Holding strings down on fretboard?

Question:

Holding strings down on fretboard?

What's the proper way to hold down strings on the fretboard of a guitar?

Thank you.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Just enough pressure to get a clear sound....place your finger as close to the fret as possible without being on it....have your nails on your left hand as short as possible....and try to keep your fingers perpendicular to the string.....a lot of my students think that you have to press very hard....not so....just enough to make a clear sound...practice everyday will help you to discover what is the right amount of pressure for you to use.... and this will be less painful as you develop the callouses necessary to play without pain.....also just remember, very short nails !!!!!!!!! thumb on the back of the wood to apply resistant pressure, keep your palm away from the back as much as you can and keep your other four fingers on the strings you are using, avoid holding down strings over the frets which are metallic and ruin the sound and also keep your finger over one string at a time, hard to do with thicker fingers but practice helps strengthen the muscles. Most beginners make the mistake of palming the neck of the guitar as though they were holding a baseball bat. You want to place the pad of your thumb against the back of the guitar neck, arch your wrist outwards away from you a bit, and keep your palm away from the back of the neck. Arch your fingers over the strings; you want to bring your fingers down from above onto the strings more or less vertical fashion rather than reaching across horizontally, and you should be contacting the strings with the very tips of your fingers rather than with the fleshy pads.

Stop the strings just behind the fret, as close to it as possible but not directly on top of the fret wire -- and push down only as hard as you need to, to get a clean sound. Your hand should be as relaxed as possible. Many beginners get into the habit of pressing too hard on the strings with a tense, vise-like grip, which makes playing really painful on the fingertips, and makes it impossible to develop any speed or dexterity in their playing. If you squeeze too hard and play with too much tension in your fretting hand, then everytime you change chords you have to consciously unclench your tensed up hand, move the fingers, and then squeeze again. Experiment. See how little pressure you can apply on the strings with your fretting hand and still get a clean sound.

If you find that the only way you can get a clean sound when fretting notes and chords is to clamp down hard with your fretting hand, then the action on your guitar (the distance between the strings and the fretboard) is too high. Take your guitar to a qualified repair person and have the action lowered. Depending on the chord formation, the thumb and the heel of the hand are most instrumental in assisting proper finger pressure on the fret board.

Bear in mind that many guitarists use their left thumb, rather than the forefinger, to bar the chord to attain a six-string chord. Using the thumb in this manner also helps in applying just enough finger pressure.

It's important to remember that constant practice and perseverance are crucial to becoming a good guitarist.