Hand Positions

The most important thing to remember when learning new chords and when you learn how to play guitar in general is your hand position. A proper hand position can reduce the stress and strain on your fingers and help you to progress in your practice sessions a lot more quickly and easily. The main principle in having a good hand position with your left hand on the guitar is to make sure your hand is very relaxed and not tensed up. You are less likely to make mistakes when you are relaxed.This can be a little difficult at first because beginning to learn a new instrument can sometimes be frustrating and therefore cause you to be tense and thus being counterproductive.However, if you always make sure that your hands are relaxed and you keep your wrist loose you will be able to play better as well as enjoy playing more. Below you will find an example of proper hand positions.

Front View	Rear View

Next, you will find an example of an improper hand position. Make sure you never position your thumb in this way. This creates unnecessary pressure on your hand especially on your thumb. Instead you should follow the example above placing even and steady pressure on your thumb as to not injure or strain your hand.

Fretting

When you learn how to play guitar, you should use your left hand fingers in order to press down firmly onthe strings on the fret board of the guitar and use your right hand to pluck or strum the stings at the bridge end of the guitar. Using your left hand to press the strings on the fret board is known as fretting. Here are some quick tips you will need to know:

• It is important to have short fingernails on your left hand
• You should only use the tips of your fingers when you press down on the string.
• When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. It also helps to have them mostly perpendicular to the fret board so that your finger is not touching any other strings
• Check each string that it rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. If it is muted or buzzing then you are either not pressing on the string properly or one of your other fingers on another string is touching that one.

As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play. This is normal. Every guitarist starts this way for the first couple of weeks. With practice, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin on your fingertips).

Holding the Pick

I leave you with a quick demonstration on how to properly hold a pick. Notice it is held between the thumb and the index finger.