Meat fingers

Lethe

Hey, I'm busy teaching my friend some basic chords, but he has some serious meat fingers (big fat fingers). While he can get most of the chords right, he really struggles with the C and G because his meat keeps touching the other strings. He can get it perfectly after a lot of manipulation, but I was just wondering how you other Meatfinger fretters cope with this. He plays an A major with two fingers because three will pretty much take up the entire fretboard.

Bob-Dubery

Lethe wrote: Hey, I'm busy teaching my friend some basic chords, but he has some serious meat fingers (big fat fingers). While he can get most of the chords right, he really struggles with the C and G because his meat keeps touching the other strings. He can get it perfectly after a lot of manipulation, but I was just wondering how you other Meatfinger fretters cope with this. He plays an A major with two fingers because three will pretty much take up the entire fretboard.

What sort of guitar is he playing? Some are wider at the nut than others, and the width can make a difference. SOmebody with big (not long, but big) fingers may, for example, feel more comfortable playing a Les Paul than a Stratocaster, or a Martin OM rather than a Martin 000.

Considering those two Martins, the OM has a little longer scale than the OM and, more important for this discussion, 1/8 inch more width at the nut. You'd be surprised the difference that 1/8 inch can make.

Bob-Dubery

PS - also sounds like there may be a problem with the left had being too flat, the guitar being wedged too deep into the v of the hand. Try to get him to play more classical style, with the the thumb on the back of the neck. That forces the hand into a more arched position and has the fingers coming down more vertically, more on their tips.

I have at home a DVD of a concert featuring Yoyo Ma. The close up shots are amazing when you see how his fingers are coming down absolutely perpendicular to the finger board.

Lethe

X-rated Bob wrote:
Lethe wrote: Hey, I'm busy teaching my friend some basic chords, but he has some serious meat fingers (big fat fingers). While he can get most of the chords right, he really struggles with the C and G because his meat keeps touching the other strings. He can get it perfectly after a lot of manipulation, but I was just wondering how you other Meatfinger fretters cope with this. He plays an A major with two fingers because three will pretty much take up the entire fretboard.
What sort of guitar is he playing? Some are wider at the nut than others, and the width can make a difference. SOmebody with big (not long, but big) fingers may, for example, feel more comfortable playing a Les Paul than a Stratocaster, or a Martin OM rather than a Martin 000.

Considering those two Martins, the OM has a little longer scale than the OM and, more important for this discussion, 1/8 inch more width at the nut. You'd be surprised the difference that 1/8 inch can make.

Definately. I told him, but he's already got a Fender Squier and he doesn't want to buy another guitar...

Lethe

X-rated Bob wrote: PS - also sounds like there may be a problem with the left had being too flat, the guitar being wedged too deep into the v of the hand. Try to get him to play more classical style, with the the thumb on the back of the neck. That forces the hand into a more arched position and has the fingers coming down more vertically, more on their tips.

I have at home a DVD of a concert featuring Yoyo Ma. The close up shots are amazing when you see how his fingers are coming down absolutely perpendicular to the finger board.

Yeha, I've made sure of that. He's playing with the guitar in classical position just for that purpose. When his fingers are perfectly perpendicular the meat stull attacks the string. He kinda has to bend his fingers a bit further to make sure the meat lifts...

Bob-Dubery

Lethe wrote: Definately. I told him, but he's already got a Fender Squier and he doesn't want to buy another guitar...

Ah well... those things have got skinny necks. Let him try your classical to make the point about neck widths.

Lethe

Cool. will do that. Thanks Bob.

flatfourfan

I have pretty meaty fingers and while I'm in the process of dropping 20kg's, until then I play with guitars with slightly wider necks. It's actually a lot easier to play certain notes.

Bobs comment about the classical position is a good one.

singemonkey

I've seen people with really big fingers splay great mandolin ??? And plenty playing strats. Looks like it should be possible if the technique is right.

Keira-WitherKay

+1 to what bob said.....

especialy the bit re letting him try your classical.......

i have a student who's the same . but he plays nylon since steel string just is not an option if he wants to be accurate...... ? lethe ,you the math's master ..so do the math measure the width the strings are apart vs width of his finger tips ....and see what the figures say they ussually don't lie ............

and if the figures prove the strat is too narrow then he will have to develop a hybrid style ..cos anything is possible......... but he will have to be creative ......

django played with 2 good fingers and 2 virtually paralysed ones after his fire accident and look how incredible he could play but if you read up about him he worked out a way to even use the dead fingers ....

so i believe it may take more effort but anything is possible.....and a wider neck is the instant solution but if he's adamant he want to stick to the strat .let him , but let him realise that now he will have it harder but encourage him that it is possible...... desire to play is everything ..long as a student has that they can over come anything . it just take time and some effort and in his case maybe some out of the box thinking on how to play chords that are a tight squeeze

Lethe

Keira WitherKay wrote: +1 to what bob said.....

especialy the bit re letting him try your classical.......

i have a student who's the same . but he plays nylon since steel string just is not an option if he wants to be accurate...... ? lethe ,you the math's master ..so do the math measure the width the strings are apart vs width of his finger tips ....and see what the figures say they ussually don't lie ............

and if the figures prove the strat is too narrow then he will have to develop a hybrid style ..cos anything is possible......... but he will have to be creative ......

django played with 2 good fingers and 2 virtually paralysed ones after his fire accident and look how incredible he could play but if you read up about him he worked out a way to even use the dead fingers ....

so i believe it may take more effort but anything is possible.....and a wider neck is the instant solution but if he's adamant he want to stick to the strat .let him , but let him realise that now he will have it harder but encourage him that it is possible...... desire to play is everything ..long as a student has that they can over come anything . it just take time and some effort and in his case maybe some out of the box thinking on how to play chords that are a tight squeeze

Hehehe! Great idea ? I'll probably have to introduce the damped harmonic oscillator into the function to cater for the way the string vibrates against his meat fingers. ?

He's quite adamant to sticking to the strat. Kinda loves it. I kinda give him ideas for different fingering for chords to help him out. But like you said, it will be up to his determination...
Thanks for the advice Keira! ?

IceCreamMan

let him play bass

beauty of guitar is that there really is no right an wrong way , whatever works and is appreciated is good..

Banditman

+1 to Bob and Keira's comments.

I find that where my Les Paul sometimes lets me get away with a bit of laziness, the smaller radius on my Strat forces me to step up in technique if I'm to accurately fret or phrase certain passages. Good thing too.

It's not as immediately comfortable as the Les, but not so bad that discipline won't get around it.