fretting hand and its finger position

[speakmon]

I've been working on my new acoustic for two weeks now and I've got a question about my fretting hand.

The suggestion is "one fret, one finger" so that I always use the same finger on the same fret (in any given position). My first thought is that my fingers should be roughly parallel to the frets when I play. But when I try to play some chords that are on three frets like Dm or C, my hand starts cramping up when I try to spread my fingers that far. I found after a little experimenting that if I tilt my hand toward the nut a bit that it's a little easier to reach some notes than others.

I don't want to get a bad habit, so does anyone have any thoughts as to what to do?

TIA,
--Ben

[mjamer]

That's all part of the process (the cramping from time to time). If you take your leg for instance and hold it straight out to the side of you, eventually you'll cramp doing that as well. The more you do it, it wont cramp as much until finally not at all.

It's "better" to try and keep your hand parallel. You'll build those muscles that cramp and be a happier person later. Keeping your hand parallel allowes your finger tips to come down definitively on the strings to fret the chords so that they're not mistakenly touching others. To me it feels much easier to change chords (including changing from open to barre chords) with your hand parallel. Also look to see that you're keeping your forearm parallel kinda like how you'd have it if you were curling barbells in a gym or something.

When it starts to hurt/cramp up.. take a break to rotate your wrists around and stretch your fingers.

Oh yeah, where is your thumb when playing the Dm? Wrapped around the neck? Or resting in the middle underneath the G string? Underneath the G or slightly to the B string is where it should be.

(note: not to confuse you, but there are styles where the thumb wraps around)

I hope this helps =)

mjamer

[cyberfret]

I found after a little experimenting that if I tilt my hand toward the nut a bit that it's a little easier to reach some notes than others.

Actually, for most open position chords, tilting a little is the way to go. And you can keep your thumb up a little (not wrapped around the neck, just slightly on top) for balance on a lot of those basic chords. Now when you play a barre chord, or power chord, your thumb will need to be on the back of the neck.

Check out the chord primer lesson for some basics of left hand position on basic chord. One of the bits of advice it to angle your hand slightly.

Chord Primer - Adjusting your hand position to get the best sound
http://www.cyberfret.com/chords/primer/page2.htm


Also here is a lesson on general left hand position.
http://www.cyberfret.com/first-fret/left-hand-position/index.htm

--Shawn

[mjamer]

sorry to confuse you speakmon, cyberfret is right if you're only tilting it a "bit". I wasn't sure how much your bit was, for some reason I got in my head that your hand was tilted to be more perpendicular to the neck (have seen that alot). That's what I get for assuming! :)


mjamer

[speakmon]

Thanks for the help, all. I'm a little more confident now. :)