Folks,
Was given a guitar this week as a present and I'm on night two of my guitar experience. I've been following your beginners pages, which I've found very useful. Some chords however I've noticed that a finger holding a string will 'squash' and glance an adjacent string and dull the note. The D chord in particular I've been trying at all sorts of angles with no success. Friends have mentioned that fingertips will begin to harden. Will this eventually help with my problem or do I need to start thinking about a fat finger diet?!!!
welcome mate. what you are experiencing is very normal at your stage of playing. stay the course and your finger muscles will become stronger; your improved technique will follow.
you will eventually be able to play with feeling, leaving the memory in your fingers to nail the chords cleanly. this happens because you wont have to study where your fingers go, as you are now.
your finger tips are going to get painful until you develop, through practice sessions, your very own callouses.
dont be alarmed when they peel off after a long soak. there will be baby monster callouses beneath.
+1 for what Dog said. Remember that you are just starting and don't get frustrated if you can't get a clean note to sound once in a while. It is all part of the beginner's experience. Just keep a regular practice schedule and you will be amazed at your progress one month from now.
What they said.
I'm a couple of months back into the game after a 20+ year break in trying to learn guitar, and the fingertips on my left hand have just gotten tough enough to hit the basic chords cleanly. I even discovered yesterday that I can now make clean sounding E-shaped barre chords on my acoustic--and that's a first for me. All it took was a bit of practice; probably an average of an hour a day. A few days skipped here and there helped also; a little rest is good.
Now, it's on to increasing speed in switching chords, coordinatiing a bit of bad singing, and more complex strumming patterns.
Finally, I should add that progress (for me) does not come in a "straight line." I have bad days when nothing works, and other days when I can play much better than usual. I get frustrated when things aren't clicking, but it doesn't last.
When I get frustrated, I often go back to the first things I learned from guitar books. Invariably, I find some satisfaction in how effortless those exercises now seem. They were impossible when I first started.
I believe that anybody can play guitar if they stick with it. It just takes time. Talent helps, but I'm living proof that it's not a requirement.
The worst thing to do is to get frustrated and give up. No matter how "bad" you THINK you are, everyone has been there. Just keep truckin' and things will start falling into place.
"That’s what takes place when a song is written: You see something that isn’t there. Then you use your instrument to find it."
- John Frusciante
