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Old June 2nd, 2006
si16 si16 is online now
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Playing guitar for over 5 years.
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Last Online: 1 Hour Ago 07:29 PM
Location: Scotland
Posts: 5,394


After watching some of your videos some members made some technical comments that might help you. One is that you might try holding your guitar at a bit more of an angle ie with the headstock pointing more towards the ceiling as opposed to parallel to the floor.

To illustrate here's a video of the great Chet Atkins who many people consider to be the ultimate fingerstyle guitarist. His guitar points up at a bit of an angle, similar to the classical position. Try experimenting to see if your ability to stretch the fingers and form chord positions improves with different angles.

Also try not to tilt the body of your guitar towards you as this could also be hindering your ability to reach. Remember, if you do try changing the position of your guitar it will feel strange at first and will probably make it a bit harder to play. I would recommend that you persevere though as these changes could improve your fingering skills and improve your reach and, ergonomically speaking, will also cause less discomfort.

You could also try altering the fingerings and positions of the notes in the piece you are playing that occur before the movement up the fretboard so that they are a bit closer.

I know that you practise chromatic exercises to warm up, try playing them all the way up and down the neck.

These are not criticisms, Kush, just a few pointers that may help with your playing. Give them a good try and if they don't work out then you can always come back to your current position with which you are able to achieve such good results.

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