[Moose408]

Too hard won’t cause dead strings unless you are pressing directly on the fret. The finger should be slightly behind the fret.

Dead strings can be caused by pressing too lightly, but the most common cause is one of your other fingers touching the string. When playing a chord it is very common as a beginner for a finger holding down a string to touch adjacent strings causing them to be muted. Fixing this just takes practice and time. When fingering a chord you should play through each string individually, all strings should ring clear. If a string does not then you should do micro adjustments with your fingers until all the strings ring clear. Rinse – Repeat.