How Do You Use Guide Fingers on Classical Guitar?

When you shift from one chord to another, your left-hand fingers may get lost and cause unwanted interruptions in the rhythm.

How do you move each left-hand finger as efficiently as possible between chords?

One of my favorite tools is a guide finger.

This is a finger that stays on the same string but changes fret.

You can simply slide the finger along the string, guiding the hand into the new position.

You don’t have to keep the pressure on the string as you slide. In fact, you can relax your finger and gently glide along the surface of the string.

Even if there isn’t a finger that plays on the same string in two consecutive chords, you can create what I call a fake guide finger. As soon as you leave the first chord, place one finger on the string it will play in the second chord and then slide that finger along the string.

I encourage using a guide finger as often as possible.

There is, however, one drawback: squeaking.

This will not be a problem on the treble strings.

But on the bass strings, a guide finger may squeak against the windings of the string.

To reduce this, you can adjust to a part of the fingertip that is not calloused. But if the noise becomes too bothersome, you may have to decide whether to live with the squeak or lift all the way off the string, losing the guide finger.

In most cases, guide fingers make your chord switches much easier!

Before you work on using guide fingers, I encourage you to start your practice session with a simple Warmup Routine.

If you would like to get my Warmup Routine for free while joining more than 800 people who receive my free Saturday Classical Guitarist newsletter, click here.

Keep making music!