A Minor is Killing Me

Does anybody else have trouble with this? I have fairly short fingers. They aren't especially thick, but the only way that I can get all three strings to ring properly is to use the back of my fingernails to hold them down on the frets. I'm tearing the fingernails up and the damage seems risky since they're there to protect the skin underneath.

I'm not quitting by any means and I'm practicing every day, working on the chords I know and practicing the in combination for about an hour every day. I'm also a college student and there's not a lot more time than that to spare since I'm doing a ton of reading and I'm just not the type of person who can learn by doing a bunch of constant reading.

You should definitely NOT be playing with your fingernails on the strings :confused: I can't even picture what it is that you are doing. Either way, I can tell you it's wrong if you are damaging your fingernails. Always be playing on the tips of your fingers. Like if you are pointing at the fretboard through the string. Neither your nail, or the "pads" of your fingers should be touching the fretboard. Sometimes the pad is ok, but NEVER the nail......you aren't by any chance playing with your hand backwards and upside down are you :p .....that's the only way I can picture you playing with your fingernails holding down the string.

"A minor" is one of the easiest chords for me, and I have short fingers also.
It's just 3 fingers and they aren't even placed in an odd way. If anything, this is one of those most natural feeling chords for your hand I think. First let's see if you are actually playing it "correctly":

First finger should be on C (2nd string, 1st fret).
THIRD finger should be A (next string up on the 2nd fret).
Second finger (middle finger) right above the 3rd on E (4th string, 2nd fret).

For ANY chord that gives you trouble, there is always one piece of advice that everyone will always give you:

Start by placing one finger at a time. I would start with the "top" or middle finger. Place that down on the second fret and make sure it rings clearly. Then just add the next finger (3rd finger on A) and make sure they both sound clearly. Lastly, simply add the first finger.

Found this picture online:
http://i.ehow.co.uk/images/a04/or/pq/play-aminor-chord-guitar-800X800.jpg

I think it has to have something to do with finger strength. My index finger is coming up off the string. The more I work at it the more often it sounds right but it's not comfortable and I keep having to adjust the position of my hand. Hopefully I'll be getting lessons fairly soon, but the instructor hasn't given me a call to make arrangements to get in there and get one. It might help to have somebody else's hand on mine to put it where it needs to be, because I just can't keep everything in place and the only thing I can think of is that either my hands are too small or my fingers aren't strong enough.

It drives me up a cliff that it looks natural, too. It doesn't look like I should be struggling with it. I'm tempted to go into a closed room for a bit and practice that one chord for a while. My daughter's in bed and I don't want to wake her up.

Would be helpful if you took a picture of your hand. Either with a digital camera or just a camera phone.

Not sure why your index finger would be coming off. Can you place just your 2nd and 3rd fingers correctly? If you can, can you then just move your index finger up and down freely? Taking it on and off the first fret.

You should not be over-exerting any unnecessary pressure with your fingers. Play light and relaxed. You want to be pressing down only hard enough for the string to ring out, not really trying to touch the fretboard. Also, make sure you are right up against the fret. Too far back and you will just get buzzing.

I don't have enough light right now for a camera phone picture but I might try tomorrow. My digital camera isn't working properly and I don't want to fight with it when I feel like I've just spent the past two days fighting with my guitar lol

The string isn't ringing, and that's what's driving me crazy. I'm doing fine with the middle and ring fingers, but the index finger doesn't seem to be able to exert enough pressure. I'm assuming one or more of three problems: the first is that my fingernails need to be shortened because I can't get to the pad of my finger on that hand. I've just cut it back as far as I can and the nail still comes into contact with the string instead of the finger pad. (This is only a problem on this finger. All of the others are fine!) The second potential problem is that my finger just isn't strong enough to hold the string down. It seems to be coming up whenever I put any pressure on my middle finger, regardless of what I do with the ring finger. The third problem is that the practice itself is making me tense because I can't get the one string to ring no matter what I do and the mental tension is making me physically tense. The latter is mostly just causing me to get the shakes and to grip too tightly.

I've tried several angles without any change in results, and I'm becoming quite frustrated. If this is supposed to be easy, I don't know what I'm going to do when I get to hard!

Well, I'm going to assume you are basically brand new to guitar. Assuming this is true, I'd say you don't have to worry too much. Think of it this way: For your ENTIRE LIFE, your hands have been functioning at a very "primitive" level. All people really do with their hands is open and close them. When you jump on an instrument where you require finger dexterity, it is a COMPLETELY different thing for your hands. It's like a baby learning to walk. Your muscles are doing things that are completely new to them, so they need time to build and adjust. Finger strength and dexterity just come with time and practice. In a month, I'd bet you'll look back at this and wonder why it was ever an issue.

If you get tense and push yourself too hard, you most definitely can injure yourself. Yes, even working tiny muscles in the hand can lead to life long injuries. You should take a break if your hand ever starts to feel sore or cramped. Playing through the pain can lead to permanent injuries in your hand.

What happens when you work STARTING with the first finger? Does it immediately get thrown off when placing the 2nd, or does the 3rd mess it up? Also, still not understanding how your nail is touching any string at all. Hopefully that picture tomorrow will clear things up.

You might want to trim your fingernails, too. They are just going to get in the way and make things more difficult. It sounds like a bit of a coordination problem. Your fingers just may not be working together, yet. Like Hunter said, we start to play guitar and suddenly expect them to do some amazing acrobatics, but they don't have the experience or training yet. Don't give up!!

Try the warm up exercises on the site (ie: spiderlegs warm up) and they'll help you get all dexterous and coordinated.

Short fingers and finger strength don't affect your guitar playing. Instead, it's all about the way you position your hand. Look at your hand, from the bottom of your palm to the tip of your fingers. If that distance is greater than the width of the guitar neck, your hand is big enough to reach every string and play them clearly.

I have a feeling your thumb is wrapped around the guitar neck in a baseball bat-like grip. That will limit the reach of your fingers. Your thumb should be centered in the back of the neck, pointing upwards towards your face. It also should not point towards the tuning knobs...

Your palm should be jutting outwards away from your body.

You can see how this looks by watching this video of Jon Gomm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY7GnAq6Znw

When he's playing on the higher-pitched strings, his palm kind of sucks inwards towards his body, but when he's playing on the lower-pitched strings, it juts outward.

Hey unadulterated_devin,

Please take your guitar to a store and have them check the action on it. You want to rule out the possibility that the guitar is not set up right. If the strings are too high / too much tension it will be very hard to learn to play, and you might get discouraged and blame yourself for something mechanical.

At the store, they could lower the height of the strings to the neck, make sure the guitar is tuned to the right pitch, and maybe even give you lighter strings. It's naturally harder to push the strings down on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd fret because the tension of the string is higher there. As a beginner you want it to be as easy as possible, but later on you can adjust these things to your taste.

-Carl.

Is multi-quote for vBulletin a mod? I love it if it is and wish we had it right now :)

Thankfully, I think I found the problem. It seems that the earlier in the day I practice, the brighter I am and more likely to find problems instead of exacerbating them.

Hunter;

I am absolutely brand new to the guitar. I tried playing when I was younger but at that point my hands were too small to wrap around the neck of the guitar. I have extraordinarily small hands, palms and fingers alike. I've only met one adult with smaller hands than mine, so you can imagine in adolescence that this might have been an issue with a full sized guitar, since my hands hadn't grown into themselves yet. I used to play piano (self taught) with some success and have repeatedly struggled with the flute, which I want to be able to play but just don't have the mental energy for. My first teacher was so horrid to me (and not a good teacher either) that I find the instrument discouraging, particularly since my flute came to me needing to be re-keyed (that one was fun!).

Due to other activities that I've done, I'm accustomed to the need to achieve muscle memory and dexterity in other activities. I think that my initial concern was that nobody else seemed to be struggling with this so is it something wrong with me?

Razbo;

I cut my nails down as far as they'll go. The nail bed still extends beyond the tip of my index finger, which is part of why I think I'm having a problem. I feel forced to use the tip of my fingernail to hold down the string and that's not an effective way of doing what I'm trying to do (needless to say, I'm sure).

Do you have a link to the exercises to which you refer? I'm not sure where to find them.

maltmm;

You're right; a few minutes ago when I sat down more relaxed I discovered that the main problem appears to be that the angle of my hand was wrong. I'd realized this last night but upon experimentation I think I'm on track to get it into the position that I want. Angle is half of the problem, but it's a heavy contributor to the other problem; I'm not holding the strings down hard enough, so I'm not getting the proper tone. Now that I've got it figured out I think I can move forward without too much more disappointment!

Carl;

The guitar was checked over less than a week ago and everything was in order, so I don't think that it's the guitar itself. It seems that the angle of my thumb and wrist were awkward. My hands are recovering from years of knitting, which requires a different position but similar learning pattern (in terms of learning new muscle use, etc).

Thanks everybody! I'll let you know how it goes!

You can use the "search" function to find the spider legs stuff:
http://www.guitartricks.com/search.php?search.x=0&search.y=0&input=spider+legs

I'm just the opposite with big hands and fat fingers. Still I had/have the same problems with nailing the strings and notes. It is just a matter of keep adjusting your hands until you find the sweet spot for lack of a better term. I did have a better set of strings put on my guitar and the bridge lowered, these two things made a big different with my guitar. With this work done (cost 26 dollars) I was able to play the F Major right away. Still have to work on it when I’m running throw my cords, I’m a beginner like you. I went to the music store and got a Gripmaster Hand Strengthener.