Originally Posted by: Beo420

Hello everyone,

Let me start off by saying i absolute love this website and work you guys put into it, the content, lessons and general feel is great, thanks for your hard work.

A little background info about myself:

I have always wanted to learn guitar but was forced by parents to play piano instead, i liked it but always thought about guitar and that has been my dream since i was 8 or so, wish i had done this 20 years ago but here we are, i finally made the big move and stopped finding excuses to follow this secret passion of mine, i want to learn to play on electric guitar, so i bought everything i need and started 3 weeks ago.

Now i unfortunately have few challenges to overcome and disadvantages, i am half blind, have short crooked fingers and had double fracture on my left wrist few years ago, but i am doing excercise 20 minutes twice a day to extend the range of my wrist and fingers and lets see if it gets better within a year so far i practice 2 hours a day, for past 3 weeks, bloody fingers, frustration, despair, but also happiness and joy when things go right to sum it up and i dont plan on quitting as long as i am capable to learn and play.

Now if you managed to read to this point i thank you and am glad to be part of this community, and i have 1 question to ask:

The first song i am learning, apart from techniques, practice, music theory etc. is Blitzkrieg bob by Ramones, due to the reasons above i am having a hard time reaching 3 frets with 3 fingers, as everyone else is playing, after 20 minutes i have wrist pain and i cant continue, so i switched it and i use index for 3rd fret and pinky for 5th fret for example, 4 fingers for 3 frets, instead of 4 frets, it is MUCH MUCH better and i improved and nothing hurts.

The question therefore is, do you think I should play like everyone else and practice so i can reach 4 frets with 4 fingers and go through the pain and frustration so i dont limit myself or should I play alternatively by what is comfortable for me and in the long run in the future i would run into massive issues when i would have to play 4 notes using 4 fingers on 4 frets?

What do you think?

Thank you! Have a nice day!

Welcome.

Though it sounds like an uphill battle a bit due to some challenges you have physically, it sounds like it's still possible for you to play guitar. The longer you stay at Guitar Tricks, the more you'll see many (all) folks have some challenge or another. I've been playing a long time and as I get older, my hands aren't what they used to be. With that said; do what most folks recommend doing when you're thinking that physical challenges might get in the way, watch a video of Django Reinhardt. He played with two fingers due to an inury he suffered. And his playing is beautiful and he became a legend.

So, there is always a way to figure it out.

Which brings us to the crux of your question regarding changing up how you hold or fret a chord; do whatever it takes to make it work. It's a simple as that. For you, that Django reference is even more relevent. To play, Django had to completely rethink how he played (he'd already been an established player prior to his injuries). The same applied here. If you need to fret differently to get the job done because of phyical limitations, then that's what you need to do.

My hand issues are quite minor. I'm 55 and been playing since 1982. At one point, I could 'shred'...as if that mattered. Recent years presented me with some periodic wrist and index finger issues. Nothing too big but it gets in the way sometimes. The truth is, there's just some chords I can't do, like a G7 that's used often enough in some songs I've need to play recently. Ain't gonna happen though! So I adapt and just not strum the full 6 strings when I was playing those songs. Is it the 'right' way? Nope. But it was the only way it was going to happen.

In the end, for all guitar players, it's an adaption to what physical skills we do have and those we don't. That includes every guitar to ever play the instrument. So, you can slowly try to see if the 'right' way works for you and build on the ability to do a chord the proper way but if that is just not in the cards, then do it that you can do it.

So, you're in good company and I say continue on.