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  Cord Completion

  Posted by dogman on January 6, 2022 at 1:14 pm

  I am having a terrible time making my F and G cords ring true with no buzz. I’ve been playing the guitar along time. I have had a long break and just began Tony’s course a month ago. In the past my guitar work was alot of strumming and singing. Now that Tony has me doing his exercises I’m having problems with getting the notes to ring true. I’d like to think it’s just a matter of time but I’m really doubting that I’ll be able to do the stretch and ring true. I know that I’m still building up my calluses but I’m extremely frustrated. I’m playing a Taylor T5 if that helps. HELP !!!!!!!

  David_Leo replied 4 years, 2 months ago 5 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  GraceX

  Member

  January 6, 2022 at 5:31 pm

  Don’t forget it isn’t just the matter of building calluses but also of developing the strength in all your fingers. Keep plugging away, slow down and give it time 🙂

• 

  Loraine

  Member

  January 7, 2022 at 5:57 am

  That’s the one thing about finger and flatpicking, you get a clear sense of when you fret a clean chord. Make sure your palm is pushed towards the floor in your fretting hand. This adds natural arch to your fingers and makes it easier to fret on the tips of your fingers.

• 

  ted_h

  Member

  January 7, 2022 at 9:52 am

  Hi, @dogman!

  A few other ideas:

  1. I find that my fretting is very sensitive to the position of my thumb on the neck – my instinct is to have my thumb farther towards the headstock (or wrapped over the top of the neck), but on the difficult chords if I am conscious to move my thumb to the area of the neck right behind where I’m trying to put the pressure, I have a lot more strength in the fretting fingers. Experiment with that a little and see if you get any mileage from it…

  2. You could also tune the guitar a half step down and then put a capo on fret 1, which reduces the string tension and brings the strings a little closer to the fretboard.

  3. If you have chonky strings, you could try a lighter gauge, although sometimes that requires some adjustments to the neck depending on the guitar

  And sometimes things might just be a little buzzy, which makes your playing more charming and human-sounding! 🙂

  • 

    David_Leo

    Member

    January 9, 2022 at 6:03 am

    Agree with ted h. You may also want to check the set up on your guitar. Action may need some adjustment.

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