electric guitar technique

[marty bradbury]

Hi Folks. Started playing electric last August. Before that time it was Acoustic. Odd question but when playing acoustic I always focused on the tips of my fingers pressing the strings. I notice that on some "electric" videos the players would use the pads of his/her fingers. Is there a specific reason for this?

Thanks,

[Glennwillow]

Hi Marty,

I think people learn to do what's comfortable and what's easiest. Over time I think we do tend to look for easier ways to do things on the guitar. Many players, particularly if they have long enough fingers, may not arch their fingers very much to play various chords or shapes. As long as your other fingers don't interfere with any other strings, there is no problem.

When a person arches their fingers more, then we tend to play more with our finger tips. When we don't, we tend to play more with the wider pad of our finger tips.

It takes more effort to arch one's fingers and do things properly. I know that I don't arch my fingers any more than I have to, but sometimes I do have to because I can't play some shape or chord cleanly. And then I'm reminded -- hey, you need to arch your fingers more. And of course, that solves the problem.

I hope this is a little helpful. And I hope you and your wife are both well, Marty!

- Glenn

[marty bradbury]

Thank you so much Glenn. Makes sense. Hope your family is doing well also. Thank you for asking.

[Pine Cone]

I have played acoustics for decades using my fingertips.

With electrics, especially with lighter gauge strings (6/1000" to 10/1000") using the pads of my fingers allows me to mute adjacent strings or fret 2 or 3 strings with a single finger.

Light strings will often go out of pitch easier if I use my fingertips. I also tend to fret electric strings very close to the frets for cleaner tone.

[lowrider]

I'm only in my third week of playing electric and I've already noticed myself playing with the pads of my fingers. With such light strings, it' so easy that I seem to be just doing what works.

[warfrat73]

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

I find on electric that I more frequently play partial barre chords and double stops, both of which call for smooshing your finger across multiple strings. There's also more occasion to mute adjacent strings.

If, however, you're talking about just single note runs, then it's probably just sloppy technique. Possibly related is the fact that a lot of people also like to sling their electric guitars low because the think it looks cool, which ergonomically makes using fingertips near impossible, and even if they're not doing that in the video, it could be that that habit of slinging the guitar low has reinforced the habit of poor left hand technique.

You can also just kind of get away with it more because of the lower action and lighter strings on electrics.

[Steve DeRosa]

^^^^^ What he said... ^^^^^

[jseth]

Marty, for me, playing the electric guitar is SO different than playing an acoustic...

I find there's lot more technique involved with damping strings on the electric guitar; not allowing extraneous vibrating strings to sound. To that end, using the pads of my fingers, especially for chording in the classic "Rock and Roll" style, is very useful. I use both my fretting hand and my picking hand to dampen strings.

Whereas with an acoustic guitar, one of the things I LOVE about the sound is when sympathetic strings ring out within a chord or passage of notes... heck, one of my criteria for an acoustic guitar is that it is resonant and lively in this regard.(Probably why I'm not a big fan of the classic Gibson acoustic sound!)

As I say, while it's true that both guitars have 6 strings and a fretboard... playing an electric vs. an acoustic can be like night and day!

And Viva la difference!!!

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Hi Folks. Started playing electric last August. Before that time it was Acoustic. Odd question but when playing acoustic I always focused on the tips of my fingers pressing the strings. I notice that on some "electric" videos the players would use the pads of his/her fingers. Is there a specific reason for this?

Thanks,

With an electric its generally more important to actively mute the strings adjacent to the ones you are playing. Even when strumming a full chord shape I generally dont want all the strings ringing at once, so I might be muting part of the chord at least some of the time.

At least for me, acoustic is generally the exact opposite, I almost invariably try to keep as many sympathetic notes ringing as I can, and I figure out my arrangements with this in mind. Even when this isnt necessarily the goal, any unintentional noise made by an adjacent string is generally not going to be so noticeable as it will be with an electric guitar, so I dont tend to be as careful about it.

If your goal is to keep adjacent strings ringing, you are going to fret notes totally differently than if you are intentionally trying to mute them.

[marty bradbury]

Greta tips! Thank you,