[keslo66]

right ive got a few problems i was hoping you could help me with.

1. pressing the chords hurts my fingers after a while

2. i cant play chords like F where your index finger needs to cover the whole bar (maby because i have little hands)

3. i had a go at work as this bloke was practising and he said you dont just strike all the bars you sort of pick at them abit to get a better sound (not explaining very well)

4. i cant get my tuner to work, its a jhonson tuner with on off and batt. the batt works, but when i plug it in and onto a string it just stays at -50

i hope you can help

steph x

[Matty22]

keslo66,
im guessing you havent been playing that long (although i could be wrong)

1) being a newbie myself, it comes with time, toughenning up the skin on your finger tips, and strengthenning your hands/fingers takes time, but it does come, i found it got easier every time i play.

2) barre chords are tricky (my opinion anyway), im still having trouble with them, i know the shapes, and can play them smoothy, provided i can take 10 seconds to change from anything other than Am or C to F, lol

3) im not exactally sure what your asking, but if you look at a song like "Greenday time of your life" they way i played it with open strumming, sounded kinda empty, but adding a slight emphasis on certain strings, accentuated the sound, and sounded 100 times better (at the recommendation of certain forum members), but that also comes with time, i found, your ear develops for what sounds good and what sounds great.

4) Im afraid i dont know that model tuner, all i can suggest is that the volume on the guitar is turned up to full and on the neck pickup (being an electric guitar of course) or that the tuner mike is facing the sound hole on an accoustic, with as little background noise as possible...

Just my two bobs worth

Regards
Matty

[keslo66]

hi and thanks for your reply. yes i thinks that is what he was doing with the strings, and was abit annoyed that i couldnt do it. the tuner, i plug one end into the guitar and one into the tuner switch it to on and whichever string then strike that string but it doesnt work :S

at the moment im getting A, D and E practiced, trying to switch to them quickly ect. im trying to learn a song to boost my enthusiasm, im trying to learn the simpsons atm.

[cshude]

If your tuner is anything like mine, you have two jacks to plug into (one for input, one for output). Make sure that you are plugged into the input jack and also that you have the volume on your guitar turned up so that the tuner is getting signal. The only other thing I can think of is that possibly your guitar is so out of tune that the tuner is having a hard time identifying what string you are playing in order to help you tune it. If that is the case, there are plenty of sites on the net that will give you the tones to tune to by ear, then you can use your tuner to dial it in from there.

As far as barre chords go, you'll get them as you practice and your hands and fingers strengthen. Nobody gets them right straight off the bat when learning. Hang in there!

[notallthere]

Just a tip, I had the same problems as you all, but I recently got a setup done on my guitar with Light strings and it is 100 times easier now....Yes, I know light strings=less volume, but hey; I'm a newbie and squeaking still sounds good to me

[Hero]

practice

[Bennett]

Originally Posted by keslo66

1. pressing the chords hurts my fingers after a while

As mentioned by Matty, this will just take time. As you develop the callouses on your fingertips this will become less of an issue; they may still hurt after awhile, but that 'while' will become longer and longer. After nearly a year of playing my fingertips only get a little sore after about 2-3hrs of play (on average I play about 1 hr a day).

Originally Posted by keslo66

2. i cant play chords like F where your index finger needs to cover the whole bar (maby because i have little hands)

Barre chords take quite some time to master. One thing that has helped me learn barre chords is to spend time analyzing your position and determining which strings are not being fretted properly. Basically just pick each string in turn and determine which ones are not ringing properly; then make small adjustments to get all strings ringing clearly.

This can be frustrating and your hands will protest a bit being forced to adopt positions that you've probably never put them into in the past. So just keep at it and it will come.

Also, think about which strings need to be fretted. For example, a B major barre chord is x24442. When I play this I leave out the high E string, so I play x2444x. Now, with this method, my index finger only has to fret the A string 2nd fret; I don't have to use it as a barre.

Same applies to other barre chords as well; you don't have to bar any strings that are already being fretted further up the neck.

Originally Posted by keslo66

3. i had a go at work as this bloke was practising and he said you dont just strike all the bars you sort of pick at them abit to get a better sound (not explaining very well)

Not entirely sure what you're asking here, but if I interpret it the same as Matty does then you're talking about cross-picking or something similar. This is basically just a mix of strumming and picking to add flavour to a song. As Matty suggests, a good example is Green Day's Good Riddance. You can find a good lesson on it here. Just go to the Free Lessons area.

[SkyNet]

3. i had a go at work as this bloke was practising and he said you dont just strike all the bars you sort of pick at them abit to get a better sound (not explaining very well)


Perhaps what he meant was that when you're practicing and learning chords pluck each note to make sure that it rings. It's harder to hear notes that are muffled if your strumming the chord.

[keslo66]

thanks for the replys. yes i think he was accentuating (sp) different strings in the chord. it did sound so much better but he didnt explain it very well at all. just did it himself and got annoyed i couldnt do it.

i had a look through the link, thanks. i didnt come across any strumming techniques but ill have a better look another time.

[guttertrashsingalong]

just keep practicing and try stretching a lil(not popping)before ya play for a few mins the more ya do it the easier.just think in a few weeks your tips will be tough enough to do the CLAW

[metalkour]

make you fingers stronger with heavy strings and then drop down to light
also in guitar world jeff lomis (nevermore) suggested 45 mins of acoustic play at max speed then when you switch to electric it will feel like your flying (and it truly does) and thats asuming you have electric and acoustic