My humble confession - this is going to hurt. Be kind!

[DownUpDave]

It took real courage on your part to put this out there. But it is doing the guitar community a good service, if we learn from our mistakes or others we are all better off.. If I listed all my mistakes I would crash the interwebs

[upsidedown]

Originally Posted by jazzguy

Anyone else brave enough to confess their guitar revelations?

Yes. And here's mine; I never even thought about fingering close to the fret until I read your post.

Thanks for the tip!

[SprintBob]

The OP’s thread reaffirms the concept of Occam’s Razor in that sometimes the solution to what seems a complicated/complex issue is the simplest answer that is lying right in front of you.

I’ve had a couple of those on my guitar journey so this is a re-affirming thread.

[Glennwillow]

Regarding the placement of a finger in the middle of the fret rather than up against or near the fret wire, I could have easily ended up doing that myself since I was also self taught. However, the very first time I picked up a guitar, the guitar I first bought from a very good female guitar player, she told me, "No, put your finger right behind the fret wire, not in between..."

So, from day one I knew the rule. She saved me a lot of trouble.

I'm sure I have plenty of bad habits, too. I'm sure many of us do. I always think of the way James Taylor plays some of his chords. And yet his playing generally sounds pretty good to me. I tell myself it's about the overall sound in the end. This isn't a classical guitar course at some university where we are going to get a grade. It's about experiencing music on a personal level. With all the stresses, anxieties, and craziness in this world around us, personal experience with music can take on some real significance for maintaining sanity and fending off depression. So many times music and the guitar have saved me.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

- Glenn

[Crazyguitardj]

Confession:
I still can't play B7...

While I strive to place my finger right behind the fret there are some chords that are best effort. No point in feeling bad about it as long as it's musical.

[Sponserv]

One of my favorite expressions. :

I am built upon all of the mistakes I have ever made.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

Interesting. I was taught the opposite, that the pinkie ought to be braced. Which is what I've been doing for the past 45 years.

When I first started playing the guitar at age 16 back in 1964 I figured out that the only way I was going to know where my fingers were relative to the strings was to use my pinky finger on the top of the guitar as a locator point. I don't "anchor" my pinky to the top; there is no significant pressure. And in fact, my pinky finger moves on and off the top of the guitar fairly frequently depending on what or how I am playing.

There have been countless debates on the AGF about whether it's proper or not to allow your pinky finger to touch the top of the guitar. Many self-taught players, including me, do it. Tommy Emmanuel does it. Chet Atkins did it. Eric Clapton does it. It seems to me that most players who have been taught by an instructor avoid this technique, though not all. James Taylor is pretty much self-taught, and he mostly keeps his pinky off the top of the guitar.

Having the pinky finger on the top of the guitar is probably not an ideal technique. I have experimented with tucking my pinky finger in while finger picking. I can do it and I can play accurately. But doing this introduces a level of stress into my playing, which I really don't like. I like being relaxed when I am playing and when I relax, my pinky finger knows where it wants to go. Then again, after 55 years of fairly intense desire to play the guitar, I'm sure much of what I do with my pinky finger is just plain habit.

- Glenn

[tippy5]

This is one of the reasons I like Gibsons over Martin. Martin's 16" fretboard radius and the vintage fret wire I call stubbing my fingers. A rounder fretboard you can cozy up to the frets (if needed in a song/passage).

I play a lot of different positions and genres sometimes you just have to let it fly. Mando players really point their fingers into the frets. Classical acoustic guitar, Christopher Parkening types, not so much. More vertical hand and finger positioning on both the thumb and the fretting four fingers.

[DungBeatle]

Originally Posted by Crazyguitardj

Confession:
I still can't play B7...

I can play the B7 but the F major? Geeze do I stink.
~Bob

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Crazyguitardj

Confession:
I still can't play B7...

You know, B7 has never been one of my favorite chord positions, either. I'd rather play a barre chord B than a first position B7.

In recent years I have found that a very fast and easy way to play B7, especially when finger picking, where I can avoid plucking the high E string, is to not bother placing the fretting hand pinky finger on the F# note on the high E string (2nd fret, 1st string).

As in illustration of this abbreviated B7 idea, see the video below. If you go to about 2:40 on the video to give yourself enough time to hear a little clip of the song, I go to a B7 at about 2:46 using this simplified technique. To get away with this, again, I purposely do not pick the high E string.



Maybe this is not a very useful suggestion, but it helped me to realize I could simplify a little on a chord shape that I always found awkward.

- Glenn

[Ten]

I’ve had teachers go both ways on the pinky too. I agree with Glennwillow that reducing stress is more important than whether it touches or not.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Crazyguitardj

Confession:
I still can't play B7...

Not clear why this would be a problem chord in the open position. Perhaps a bit in the second fret barre position.

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by Lkristians

"Tis better to have played with a buzz,
thank to never have played at all."
LarryK.

Aaaaah the days of my youth

[zmf]

Confession?

I'm self-taught too and I don't have any guitar playing issues.
That I know of.