Consider these 3 things:
1) It is easier to press the strings down more intently if you have some kind of “point” to your approach, as if you were pointing to the string you wanted to push.
2) The hardest part of your finger is the tip, where the bone is closest beneath the skin is on the tip of your finger. Using this surface you won’t need to press as hard as you would if you were trying to make firm contact with the “fleshy” part of your finger.
3) When playing chords it is easier to place your fingers between the strings if you are using the tips. In fact its not possible to squeeze them in between two strings if you don’t sometimes.
Thanks for the great tip. Fortunately I’ve already developed that on chords, but with single notes I’m sure I forget sometimes, especially when trying to do clean pull offs. In my early beginnings I was one of those guys who squeezed the hell out of the neck.
I’m getting a lot better at this technique, but I’m glad you made me fully conscious.
It’s too easy to forget some of the most basic concepts, especially when we make a huge leap in our playing and our confidence goes up. That’s when the old/bad habits can find their way back into your playing, then we find ourselves at a loss when we plateau again.
10-4 Sensei!
Haha… yeah great comment!
If there’s one thing that I can say made me really confident in my playing… it’s being a teacher. Because when you teach for 10 years+, everyday you are always going over the basics with people who haven’t developed them yet and it really keeps you focused on the foundations of what makes for great technique and guitar playing.
Love your comments!
Tips like this is what young guitarist need.
Keep them coming.
Thanks for the kind words Bob! Be sure to share with friends. We have a lot more tips and lessons coming your way so stay tuned!
Mike D
wish i could get all this info down or sent through the mail my printer dnt work . thanks phil.
Hey Phil,
Thanks for the comment. When you say get all this info down, do you mean just understand or be able to download it to your computer? I’m always looking for better ways to help the members so let me know and I’ll see what I can do
Mike D