So, what I wanna talk to you about today, is the buzz, and that rattle, and that nasty sound we get on the guitar. You know that sound!! Nasty stuff!
First, I just wanna bring to your attention to the parts on the guitar…
Just like there are the tuning pegs, and the strings, these silver bars on the neck are called the frets.
Maybe you knew that… BUT!! A lot of people get this confused with this area. People think the entire wood/metal area is the fret. But my point is the fret is a “part” that makes up the guitar. It’s not an “area” of the guitar. For example: if you bring an old guitar to a luthier to get fixed up, maybe the frets need to get replaced.
But there is the fret zone, or the ‘area’ where you play your fingers. You have this entire area to put your fingers between the frets…Now, I wanna show you this really cool BUZZ TEST:
If we put our fingers as low as possible on the frets, just go ahead and do that for yourself, and I want you to intentionally get a buzzy sound. So, there’s that nasty sound, right?
All I want you to do is just be aware of how hard you’re pressing and now, just slide your finger up as high as you possibly can and apply that exact same amount of pressure, and try it again.
Pretty cool, right?
So, we had that nasty buzz sound and applied same amount pressure higher up on the fret ‘area’ and magically got out of the buzz zone! There you go!
This is super handy for making everything that you play sound better.
Now, there are times when we can’t get our fingers high up on the frets. It’s actually pretty much impossible and one of those times is when we’re playing chords.
So, I’m going to show you the E Minor chord really quick.
We use our peace symbol fingers, and we’re gonna grab the second fret on both the A and the D strings.
As you can see, it’s pretty tricky your fingers to get side by side here, right?
Now, what we need to make sure is that as long as ONE of the fingers (in this case, it’s my second finger on the D string) is high up and looking good then the other one will follow the rule and pass the buzz test.
So, just make sure all your fingers are nice and high up on the frets when you’re making your chord and basically ANYTHING you play.
I’m going to doing more videos/lessons like this – some more cures for the common mistakes that a guitarist is gonna make, from learning right here on YouTube; and the Internet so if you want more, make sure to get involved at https://www.campfireguitarstar.com/starthere