Basic Fretting Technique

Outline: This lesson provides the basic groundwork for good fretting habits. It provides a basis and discipline allowing the player to develop a solid, articulate fretting posture and technique.

Fretting Hand Position

A good knowledge of proper fretting is necessary if the guitar player desires to have a good foothold in musical understanding. Fretting should be done carefully and with good posture. On an electric guitar, the fretting hand sort of "holds" the guitar neck, with the thumb slightly over the top. To get a good idea of how to get your hands on the neck, try this: put a card down on a table, and pick it up with the tips of your fingers and thumb. Now treat the card as you would a guitar neck, and there you have it. Check the photo on the left for the card demonstration, and the photo on the right for the hand placement. Your wrist should curl under it naturally, and your fingers should arch forwards. The place where your fingers meet your palm, or your knuckles, should be directly under the fretboard.

On a classical guitar or most acoustic guitar models, the fretting posture is different, because of the thicker neck and heavier string gauges. For this, you'll need to press your thumb up against the back of the neck and create a sort of "anchor" on the other side from which to provide pressure to the strings. This is important because holding the thumb over the top is improper and can lead to hand fatigue.

Proper Fretting Technique

Fretting style and posture varies with each player. Everyone's hand has a different shape, with different finger thicknesses and lengths. However, basic fretting methods are the same throughout. The method of fretting the top (thickest, 6th string) is different from the fretting of the bottom (thinnest, 1st string) string because of its location, and where the hand needs to be placed.

See the picture at right for the fretting posture on the thinner strings. You'll notice that the fingers angle to the side, towards the body, in order to be able to reach across more frets. This angle enables better stretching, which can be difficult for some beginners. Learn to fret this way. The hand should always "hold" the neck, not drop off of it. You shouldn't necessarily touch the bottom of the neck with the palm and embrace it, but you should keep it close when fretting down this far. Notice that the thumb should be at the top of the back of the neck.

The next photo (at left) demonstrates the hand posture when playing the bass strings (thicker strings). See how the hand stretches, and the fingers form a spider-like position which sprouts upwards? The fingers don't form a uniform angle, but branch out upwards to allow better stretching. The thumb at the back would, in turn, move down a little.

Finger Sequencing

In order to play single-note melody lines or techniques of this sort, you'll need to learn how to sequence your fingers, or how to order them and in what way to press the strings down, and in what fashion. Your hand's "position" on the neck is indicated by where your first (index) finger is located. Wherever this finger is positioned, the rest will follow. So, "fourth position" on the fretboard would mean that the index is on the fourth fret, the middle on the 5th, the ring on the 6th, and pinky on the 7th.

The first sequencing method is referred to as "chromaticism." The term chromatic means ascending or descending by half step intervals. Chromatic "passing tones" can help phrase your playing and add spice to any passage in a solo. To do this on a guitar, the sequencing is very simple. Let's see this in one position, the 5th (in this demonstration, the fingers, starting on the index, and ending at the pinky, are numbered 1-4 at the top of the tablature):

   1 2 3 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 4 2 3 1   <--- Chromatic Fingering
e-------------------------------
B-------------------------------
G-------------------------------
D------------------------8-7-6--
A----------------5-6-7-8--------
E--5-6-7-8-7-6-5---------------5

Now, you'll see how other scales are in need for different interval changes, and different finger sequencing patterns. Two important finger sequencing patterns are the 1-2-4 and 1-3-4 patterns, using in most major and minor scales. Take this example of a A major scale:

  2 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 1 3 4 2 4 1 2    <--- A Major Fingering
e---------------------------4-5-
B-----------------------5-7-----
G-----------------4-6-7---------
D-----------4-6-7---------------
A-----4-5-7---------------------
E-5-7---------------------------

In this example, notice the use of the different fingering patterns. This scale is in the 4th position, with the index finger at the fourth fret, but notice how, since it starts on an A, you must use the second finger to fret the root note, or the first note of the scale. You can see how the combination of frets 4, 5, and 7 call for a 1-2-4 pattern. Frets 4, 6, and 7 need a 1-3-4 fingering pattern. Remember that you want minimal movement for your fretting hand, and so you want to do what you can with your fingers without sliding all around the neck too much. This next example will utilize a few extra large intervals. Introducing the harmonic minor scale:

  1 2 4 1 3 4 1 3 4 2 3 1 2 4 1 2 4  <--- A Minor Harmonic Fingering
e-----------------------------5-6-9-
B-----------------------5-6-8-------
G-------------------6-7-------------
D-------------5-7-8-----------------
A-------5-7-8-----------------------
E-5-6-9-----------------------------

This pattern has a few intervals of 1 1/2 steps to create an interesting "Egyptian" sounding melody. Observe the notes on the B and high E strings. The finger pattern is 1-2-4 for both, but notice how, on the E string, the pattern has an extra half step, fretting the 9. The fingering takes an extra reach, without changing position of the index finger. See how this happens on the low E string, yet the position still remains at 5 despite the big stretch? For the rest of the pattern (with the minor exception of the G string), the finger position is at 5th.

Fretting Higher Notes

Many beginner and even intermediate players find it somewhat difficult to fret high notes on their guitars properly. This impediment is mostly due to the presence of a "heel" on most guitars, at the bottom of the neck, such as on Fender Stratocaster models or the like. This stops the hand from being able to reach all the way over to the highest frets on the instrument. When fretting higher notes, players whose guitars have heels might find it easier to use only their first three (index, middle, and ring) fingers when trying to reach these areas. This helps ease the strain of the use of the pinky finger trying to reach over and fret over the heel.

Fret Hand Muting

When playing music, the "rest" becomes an integral part of the song, where momentary portions occur throughout the song where the guitarist does not play. In circumstances such as these, the guitar player needs to stop the sound coming from the instrument, by stopping the strings from vibrating.