Introducing fingering?

[UUMickey]

I've been playing Rocksmith 2014 for about a week. I've never picked up a guitar before. I've done a handful of the 101 lessions, the first 4 Guitarcade games, and stumbled through Arctic Monkeys and Blitzkrieg Bop. I am very new to it all :)

I am wondering, does proper fingering every get introduced? I mean, right now, I am playing most of the notes with my index or middle finger. I am sure there is a "proper" set of fingers to use depending on what you're doing it. I am not even talking chords, just hitting notes.

Is that introduced later or do you just do what feels right?

[pappy13]

The bold yellow fret numbers highlight the suggested location for your four fingers. Chords are usually shown on screen with fingerings. Personally, what I try to do is keep my hand fairly stationary and use my fingers to move around. Don't be scared to use your pinky either. Tons of people ignore it because it's weak and hurts to use at first, but there's only one way for it to get stronger. ;-)

[jacobvandy]

It highlights four frets on the virtual neck at all times, which is a suggestion as to where your fingers should be. In general you have each of four fingers doing one of those four frets, but there's always room for your own improvisation. But you should definitely get used to using all four fingers ASAP. And as mentioned, it will show you numbers 1-4 representing each finger from pointer down to pinky, and where they probably should be for chords as well as some of the more tricky note patterns.

[UUMickey]

Ah, is that what that means with the highlights. I thought it was just telling me which region the next notes would be in. Okay, so I need to work on keeping my fingers where the highlights are. Okay.

I am playing guitar. Anyone have a decent resource for picking up fingering? I'd probably like to practice it outside the game too. I know when I started playing Rock Band (I hope that's not a dirty word here) finger position was key and actually having your fingers in a place that wasn't immediately natural actually helped your play.

So far the pain is only in my index, middle, and ring fingers. I guess it is time to start using that pinky and make all of them sore :)

Thanks for the insight.

[pappy13]

Try playing Scale Warriors and keeping your hand as stationary as possible letting your fingers do the work.

[bujablaster]

He UUMickey,

ugly truth is RS slightly fails in some aspects when it comes to basic lessons (lack of proper freting is good example). But it is still nice piece of learning software.

Anyway proper hand position (i.e. when playing songs) is described by highlighted frets on fretboard. On first higlighted fret you of course use you index finger, on second your middlefinger etc. So if there are highlighted frets 5/6/7/8 on fretboard, you should use your index finger on 5th, middle on 6th etc.

Btw: during my first week with RS2014 i was same like you using only index and middlefinger for freting. But something deep back in my head said "lol, you can't play guitar this way noob" :). There is a plenty of great learning videos on youtube etc. which helped me a lot alongside with RS.

Anyway freting will come to you naturaly way very very soon (i mean when you really learn let's say an hour daily at least for first weeks of your learning). You just realize, what to do with your freting hand, what is most effective way and what is absolute nonsense. And about chords - there is the same. From the top of the fretboard and from the zero fret you will allways use your fingers naturally - index finger is the first one, each another follows natural shape of your hand. Just relax and play scales, which are absolutely best to drill your freting hand. Or you can just forget any kind of scales and play natural scale like:

(from top string)
1st string frets 1/2/3/4
2nd string frets 1/2/34 etc. same on all another strings. When you finish on 6th string 4th fret just play the same but backward. When you finish where you started which is 1st string 1st fret just move to 1st string and frets 5/6/7/8, 2nd string frets 5/6/7/8 etc. until you hit all frets on all strings. By this you will learn muscles on your hand/fingers to memorize positions and movement (it is called "muscle memory"). And when it gets boring just use RS for fun and relax ... and get back to this drilling soon :) This helped me a lot. You practice with all of your fingers from just beginning and you don't need to know any "real" scale.

RS2014 is great, but in some aspects it lacks some crucial technique learning. Which you just realize when you get a little bit more into guitar playing. But still it is great learning tool. Anyway after 2 months of playing (never played any musical instrument before) i mostly use RS for session mode. Lot of things i learn through learning videos on internet. But RS lessons gave me pretty good cornerstone in guitar playing.

[jacobvandy]

Originally posted by UUMickey:

I know when I started playing Rock Band (I hope that's not a dirty word here)

Psh, I wouldn't be playing guitar if it wasn't for Rock Band. Well I first started with Guitar Hero and later discovered RB to be the better game, but all that stuff got me interested in picking up the axe. Made the jump with RB3 in Pro Mode, then got Rocksmith a year ago, and now I'm getting pretty darn good at it. If you want to feel like a real badass, go back to the 5-button guitar after playing the real one for a while... It'll be so much easier comparatively and you'll shred through just about anything with ease!

[mikedavies]

I am teaching my 9 year old to play and at first he was hammering around the fretboard with first one and then two fingers. But he was having fun and playing tunes which is the important thing.

I then got him to sort out his box fingering in a minor pentatonic pattern. In other words using his fist finger on one fret his second, third and pinky on the next three. And for him that was a transition thing and difficult because he wanted to go back to what 'had worked' for him and he still does at times, and I guess many of us have been there. What encouraged him was jamming along with me and I could vary the tempo and play call and response games. But I decided to move him up the fretbord to the point where his finger sit comfortably, so there was no big stretching. So we now jam in Am and Bm but over time I will move him down the fretboard so he will stretch his fingers a bit.

The next thing is he is now bending notes and the new rule is there are no rules as I am telling him to group fingers together on one note.

I think the answer is to be 'settled' in what you do and as songs become more difficult you will not be settled playing with one finger rather you will be rushing around and then that is the time to develop your fingering skills. And the scale game is quite good for that my son likes it. And as you develop, as you will, things will get to stages where you are not settled on the fretboard and that is when you again start to look at your fingering technique.

I often take the time to record guitarists on the TV and watch closely when the shot moves into close up. I would suggest people try this if they haven't and rather than focus on the notes they are playing look at how little movemnt there is in their hands compare to the output of notes they are creating. At times I then go and look at myself playing in front of a mirror, my one chance to look like Jimmy Hendrix with a focus on looking calm and settled.

My point is there are different ways to play the guitar and with one finger is valid, slide guitar has one big finger for example. And some people will say that there is correct technique, and I am not sure if I would use the term correct as it kind of implies other stuff is wrong. Rather there is good technique and that is something we can all aim for and good technique is efficient and efficient technique lets us play accuratly and for extended periods, and I think that is what most people are after.

And I for example on Rocksmith I will conciously play sections differently in Riff repeater in serch of a calm approach through them often it all about setting up where you want to go next. And it takes time to be fluid and comfortable. And what I find on Rocksmith is what works well as fingering on one level doesn't sometimes when things level up. And I tend to think of it as playing a different song and coming to sections fresh rather than feel I have been doing something wrong. And I think that holds true if you are at 20% just as much as if you are at 90% on a song. Enjoy were you are at and don't feel you have to move on just because the game says you can.

I have looked on the internet at rocksmith clips with the player in view and on some of them I dread to think what the players would sound like if the lead was fed into an amp because they are playing a game going for a mastery score level rather than playing music.

So if you are a one finger player at a beginer level working out how to sort you fingering out to get past say 23% on a song then work things out but keep playing relaxed and fluid creating pleasurable sounds from your guitar, in my opinion that is what is important in the long run rather than treating the thing like a complex arcade game.