Place your fingers correctly and firmly on the frets. Right-handed players hold the fret board in their left hand left handers the other way. To play a note or a chord you must press the string firmly between the perpendicular metal lines, close to the metal line towards you to get a good sound. When you hold the string down firmly and pluck, it will vibrate between your finger and your strumming hand only. Press the strings using your finger tips and not the
soft part of your finger. This means that you have to give up on long nails; you can’t play any stringed instrument or even
the piano for that matter with long painted nails.

When you play chords you need to hold down multiple strings at once on different frets which can be a little tricky if your fingers are not flexible enough or if you have short fingers. Position your hand a little differently, hold your thumb a little back or in the middle of the back of the neck of the guitar, so you can reach the frets more easily. Hold your hand loose, a rigid hand will make playing difficult. Experiment and practise a little and gradually your hand will become flexible enough, even if you don’t have long fingers.

Keep in mind that every time you move from one fret to another, the resulting note will be half a note higher or lower either a “sharp” or a “flat”. This is important for if you want to eventually learn to read music.

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