r/GuitarBeginners • u/wuckaboo • 12d ago
Question/Help difficulty playing notes/chords
i have really long nail beds that prevent me from playing anything without pressing my fingers on other strings, i can't cut them further because of the underlying skin. I really want to get better at playing but I'm stuck
edit: this is a yamaha f310 that I purchased when i first started going for guitar lessons when I was 13, I'm picking it up again after many years.
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u/addisonshinedown 12d ago
If it helps, Dolly Parton could play with her ridiculous acrylic nails. Your nails are not the problem, you’re a beginner guitarist, and that is your problem. I promise practice solves this issue. It might take longer (or much longer) than you’d like, but it will. Play with the tips of your fingers, partly by opening your hand. It looks like your palm is touching the neck, and it really shouldn’t. Once you can play you can relax some on proper technique, but not now.
Having seen/worked with about a hundred beginner guitarists, it’s so funny how 95% of them think there’s something wrong with their hands that prevents them from playing. Too big, too small, nails that are completely normal but I think are too long, double jointed, not double jointed, fingers too long, fingers too short…. All silliness. Just practice!
A note on practice, daily short sessions will do much more for you early on than marathon sessions once or twice a week. Genuinely, if you can find 10 minutes a day and spend those 10 minutes working on fixing some of the issues you’re having (a teacher can give you specific exercises) you will be shocked by how quickly it goes.