Fingers hurt from playing guitar? Try this!

hi guys wenamebooster here again and in this lesson we're just taking a quick look at how hard and exactly where you should place your fingers in the threat now it's a fact of any learning guitarist that so many learning guitarists press down far too hard on their instrument probably is a product of strings not quite ringing outright people just kind of develop this gorilla grip which a lot of my students kind of nicknamed it and it does prevent speed and an effortless plane and also means you your finger ends just hurt far too you know far too much to even continue playing maybe which is a real shame so if from using this quick exercise hopefully this will help you guys let's zoom in to a close-up to check it out okay guys let's cure your gorilla grip and for a breakdown of exactly all this lesson plan so you can follow the steps yourself another time do check out the link below but you can also follow the steps here so we want to find out just as an example find at the fifth fret on your thickest east ring now on this particular guitar that's the first dot here many guitars have a dotter third fret but you can also kind of count up from zero so one two three four and we're going to use fifth fret just as an example and what I want you to do is just place that exactly on the dot itself right in the middle of the fret and press down exactly as you normally would and give how much you're pressing down a number between one and ten doesn't really matter what this number is but C ten like making the tightest fist that you possibly can and pressing down as hard as you can and then one one wouldn't even ring out so light that it doesn't even ring out so give yourself a number between one and ten keine now you're probably in fact I'm not going to ask you I'm gonna ask you in a second okay whatever your number is and let's press down exactly that amount and I want you to play just pick ideally with a pick as well the best on with a pick so we can it as clearly note as we can and play a one-note kind of every second which by the way something you should do when you're tuning your guitar as well just keep playing and gradually with your first finger relaxed down the numbers so imagining that you started off at I don't know eight gradually go to seven and six and five really slowly so that it kind of starts to buzz and then the note just stops ringing out altogether because we've got maybe down to a two or two one now at whatever point when you were playing that that note started to buzz press down that amount but move your finger over to this side of the fret so we want to be at your side of the fret basically between where the dot is and the threat itself we want to be exactly here so we want to see this is the bad side of the fret and this is the good side of the fret position your finger here and press down that amount where you were just kind of tutoring on it vibrating but it is still ringing out don't press on anymore than just that little bit of buzzing but still sounding pretty good if you can just get rid of that buzzing but again if you're pressing down any harder than you need to please don't and then think of what number that is compared to where you start to remember that notes ringing out exactly the same at an estimate if you started off at a six you might have been able to get that down that might be a three or a four now that's what my students tend to see um and then we're going to move our first finger over to the bad side of the fret over to this side so let's press down that same amount three or four and see what happens and give it a go now and we should get kind of this sound just a third right three or four it's not ringing out you have to press down kinda are substantially harder ok maybe even like a protein 6 or a 7 to press down which may be how much you are pressing down at the start so if we're to position your finger at this side of the fret of the good side this site your side of the dots you can press down substantially less and that's going to really help you for any of your chord shapes or any single notes that you ever play on guitar if you're say you're taking it the way that I teach in a chord right like this a lot of times this first finger just doesn't ring out okay this one can't help but bust that one finger has to press down a little bit more than the others but don't press down any harder with the other fingers while you're doing this and hopefully you can repeat this exercise with any of your other fingers so say your middle one press down the normal amount keep playing once per second go really gradually less and less until you stop swinging out and then play that note again just to tree on the edge move to the bad side of the fret if it still rings out the other side of the fret you're pressing on too hard you need to position your finger at this side and have it still sounding pretty good if we're playing really high up the fretboard so say somewhere near the the double dot up here and we want to be leaning kind of on this side of practice even my fairly small fingers and fill up the whole fret but if I lean on this side of the fret it doesn't sound very good if I press on the same amount and lean at this side of the Fred you know I have to be pressing at this side and kind of straight on something this way it suddenly starts that was so finger placement is so important and often in kind of the heat of the moment with songs is the first thing to kind of go so taking the just the first three chords at this beginners course and you got an e everything should be pretty much as far over this way as possible and sounding pretty good you're a your first finger is going to be at this side so that one needs to be pressed on a little bit harder but the other ones as long as they're right on their tips they should all ring out fairly easily without pressing on too hard and using a capo which we've just covered in the last lesson here and can really help to kind of squash these strings down and make everything easier to press because if these things are really high off the fretboard it's going to be much more difficult to kind of press down so maybe use a capo or use the songs in my beginners course with a capper which are listed and to make sure that you are kind of using the instrument in the right way so feel free to repeat that exercise with your other fingers try it high try it low but that's just it a bit of an eye-opener for for a lot of my students in private lessons so hopefully that will cure your gorilla grip maybe and hopefully you've enjoyed I'll see you again