Fretting Hand PositionAs I said in the previous article, the fretting hand is your left hand (unless you're playing left-handed guitar. In this case it'll be your right hand). The thumb is placed behind the neck and commonly do not participate directly in playing.The fingers press the strings against the frets.
Keep the fingers in roundish form like you would hold a lemon.
Do not bend the finger like in the picture below. The exception can be if you need to play a couple of nearby strings at the same fret, in this case you can lay down and press the phalanx of the finger across these strings.This method of fretting is called Little Barre and it's often used in guitar chords.
Note that in guitar anatomy word fret means a metal stripe located across the fingerboard. However when talking about guitar playing, the word fret means the space between two metal frets and not the metal fret itself. For an instance, if you see a note at the third fret in guitar tab, it actually means you need to press the string between the second and the third metal fret to get that note.
It's better to press the strings close to the right metal fret instead of the center because you'll need to apply less pressure to get clean sound and your fingers will navigate easier around the fingerboard. Watch and eliminate any unnecessary tension in your hands and arms that can often take place while you're in the beginning stage. I play guitar myself for more than a few years and sometimes the same problem occurs with me as well, especially when I need to play something fast and forget to warm up the fingers by practicing first in the slow tempo.
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