I am a beginner. My fingers don't stay parallel while pressing on the fret. I do arch the wrist. The problem is when the fingers approach the strings particularly the middle and ring finger they tend to land together around the same fret. Also arching the wrist causes pain in the wrist and the forearm. Moving sideways and vertically is painful on the spider exercise.
Learning to play guitar is a lot like learning to play golf (I enjoy both). They both take a lot of time and patience. I remember way back during my first months of learning guitar. If I tried to play a "d' chord it was all just dead strings when I strummed it. I told my instructor that my hands would never be able to make those shapes and maybe I just wasn't cut out to play guitar. He told me to remain patient and to practice. He was right.
The shapes start getting burned into muscle memory and you will improve rather quickly. Before you know it you'll be ale to play any chord and learn to start soloing if you go that direction.
There's no substitute for paitence and practice. Good luck!
Just to chime in here. try to play without arching your wrist, and don't do anything that causes pain, it can lead to serious issues in the future!
But like Jeffo said, it takes practice to build the muscle memory. It takes a lot of time to get the basic foundations down. Be patient, it'll work out. Just keep in mind, if it's painful, stop doing it, and try holding the guitar with your wrist straight. This may be challenging at first and you might feel that your fingers aren't reaching far enough, but if you practice this way, which is the right way, you'll eventually get the hang of it.
- Billy
Thanks guys. At this time even I feel like this is an almost impossible task. But I will keep at it.
jits50,
I feel your pain. But, it does get better. I practice the spider exercise every time I pick up the guitar to practice. It's the first thing I do to help warm up the fingers as well as develop dexterity. I also practice with a metronome, picking a string with every tick of the metronome. It's better to start out slow and accurate, than fast and jumbled. I still have issues with it, but it's better than when I started. Pain is a bad thing, so you might want to try higher up on the fret board, where the frets are closer together so you're not stretching your fingers too far apart, or contorting your hand to make it work. Then, work your way back towards fret 1 as your fingers and hands get used to it. I've seen that tip for other things and thought you might want to try that for the spider exercise. Good luck!!
Jits as everyone said it does take time to develop the technique, but I do have a question for you. You said you are arching your wrist. My wrist stays straight when I am doing the spider exercise, but my fingers are arching as I play the strings. Maybe the pain is from arching your wrist too much. The spider exercise is about bending your fingers so that the tip of your finger is holding down the strings. Hope this helps
i am now practicing on a 3/4 acoustics guitar. A little bit less painful but you need to press harder than electric guitar. Arching the fingers becomes necessary if you want to just press with your finger tips.
Thats true jits and you are discovering that the tips of the fingers is what you want to work on. Is the wrist much less bent than before? To develop calluses on your fingers quickly within a couple weeks, when you are done playing soak your fingers in rubbing alcohol and just let it dry on your fingers.. That will help.
