Fingers refuse to cooperate.

Hi to everyone, I am Alex from Montréal, Canada. This is first time in my life I try to learn playing guitar and I already have a huge struggle. My fretting hand , I absolutely have almost no control over the fingers, especially how teacher show in the video lesson, each finger suppose to cover each fret parallel to each other, mine are all tilted in opposite directions and I have particularly hard time to cintrol 3rd finger (during spider legs exercise) Any suggestions how to train your fretting fingers stay more parallel to eachother like a fork :) because everytime I try to spread them to keep 1 finger per fret they curv in to a bowl shape and I can not control them to remain straight. Thank you for help in advance.

Alex

Situation normal. Your fingers are learning to do things they've never done before. Practice is the cure. ;-)

BTW, "Fingers refuse to cooperate" is the best and most succinct description of the process of learning guitar I've ever heard.

Thank you for advise faith83. I guess there is no other trics or techniques other than just intense practice and patience and for the title :) thats exactly how I felt when I first tried powerless.

Originally Posted by: atfx

Hi to everyone, I am Alex from Montréal, Canada. This is first time in my life I try to learn playing guitar and I already have a huge struggle. My fretting hand , I absolutely have almost no control over the fingers, especially how teacher show in the video lesson, each finger suppose to cover each fret parallel to each other, mine are all tilted in opposite directions and I have particularly hard time to cintrol 3rd finger (during spider legs exercise) Any suggestions how to train your fretting fingers stay more parallel to eachother like a fork :) because everytime I try to spread them to keep 1 finger per fret they curv in to a bowl shape and I can not control them to remain straight. Thank you for help in advance.

Alex

Be sure that you review the ergonomics lessons if you haven't already or review again if needed. While finger placement and comfort is one of the more challenging (or complained about, really) beginner issues. Very few people don't have to deal with that. You are in very good company. Or as faith said; situation normal.

But everyone's arms and fingers and different and what is confortable to one person is not for another. For my wife, who just started playing, it's much easier to have the rounded 'butt' of the guitar between her knees. For me, Ive been playing for a very long time and have pretty much always played with a strap whether sitting or standing because it helps me have my guitar where I want it.

So send some time fidding with where the guitar feels best and then you may find that you don't need to contort your fingers to fret notes.

Hang in there Alex. Trust Lisa McC., trust the process, and let yourself be convinced that if you practice regularly and don't get discouraged your fingers will slowly learn to do this weird stuff. Let it develop slowly and try not to pressure yourself. I think most of us beginners find out that this is harder than expected and have to adjust our expectations. So be patient and persistent and you will get it.