Fretting Hand

Technique Explained
To Build Great Technique, You Must
“woodshed” Your Practice By Thinking
of These Techniques and Working
Them Until They Are 2nd Nature.

1. Play On Your Finger TIPS! Not the pads of your

finger - unless you are playing bar chords! Don’t
get lazy as this is the cornerstone of ALL playing.
You have to press a LOT harder when you are not
on your fingertips.

2. Play Directly Behind The Fret. If you play back

further from the fret, you will have to press a LOT
harder AND you will get string buzzing and muting
(when you don’t want it). Do yourself a favor and
 stay RIGHT behind the fret. Make sure you are not
going over the fret though.

3. Curl The Last Knuckle of Your Fretting Hand

Fingers. This will allow the strings underneath
your fingers to vibrate. Often people won’t curl
the last knuckle and they will end up muting
strings that were intended to vibrate. This
technique takes some time to master, but once
you do start getting it, it will help your playing by
leaps and bounds.

4. Leave Some Space Between The Palm of Your

Hand and The Guitar Neck. This helps to keep the
hand out in front of the guitar neck. Essentially,
this “gives you a bigger hand”. This technique
does not feel natural, so you MUST practice this a
LOT before it starts to feel natural. It also DOES
require more strength, but once you master this
technique, it will make everything SO much easier.
Trust me; I’ve tried it both ways!
5. For Bar Chords, Hyperextend Your “Barred”
Finger (usually the 1st finger). Doing this, will
allow for equal pressure across all the strings. If
your “bar” finger is bent at all, your bar chord will
not be complete.

6. Arpeggiate Through The Chords Slowly To

Determine That You Are Getting Every Note In
Your Chord To Sound. Slowly arpeggiate (pick
individual notes on your chord) your chords when
you are unsure of your fingering. Doing so will
allow you to:
a. Determine if a string is not playing
b. Determine WHY the string is not playing
c. Correct your fingering – Our brains have an
uncanny sense of correction, but you DO have
to tell it when it’s making a mistake. If you
don’t, you will keep making the same mistake
as you have not told your brain to correct it.