I've consumed way too much guitar content online than I care to think about, but I've never heard any other teachers talking about no string noise.
Now that I'm conscious of it, I hear it constantly and it's surprising to me how hard it is to avoid! The 1234 Chromatic exercise seem very simple, but when I'm walking backwards from 4321 I really struggle with string squeeking when I lift my third and second fingers off. Is this a common issue and easy to fix? It has to be related to putting pressure on the fingers towards the headstock in preparation for the next finger to go down? Thanks for any input in advance :)
Hey Shaun - I had the exact same squeaks when descending on the lower frets. For me, I figured out that because my fingers are stretched on the lower frets, my finger (usually just third finger) would slide a little toward the headstock as I lifted it from the string. I had to concentrate really hard on pulling it straight up off the string when doing chromatics. If I was just "flowing" through the exercise, the squeak would always return. Stil does. But if I focus on pulling the finger off exactly perpendicular to the neck, no noise. It took about a month to figure it out, and about another month to make it go away (mostly). Hope that helps. At least you know you're not alone!
I noticed the same thing with my fingers, too.
Thank you Shaun for sharing this topic. Yes. Not so many guitar teachers mention this part. Becuase most teachers are just teaching exact patterns and not so much about "Feel"
Very simple! When you go down 4321... you should not play same tempo as 1234 go up! No noise is first priority here so once you hear any noises... then that tempo is out! Just go slower!
Plus, try to use as less as finger pressure everytime when you are practicing your guitar. Your fingers are not spread out so try to start around 5th fret instead of 1st fret.
Be patient and you will have more freedom in your playing.
Tomo
Thanks Tomo - appreciate the response!
I think a "proper" teacher will definitely mention/stress eliminating finger and string noise during their first few lessons. But for video contents on social media, they are not that exciting. So, people either filter them out or not mention them at all.
Muting with the fretting index finger has lots of nuances in different positions and it's hard to describe too. Also, our hand and finger dimensions are not exactly the same. So, it's probably better to have a good teacher to pick on these, or one has to be very critical about everything they learn.
Hugo