Learn to Play Guitar - Important Finger Position Tips

Pick up almost any "How To Play Guitar" book, flick through the first few pages and what do you notice? If you have been playing guitar for a while you most likely have accumulated quite a few of these books in your guitar library.

Now would be a good time to stop reading this and go dig these publications out; have a closer look and if you are particularly observant you will most likely notice that whilst the opening pages have different images the information regarding finger placement is essentially the same.

Well shouldn't the basic information be the same, after all they are presenting information for the newbie guitarist? Surely the basic's must be the same no matter what style of guitar playing; to the uninitiated this statement would seem logical, however to the professional 'street smart' guitarist it's obvious that there's trouble ahead.

Let's take a closer at some of the long range problems.

In this article I'll focus on three common finger tip positioning issues that need to be addressed and understood if you want to create professional guitar sounds, the type of guitar playing you hear on recordings.

Finger position Tip #1: Classical verses popular guitar styles.

Earlier I mentioned about the information in almost all beginner guitar books being essentially the same (only the images are different); unfortunately this is where the problems start the fingering positioning shown in most instances are taken from CLASSICAL guitar technique studies and disciplines, if you are playing classical guitar there's no problem whatsoever, if you are not, read on...

If you play or intend to play any other style of guitar other than classical or flamenco style guitar played on a nylon strung guitar you need to be aware of the following issues:

(1) The fingering positions shown relate to nylon strung guitars with a wide fingerboard and plucked with the right hand fingers; the strings have to be spaced wider to facilitate the right hand finger technique hence the neck needs to be wider.

(2) Classical guitar is played with the guitarist resting their guitar on their left leg; the left leg in turn is raised by placing their foot on a footstool.

Now, if you are trying to achieve the sound and feel that guitarists such as Eric Clapton, B.B King or Angus Young get from their instrument you simply won't get if from this finger positioning!

The a fore mentioned classical technique is correct for classical players so that the player does not injury their hand, if you play rock, jazz, blues, country, folk or any other popular style you are bound to run into the following problems, here's just a few to get you thinking.

Finger position Tip #2: feedback issues for rock

If you stand your fingers on the finger tips as promoted by the classical method the first issue you have to deal with is the 'overtone' problems. Overtones are other notes playing in sympathy with the note you are playing, the problem is they will start playing all by themselves; if left unchecked you will have an orchestra of bizarre notes playing in the background which results in a sloppy out-of-tune guitar style.

Solution: While certain chords require you to have your fingers standing on their tips guitarist need to adopt a style of playing that blocks the unwanted and un-played open strings to prevent nasty overtones.

Finger position Tip #3: funk and R&B style guitar playing

If your style is R&B or funk you must develop a technique that blocks out all the other strings that you are not playing when you are strumming, often only one note is sounding whilst the other five strings are being strummed creating a percussive, stringy effect.

Classical technique is definitely out here!

It should be obvious from the above information that the authors of the majority of "Learn To Play" guitar books have (a) never played in a professional recording studio where the overtone problems are painfully obvious; or (b) playing in a high quality group consisting professional musicians playing rock, pop, jazz etc., authentically again the disastrous results would speak for themselves!

But then again they would never have to confront these problems because they would be busy writing books on how to play the guitar wouldn't they? I'm not trying to be funny the problem is serious it's easy to write a book without any practical experience in a particular field the internet is flooded with 'expert authors'; the problem is identifying quality, useful information from the garbage.

Trying to play rock guitar with classical guitar technique is like trying to play tennis with a cricket bat... you are definitely off to a bad start! Hopefully I've started you thinking and questioning the material you are studying, ask yourself "Is the material I are studying serving me?" Will it give me the results I want to achieve on the guitar?

Looking for MORE great tips? Check out our FREE guide here: Learn to Play Guitar

Learn to Play Guitar - Important Finger Position Tips