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sausage fingers

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 EMT
(@emt)
Trusted Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 41
Topic starter  

I'm using the tips of my fingers but still having trouble not mashing other strings. my fingers are curved just like the guys in the video. i just cant pull off a good G cord, or C, or any other strumming cords. i'm not the only guy with meat hooks that plays. how do you other thick fingered guys do it? what am i not getting?

red meat doesn't kill you, fuzzy green meat does.


   
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(@blue-jay)
Noble Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1630
 

I call myself fat fingers. But not dirty fingers. :shock:

After you develop callouses or tough fingertips, you should be more precise and less 'fleshy'.

Also, you can never say enough about practising and learning the ropes. If not, get a wider neck guitar? :D

Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.


   
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(@lue42)
Reputable Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 356
 

Trust me... your fingers can't be worse than mine and for the longest time I feared that would be the end of my guitar playing. But in time, you will do it. I couldn't believe it when I walked into my first lesson with my current instruct - her fingers were as short and fat as mine... and she plays as good as any person I have ever heard. That gave me a lot of motivation to keep going.

My Fingerstyle Guitar Blog:
http://fsguitar.wordpress.com

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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
 

My brother in law has shorter fatter digits than me and plays circles around me. It can be done for sure. I started off not being able to do a basic Am chord without 15-20 seconds of work getting to it. I decided to go to Guitar Center and asked them if they had anything with a bit wider neck. They dude there laid an Ibanez GAX-70 on me. Instant Am and C chords. No probs. I think Ibanez changed the necks on these since then.

(btw, that start guitar was one of those cheapos at the wholesale club. The more I learned guitar, the more I discovered just ho bad this thing was. Eventually it went from the closet to the trade-in counter guitar)

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@davidhodge)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 4472
 

Positioning is also very important. People starting out have a tendency to turn the face of the guitar slightly upward or to have their fretting hand too low on their body (fretting hand should be about chest high, so don't place your wrist on your knee :wink: ). This is normal because beginners want to see where their fingers are. But once you have your fingers in place, try turning the guitar so that it's facing flat outward. That should give you more of a chance to putting your fingers in an optimal position.

Hope this helps and do keep at it! Alan can tell you about one of his students who's the poster child for "sausage fingers."

Peace


   
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(@alangreen)
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Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Ah, yes, "Sausage Fingered Mick" - the man with digits like a pound of Walls' pork and beef. We got him finger-picking "Everybody Hurts" but "You Got A Friend" never happened - he was 62 when I started teaching him; a great guy.

A wider-neck guitar will help, but basic home economics have to apply so make sure you sell the children for medical experiments before you go to the guitar shop.

Make sure your fretting hand elbow is off your knee - you want to get that arm in more or less a straight line from elbow through wrist to fingers with your hand at a comfortable height to see what you're doing and resting your elbow on your knee makes that so much more difficult.

Also - think space - I used to put a pencil between the palm of Mick's hand and the neck of his guitar while he was playing which helped him no end.

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
 

Also - think space - I used to put a pencil between the palm of Mick's hand and the neck of his guitar while he was playing which helped him no end.

What does that do?

Just curious.

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@davidhodge)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 4472
 

The whole focus is trying to get the tips of the fingers onto the strings. Generally speaking (and this isn't true of everyone but you can bet on it enough times to beat the house), if you can feel the lower edge of the neck of the guitar anywhere along the palm, you're not getting your fingers up enough to clear adjacent strings cleanly. So making beginners aware of making space between the guitar neck and the palm of the hand will certainly help a guitarist get good fingering on chords and scale fingerings.

As you get better at the guitar, you can (and often will) find yourself able to get away with easing up on the "space between" issue.

Hope this helps.

Peace


   
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(@dogbite)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 6348
 

my callouses are on the tips of my fingers.
from fingernail to the bend towards the finger print whorl. but not past the bend.
follow dhodges advice.

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(@trguitar)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

Yeah, thats where mine are.

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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(@urbancowgirl)
Reputable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 428
 

Oo I am going to try the pencil trick because I have a bad habit of gripping the neck too tightly and not having that space between.

All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I should have been more specific.


   
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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
 

Mine are there too. I was gonna do the pencil test anyhow just to see, but I grabbed my guitar and fretted a chord. Plenty of space. I had just never heard of that test before.

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@joehempel)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 2415
 

Oo I am going to try the pencil trick because I have a bad habit of gripping the neck too tightly and not having that space between.

+1, thanks for the tip Alan!

In Space, no one can hear me sing!


   
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(@trguitar)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

I remember that pencil thing from way back when. Must have read it somewhere in a book cause there was no internet access in the 70's. :P

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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 EMT
(@emt)
Trusted Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 41
Topic starter  

thanks guys. it's good to know i'm not the only one trying to play with rolls of nickles. i mash the string with the tip but still have difficulty keeping the finger from getting the surrounding strings.

how far should the strings be from the frets at the top of the board?

red meat doesn't kill you, fuzzy green meat does.


   
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