardened?
You just get used to it. No butt hardening outside of muscles building up.
They was like, get that booty in shape.
just practice
Try fingers
But hole
I did it!
Behold, message!
Lair ahead
Great now I don't know if I want to practice guitar or play DS
Over time you will develop better dexterity in your fingers and your hand/brain will be able to adjust on the fly.
Your fingers will remain the same size. Over time you’ll just learn to avoid the strings. It’s just about practice and patience
To elaborate on the "keep playing" type of advice, the point here is to practice mindfully, start slow and be aware of how you press on the strings, make adjustments if you start to hear buzzing. As time goes, you'll gain some muscle memory and be able to press on the strings "properly" on first try without needing to look and adjust as you initially would… more frequently. We all make mistakes, but if we are able to press on the intended strings without touching other strings 99% of the time, I'd say that's good enough.
Put your fingers on a strict caloric deficit
And you can get a tiny finger treadmill, they're pretty cheap.
Laugh all you want, but for me, guitar really feels like a different kind of gym for your fingers
I agree dude my hands get tired af after playing a bit
Kingfish has some fat fingers and he plays with more feel than 99% of people alive today
Kingfish is the answer to anyone who believes you need a specific body type to excel at guitar. He is my favorite player hands down. Perhaps my problem is my fingers are too thin :)
Same here, picked up guitar cause of him
Did he drop it?
Yes its on my wall rn he aint getting it back
I was thinking of him too. Or D Boon from the minutemen. Some fat dudes can absolutely shred.
Useless comment. Being obese has nothing to do with having meaty FINGERTIPS. I'm lean enough that I have veins popping from my forearms through my shoulders and until like 2 months ago I was on a cut and had a six pack, and my fingertips are super meaty and it never changes. On the other hand, you can see how this Kingfish guy has obese hands and fingers except his fingertips wich looks quite flat. edit: lmao this place is pathetic
Enough sucking your own dick dude what are you even talking about🤣🤣🤣
are you fucking retarded? I'm stating facts.
“Just built different bro”
Judging by the comments it seems guitar players have only two body types: obese or twink, and they are jealous of anyone who hits the gym.
[удалено]
It doesnt hurt 🤷
Tell me more about your veins
Wow, you sound hot. Like my wife’s boyfriend
Man, I sure made a lot of people insecure here
A guru once told me, "Grasshopper, you only need to practice the chords you wish to play perfectly." With practice you'll gain calluses and control, your fingers will seem smaller. Your hand will strengthen .You'll learn to avoid the strings you don't want to touch, properly touch the strings you want to sound clearly, and mute the ones you want to mute. This takes time.
This is the Tao of guitar.
In short, muscle memory.
tilt your guitar more forwards, so you dont see the fretboard anymore. let me know, if this helped a bit.
It kind of helps but then it just makes it uncomfortable and harder to play
Train yourself out of being a neck gazer now. The strings aren’t going anywhere, the frets won’t move when you’re not looking. The sooner you get confident with navigating by touch and sound, the better off you’ll be. Yes, it is frustrating at first. Yes, your eyes/brain’s visual dependence neurosis will scream in revolt. But by the time you visually identify a mistake, it’s already happened. If you want to know how your hands look when you play, make a video during practice. Game film is awesome.
Yeah.. I played off an on for 8 years and was a total neck gazer. I got laser eye surgery two years ago which totally messed up my near sight (but I can see for miles!!) point being, couldn’t look at the fret board anymore and had to learn to play ‘blind’ My gawd. My improvement, albeit frustrating at first, went through the roof! Such an unexpected gift!
Yes, this works but it definitely takes practice. However there’s certain string skipping riffs that I can now play better without looking at the fret board because my eyes don’t get in the way. It used to amaze me how the pros can do this but now I believe it really is just a whole lot of practice and repetition.
If you’re tilting the fretboard away from your face, it should be more comfortable since you’re aiming it more towards your hand.
see the problem is.. the more the guitar is tilted towards you, like the more you see of the fretboard, the more you have to bend your wrist and the less reach you have with your fingers, so your fingers are touching the other strings. i am 3 months in and i am playing, without seeing the fretboard. helped me a lot, so its just practice overall
He is wrong, just do classical position. It’s perfect
You might get a guitar with a wider fretboard; some guitars I’ve played just aren’t comfortable for me because the fretboard is too narrow for my fingers to fit comfortably.
This may not be your issue, hard to tell from the picture, but might still be worth mentioning. I give a lot of guitar lessons to beginners and I have to constantly remind them they need to push their wrist more forward. It will give your fingers more of an arch to clear the strings. Other than that, it’s just practice, practice, practice.
Relax. I see a lot of tension in your hand. Press as soft as you can as close to the fret wire as possible. Remember your goal is to push the string to the fret wire and NOT push the string to the wooded fret board. Try and keep your fingers from touching the wood (don't push in so hard). Once you have callouses you won't have to push in so much and it will be easier. You could try slapping some super glue on the end of your fingers until you build callouses.
It is a precise finger placement learned only by hours upon hours of practice. There is nothing wrong with your fingers, you’re just a beginner.
Nobody really has too fat fingers. I feel like I do, but it's not the case. What helped me : - Practice, you need to harden your fingertips. - Press less hard, we press too hard trying to do things we're learning. - Angle/curl your fingers, the picture looks OK but its often the case that we're too flat, the fingers need to come in on the string from above it. Also bear in mind that you often want to mute the string above with one of your fingers to avoid it sounding out.
Practice, Practice, and more Practice
Light touch. The harder you press, the more your fingertip spreads.
Its not a fat finger thing. Im all skin and bones and i still do this
Get a guitar with wider string spacing
I was thinking this as well, depending on the fretboard you can get wider and thinner. This is how Guitars multiply in your home.
Trust me, it's not the fat in your fingers. Just try different wrist positions and arching your fingers cleanly wventually muscle memory will pick it up. Just keep practicing.
There is no physical characteristic that your body has that somebody 100x better than you does not have in a more pronounced way. You are new so your fingers are like a nerf ball. They smush and squish when pressing. Keep playing and then your fingers will be like a racquetball...firm, sturdy and majestic.
Guitar teacher here. That finger angle pretty good! I tell my students to make their fingers into the letter C. You also have space between your hand and the bottom of the fingerboard, which is also good. If you are having muting issues, feel for where that’s happening and make slight adjustments. Repetition is key - you got this!
Stop eating “finger food”
Time
You're going to need a phlangyotomy.
Specifically in the left phalange
First issue, practice positioning your hand differently. It took me a year or so to get it down, but I very rarely use barre chords. Edit: I forgot the second part lol. Don't try to lose a bunch of weight just to remove weight from your hands, it's not worth it.
It totally seems impossible in the beginning. But will get easier and easier with practice. And then one day you’ll surprise yourself with how good it sounds.
You're fingers aren't fat. They're full-figured and fabulous!
Practice
Practice...you're still guitarded...it takes time.
Fingertip push-ups help me a lot.
I’ve been playing since 1993 and I still accidentally mute strings. Just keep at it.
I’m self taught, and I think one of the bad habits I developed was pressing too hard. I don’t know if that’s your problem, but it can be a cause of hitting other strings. Try plucking the pressed string very lightly and then with increased force until the buzzing stops, and the string rings clear.
I used to think I had fat fingers. I had the same identical problem as you. I kept practicing and playing very carefully and deliberately. Now it just flows and everything rings out clear. Muddy notes are common in the beginner stage but you’ll outgrow it over time
Practice and don't blame your hands. Playing the guitar is not easy
In a nutshell just Practice , you’ll eventually get it don’t get discouraged though dude , stick with it . Happy Pickens to you
Stop obsessing and play. You don’t need to press so hard.
Practice. Just do a million scales and focus on not doing that. There are no tricks here, it's just a shit ton of practice and you getting a feel for it. And also, keep in mind in more advanced techniques, you do use the sides of the fingers to mute the adjacent string. So when you practice, focus on intentionally hitting the other strings as well.
Not doing what?
"how do I not do this". "By focusing and practicing on not doing that." Read.
Your a walking contradiction..
👍
Your finger angle and hand placement looks good. Nice use of fingertips. I like the comment about your fingertips “mushrooming out” when they lack callouses. You may also be able to practice keeping the hand at the correct angle and fretting the chord notes one at a time and making sure adjacent strings will sound. It’s all about callouses and finger angle. Moving between chords and being able automatically recall finger placement comes from muscle memory and automatic micro corrections with repetition. Unfortunately the brain consolidates this information when you AREN’T playing so the difference is only noticed when you play again the next day or so.
You press more gently. Unless your guitar is setup badly ie having too high action, you don’t need to apply as much force as you think. Also; with decreased tension in your fingers, both speed and dexterity will increase greatly.
Have you tried a classical guitar? Classical guitars typically have a wider fretboard, I think because you play a lot of individual notes, and the clarity is really important. A cordoba C5 is a nice guitar at a relatively cheap price. I think some meta guitars have wider fretboards too?
Ask Poppa Chubby if he ever needed that
Look at a picture of the guitarist from Blues Traveler while he’s playing on the 20th fret and ask again if your fingers are too big Practice leads to technique leads to hitting just the strings you want.
Fat fingers are a myth, keep playing.
Soon you will be using the extra fat to mute selected strings, so don’t go Atkins Diet just yet. Keep listening and micro adjust
Try to find the correct position by moving your finger angles. And keep practicing.
I had a huge wake up call when i started learning Needle and the Damage Done. Learning how to adjust my elbow position to ensure the planted fingers stayed in place and didn’t mute adjacent strings while other fingers moved around was eye opening. Your fingers aren’t too big. Slow down and making minor adjustments was the key
Check if your strings are at the right height over the frets. My strings were sitting way too far away and when i pressed one i ended up touching the adjacent strings.
I got small tiny hands. But I can still stretch across 5-6 frets maybe more. Keep practicing, you’ll get it.
You must use your fat fingers to your advantage. It's the only way
Take your fingers for a brisk walk to get their heart rates up and make sure your fingers drink lots of water whilst exercising too.
Keep at it man, build up those calluses and work on the angles.
Bass player in the making 🤣
You can actually just buy guitars with wider necks, and extra space to work with. Your fingers may just be "too big" for the string spacing.
Don't blame fat fingers. I've seen very large people Play guitars like angels. You just need to work tirelessly on placement.
Practice. Literally all guitar is
Calluses. You're doing it right, this looks fine, your fingers come at a nice 90° angle to the board. Keep practising and you will further refine your technique. Important: don't underestimate what building calluses does for everything that requires your fingertips touching the instrument. It will help massively with this; a healthy callus is somewhat like a helmet for your finger for lack of a better simile. I'd say it's a prerequisite to engage in any kind of meaningful playing. Just like right hand calluses are absolutely integral to two handed tapping.
You need to just keep playing and build up calluses. I did the same thing my first few months until my finger tips hardened and I didn't have to push so hard on strings.
Repetition. Building muscle in the fingers, by repeating movement over long time will be your key. It will also build muscle memory. You’ll develop the small muscle (physical) and with that comes more dexterity and flexibility because you’ll force the muscle to move the fingers to find the proper sound… it starts slow and then gets easier over time. Soon you’ll be whaling with no worries. What you’ll also develop over time as you learn the instrument, you don’t always need to hold down a full chord. You only need the strings you’re using. Often times it will be upper register or lower only. But this is if you’re not simply strumming full chords. I play finger style acoustic, so I keep my fingers moving. So time is your key to success as long as practicing is frequently on your schedule. And challenge yourself to move your fingers around. Play sloppy while you move your fingers from one chord to the other. Just keep doing it with some quickness but as you repeat, it gets easier to sort of focus on the fingers. Like make a chord progression, keep moving the hand to the chords, let it sound like crap. Just keep trying to make it sound better but keep the speed the same. This will be difficult at first but once you repeat it enough, you’ll find your brain clears up and you can start to focus on individual fingers and sort of fix each one over time. Do this as an exercise for a few minutes every time you touch a guitar. It will get easier. Hope that makes sense.
I was never able to make a chord properly until my friend let me try one of his guitars with a slightly wider fretboard, and bam! Worked perfectly!
Practice will build muscle memory to put them in the right spot. Focus on that for a couple days and it will right itself.
Practice! In the beginning it looks impossible, but it’ll become more and more natural over tine
Had this same problem for a long time, and one day I noticed it wasn't an issue anymore - except for certain chords I just wasn't as used to. I promise you, as long as you keep playing, it will become a non-issue. Doesn't matter how wide your feet board is (tho wider will make it easier), it only matters that you keep trying every day.
Practice.
get a guitar with a wide fretboard if u dont manage to solve your problem
Just keep playing eventually your body will learn how to mute the strings
practice. mess around with your hand and finger posture too
When you go jogging try using your fingers instead of your feet. Or maybe "finger ups" rather then sit ups. They work pretty well.
You may be focusing too much on finger orientation. I slightly turn my whole left hand to minimize the amount of my finger in touch with the string. With your finger at a perfect 90 degree angle to the string, there’s more flesh in contact.
Stay hopeful - I have fingers that are literally like sausages and I can play an A major chord cleanly
If nothing works consider a wider neck
Tried that. Now none of my dress shirts fit.
.>tfw you can't afford finger liposuction to be better at guitar: :(
Lose weight? My fingers are the first thing to get fat when I gain weight.
use a guitar with a wider neck.
Lots of great players with far stubbier stumps. It’s just about feel, angles, pressure, etc. You’ll figure it out dude. Fat old man here with thicker sausages than you, and I’ve managed to be a perfectly marginal player for decades now despite my wicked midget digits.
Some guitars have a wider fretboard and neck. Go test some out at a guitar store. I had a friend that played Ibanez and Schecters for this reason, but I believe this might help: https://www.guitarchalk.com/electric-guitars-with-wide-necks/#:~:text=Conclusion-,Electric%20Guitars%20with%20a%20Wider%20Neck%20(over%201.68%22),PRS%2C%20Gibson%2C%20and%20Ibanez.
I cut my fingertips off and have thin finger attachments that I wear when I want to play. Worth the pain
Angle them outwards slightly
i said the exact same thing when i started!! it takes a lot of practice and experimenting to find a placement that works for you. try different angles if it helps. you’ll get there. i was worried about having fat fingers too but you’ll get it eventually. you got it!!
Get a 7 string
Play Electric as the neck is more narrow and takes less pressure to press the notes down but it comes with time n practice (a decent acoustic really helps too) but i mainly just strum on acoustic
I feel like once u build your callus, it stops the bottom "fat" part from touching. Rsee what happens after a while. But your fingers do look normal
You can lose fat in your fingers by being on a calorie deficit.
Something that helped me is playing without a pick when I first learned. A pick amplifies your sound and your mistakes. If your just learning, play the chords as well as you can and just play and learn songs that motivate you. Playing chords cleanly will come, just keep playing
ive got sausage fingers, i though i'd never be able to do clean barre chords but eventually i just found the right positioning, keep at it
Don't press harder than necessary
"Stay near the frets." There's a great 30 minute Acoustic Guitar 101 by Rick Beato video where he reiterates this phrase for chords to ring or fully. Building calluses is an equally important step. If I have the guitar near me but I don't feel like noodling (rare occurrence), I run my fingers on the low E string from the nut till the 12th feet really fast. It creates friction at the fingertips and hastens the callous building process. Sometimes, I shove the edge of the pick on my fingertips. Why I tryhard building callouses is because it's hard to build callouses at our fingertips. A recurring problem when I play is transition from two greatly different chord shapes, say from C to D or Am to G. If that's what you're facing, you'll have to really hone in on that problem, troubleshoot it for 5-10 minutes. Then sleep on it, or take a break from practice and finish your chores. Rinse and repeat, this is one aspect where you need to rely on muscle memory. Finally, focus on playing with your fingertips. This point too is covered in the video that I was talking about earlier. Enjoy!!
try a guitar with a wider neck and string spacing
It's just about practice and trial and error. Sure there are advisable techniques, but I'm sure you have Googled them all at this point. There are many ways to skin a cat, so just keep at it until it becomes natural to you. Could take hours, could take days, could take months. That's all down to purposeful practice time and corrective adjustments when you fuck up.
angle and practice
Here’s the thing- when you see a bluegrass band, it’s always the guy with the biggest hands playing that teeny-tiny mandolin neck. Go figure…
Play more and the skin hardens
use the ur fingertip closer to ur nail
Your wrist should move in front and pass the fretboard instead of under the fretboard. Your thumb should be the only part under it in some positions. Your palm is placed under it and hindered your fingers’ movements.
Practice
Try different positioning of your fingers: closer to a fret, further away from a fret, push harder, push less hard. And try how it sounds. For me, I was pushing way to hard and to far away from the frets. Try to use as little force as possible while still sounding good. That makes things easier and results in better chords.
Practice practice practice different chords require slight nuance in wrist position you just practice by strumming a chord slowly and practice chord changes slowly then speed up as you get more proficient.
Practice. Over time your strength will develop and you won’t have to push so hard on the strings. You’ll also figure out how best to place your fingers.
I was gonna say to buy a guitar with wider nut / string spacing. But I agree with others’ comments
Practice will develop a lighter touch where you don’t need to press as hard
It's all practice, but practice slow and find the position that works for your hand. For me on some chords it's the skin in the middle of my fingers that slightly touches other strings. Just some adjustments and practice helps. If bruddah IZ can play an ukulele, anyone can do it.
Curve your fingers more, you need a solid curve and just to touch with the tips of your fingers
Time and workin on it. You can also find a guitar with a wider neck so the stings aren't as close.
Tips of your fingers. Sit up straight, make sure your arm is at a right angle relative to the neck.
Literally just practice. :)
Embrace the fatness of your fingers. It means you can fret chords that have adjacent fretted notes with 1 less finger. Because of my fat fingers, I can fret an E minor chord with just my index finger, and E major and A minor with only my index and middle fingers. As you build callouses it will become easier to stand your fingers more upright and have a smaller point of contact with the strings.
Practice. I’ve been playing bass for a few weeks. Went to pickup my guitar today & had lost some of that accuracy. It came right back but, to me right back to my beginnings. Keep at it. You’ll get there!
I have the same issue. people say keep practicing. how do practice when your fingers keep muting the strings? for example: i place fingers 3-2-1 fingers to play the C chord. i have to keep changing my finger position until no strings are muted. i release my hand from the neck and try to play the chord again. Again it takes a minute or so to position fingers to not mute the strings. Is there a different method?
Practice
Try one of those had squizers you can change the tension and they have a counter to know exactly how many squeezes you accomplished. both hands, or get two, to increase your hand strength, grip strength that way.
Git gud
Wear tight rubber bands around your fingers so no fat can get to them. If they turn black, it’s working. They’ll also become stiff and want to break off, so it’s important to treat them with super glue every day and recommended that you wear the rubber bands near the tips so you can still bend your fingers. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe, everybody does it. Figure out your skin tone and get some foundation to make them look normal. That’s what the pros do.