When you are making and strumming different chords, it’s important to keep your fingers curved up and over the other strings to prevent muting (a dull or clunky sound). It can be difficult at first, because your fingers might not want to cooperate, and with some chords it might feel like you’re stretching your fingers too far.
There are a couple of things you can do to make this comfortable for your fingers:
1.) Make sure you’re sitting up straight and holding your guitar straight out.
2.) Try to use just enough pressure when pressing down your strings. Too much pressure and you’ll fatigue faster, and your fingers won’t cooperate.
You should be able to slip a pencil or pen through the curved part of your fingers. That’s a pretty good gauge of how much clearance you’ll need.
Finally, you know your chords sound good when all the strings are ringing out clearly and crisply, and there are no clunky, dull, muted sounds on any of the strings.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
