My Fingers Are Too Fucken Fat For The Guitar!!!
How the hell do you guys do it??? My fingers are so fucken fat. When I try to play a string, my finger blocks the other string on the fret that is NOT supposed to be fingered. Also, my hands are small, i'd say from the wrist to the tip of my middle finger, it's only about 7 inches long. I can't get my fingers far apart enough! For example the C major, it's fucken killing me. Getting the 3rd, 2nd and 1st fingers so spread apart!!!
Is there any way in the world I can fix this? Is it just a matter of practice? I mean my fingers won't grow any bigger!
Re: My Fingers Are Too Fucken Fat For The Guitar!!!
Quote:
Originally posted by Terinox
When I try to play a string, my finger blocks the other string on the fret that is NOT supposed to be fingered. Also, my hands are small, i'd say from the wrist to the tip of my middle finger, it's only about 7 inches long. I can't get my fingers far apart enough! For example the C major, it's fucken killing me. Getting the 3rd, 2nd and 1st fingers so spread apart!!!
Seven inches? Hell, mine is 8-1/2 inches. :D
(Get your minds out of the gutter, people. You too, Canes. :wg: Like Terinox, I'm talking about length from wrist to the tip of the middle finger. But I'm tall and have piano-player hands. To me, Terinox, it sounds like your hand span is pretty average.)
So here's your solution, o hairy Canadian bro. My guess is that part of the reason for your dilemma is that you are keeping your thumb wrapped around the neck of the guitar, which causes your fingers to be less angled than they should be.
Take your thumb and bend it at the knuckle, so that your more of your thumb-tip is on the back of the neck rather than the flat print of your thumb. Adjust the angle of your wrist as necessary. Thus will move the grip on the frets (front of the neck) to your finger-tips and less on the flat print area of your fingers. Make sure, of course, that your finger tips are just aboveeach fret rather than on the metal fret bars themselves. And then, my pudgy-fingered friend, you should be able to pull of a nice, clear C chord. Play each string individually and adjust your angle as necessary.
Once you get the clear sound on every string of a C major chord, switch to a G7 chord - they use the same finger pattern and same frets. just different strings. Move back and forth between the C and G7 and that will help you adjust to how to best put your fingers in the right position for each chord as they hit the neck at one time.
And once you have the C-G7 move down pat, try switching between C and E (major). You will make the change by moving the first finger up one string on the same fret, but your 2nd and 3rd fingers will reverse their angle. This will give you practice on how to do a different move when you change chords.
Take these slow. You'll get some cramping in the left hand as you get used to the correct angle, but it will go away. Your fingertips may also hurt until they get a little more calloused - also normal. So don't overdo the practice at first.
If you find that you're still experiencing difficulty - and assuming you're using a guitar with steel strings, whether electric or acoustic - try finding someone with a classical acoustic guitar, the kind with two slits for the strings at the top of the neck. They have wider necks than steel-string acoustic or electric guitars and will give you a little extra room with which to play. If you can get it together on a classical, it's easier to do it on a narrower neck. But my guess is that you won't have to do this.
It's all in the position of the left thumb, bro. And be thankful that you don't have to finger one of these . . .
:song:
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