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Posts: 698
Location: Cork, Ireland | When you learn to play chords, one of the first tricks is to ensure that each finger touches only the string it's fretting. All very well on a 6-string but when playing a G (320003) on the 12-string, I find that string 10 (the higher pitched A string)is getting muted by the adjacent finger (playing string 11&12 on fret 3). Playing a A (002220) is also a challenge due to the 3 adjacent notes on fret 2. And I don't have particularly thick fingers. Anyone else have this problem, and/or a solution to it? |
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Location: NJ | practice. |
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Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by cliff:
practice. ...and when you get done... practice some more.
I've found the thing is keeping your fingertips as perpendicular to the fretboard as possible, thereby minimizing 'lazy fingers'. |
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Posts: 3969
| Do you choke the neck, i.e. are you pressing the pad of your hand against the neck with the thumb sticking up over the bass side of the fretboard? If so, try rotating your wrist so that only the pad of the thumb rests on the back of the neck. That forces you to use only your fingertips to press the strings. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | post just your thumb tip on the center of the neck, don't cradle the neck in the palm of your left hand, so that you can approach fretting from a higher angle... |
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| beat ya to it, Jeff |
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Location: closely held secret | Essentially what I was trying to say. Jeff just has more practice communicating in two syllable words. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | indeed. |
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Location: Cicero, NY | as well as in "i" words. |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Play Louder! No one will notice.
(And I though this thread was gonna teach me 'How' to mute while playing a 12-string...) |
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Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Practice: and remember, you're freting for two now!
;) |
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Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | oops! |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | As the great Darby said, "Practice, Practice, Practice"
The other solution that I use is just play a 6 string. |
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Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | As many will proclaim after this weekend, I'm no expert. But I have found that with some chords, i.e. A and Esus4, I have to practice and learn a finger 'stagger' twix the frets.
Hopefully someone will show me the proper fretboard/neck/left hand posture... That and pick control...  |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | I play my '79 1115 as my main guitar.
Instead of playing an A chord with my fingers in the 1-2-3 configuration, I use the 2-1-3. I can bunch-up my chubby little fingers better that way.
Either that or I use my pinky across the 3 courses of strings. It's tricky trying not to mute one of the high-e strings using this method, but you get better with practice.
I don't really have trouble with a G chord.
Practice...and play with others so your mistakes blend in.
John <>{ |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | For all of us with chubby fingers... I do the A with just my middle and ring fingers.
They are quite fat enough to cover all three strings.
A7 and Asus2 (simple version) require attention tho'. :cool:
(But I am having trouble with D on my ten-string...
The strings are much closer together than on my 12ers.) |
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Posts: 3618
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | I have the stubby finger syndrome also (AKA SFS), so I like to use a cheater G chord by using my thumb on the low Es, at the same time half dampening the A strings and wrapping the middle finger around the back to pinch off the high Es. I know this is a bad habit to some, but I can actually play the chord clearly either way, and it really came in handy when I was a little kid. The other option is PRACTICE. |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | In 2005, I decided to buy a cheapie pseudo-strat that came with a lesson DVD.
The lesson said 'avoid developing bad habits'!...
Being as ALL my chord fingerings are wrong, that advice came a bit late! |
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March 2007
Posts: 698
Location: Cork, Ireland | Thanks all.
Yes, practice! And I do of course choke the neck with the thumb wrapped around, like many non-classically trained guitarists. The great )though arrogant) Segovia once stated that the only purpose this served was to show the incompetence of the player.
The other thing is, no one except me notices one muted string out of 12 but I'm the only person one who listens to me anyway |
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Posts: 3618
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | The great )though arrogant) Segovia once stated that the only purpose this served was to show the incompetence of the player ...
I'd be the FIRST one to admit to my incompetence on the guitar. But that isn't going to discourage me from enjoying playing. I'd rather be a bit incompetent and enjoy playing, than to be an arrogant "expert". |
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Location: South of most, North of few | ...and all the people said, "Amen"! |
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Location: Cork, Ireland | Bet Segovia never played an Ovation 12-string (or a Martin, a Strat or a Les Paul for that matter) |
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Posts: 747
| And I'm guessing that Segovia never sank a pint of Guinness at a pub in Cork either..lol |
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Posts: 698
Location: Cork, Ireland | Probably not but it might have done him good. Are you aware of Beamish and Murphy's? Both stouts are brewed in Cork (though I prefer the Dublin-made Guinness myself). |
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Posts: 747
| I think we get Murphy's here but I'm not sure about Beamish. I usually drink the lighter domestic brands in the summer when it's hot and then go to the heavier imports like Guinness during the winter. |
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muting 12-string
