Hey & welcome to GT!

Originally Posted by: conorgenovesi1

I can't seem to get the hang of making sure strings im not pressing down on being able to be played. like the string below the one im currently fretting, i'm not sure what to do exactly. I can keep curling my hand and fingers till eventually this doesn't happen but that hurts my hand.

You want to keep your fingertip, from the last knuckle down, as close as reasonably possible to straight down into the string. And place it as close as possible to the fret.

But if your fingers touch adjecent strings it is not necessarily a problem. Sometimes it's beneficial because it can help to mute other strings from ringing or making unwanted noise.

Make sense? Hope that helps!