Fretting Self-Exam

Here's a fun and short self-exam I came up with to help you figure out whether you're fretting too hard when you're playing. This is something most people do, and it's very detrimental to ones progress on the guitar.

Before the exam, here as some warning signs you might be fretting too hard:

- When playing something fast, the fingers of your fretting hand tense up and get stiffer, causing the motions of your left hand to be slow even though you FEEL like you're expending a lot of energy with them.
- A weird, unwanted twang to your playing, usually when playing a lead on the low E and A strings.
- Notes sound slightly out of tune even though your strings are tuned properly.
- You practice a lick over and over every day, but don't feel as though you're conquering it at all.
- Playing 'super fast' seems impossible for you, like it's not in your genes to be able to do that.
- Weird finger fatigue after playing. Doesn't feel like 'good fatigue' like after proper exercise, feels like bad fatigue like when you do push ups improperly.
- Peeling skin on the fingertips that never seems to smooth out or go away.
- On the tips of your fingers, indentations of the strings you were holding down that last a while after playing.

There are likely countless more symptoms, but if any of these in the list sound familiar to you, you're probably fretting too hard. Don't feel like an idiot. MANY guitar players do this, including friends you look up to, and some of your favorite musicians. But that doesn't make it right.

One reason why people fret too hard really comes down to people accidentally thinking treating the fretboard as though it were a percussive instrument. When playing a riff they want to sound loud and strong, both their hands lock up and start banging away, each with the same strength. But holding a guitar string down harder with your fretting hand does not make the note louder. Your picking strength and your volume knob (if you're on an electric) is in charge of that. If you EVER feel your fretting hand locked into that 'playing harder' mode you're using the hand incorrectly. It doesn't matter what your favorite band does. You will sound even better than them by not doing it.

And now, the short self exam:

1. Get into your guitar playing stance. Picking hand ready to pick, fretting hand ready to fret.
2. Without pressing down on it at all or moving the string closer to the fretboard, place the index finger of your fretting hand on the A string, 5th fret.
3. Still not pressing down at all on the string, start picking the string in 16th notes at a comfortable tempo. It should sound dead as all hell.
4. While playing the steady 16th notes, begin pressing down on the string with your index finger EVER. SO. SLIGHTLY. Slow. As. Molasses. Bringing. The. String. Ever. So. Closer. To. The. Fret. Wire.
5. It will sound dead for a while and then BAM! You will hear finally hear a note! When that happens don't press down any harder at all.
6. To make sure you didn't press down too hard accidentally, slowly lessen the pressure of your index finger ever so slightly. You want to make sure you are pressing as lightly as possible while still able to hear a note. That is your sweet spot.
7. I repeat: AS LIGHTLY AS POSSIBLE WHILE STILL BEING ABLE TO HEAR A NOTE. Make damn sure of it.

This may feel weird. Trust me, it's GOOD weird. Now that you've figured out exactly how hard to press down on a guitar string, practice alternating between your index on the 5th fret and your middle on the 7th fret, VERY SLOWLY, while still maintaining that sweet spot pressure-wise.

After you've gotten the hang of this, try the first 7 notes of a major scale. Take things VERY slowly. Make sure you're never pressing any harder than you should. Never look back. Never retreat to old habits. Be all that you can be.