Guitar chord problem?

Question

I just got an acoustic guitar (a cheap one) from a friend and when I play a chord unless I press very hard on the strings they just emit a buzzing or no sound at all. Is there something wrong with the guitar or do you really have to press that hard on the strings. After about a minute of holding the same chord, I take my fingers off and they have indents in them from the strings. I'm a beginner so I have no clue if this is how it's supposed to be. Any help is great. Thanks.

Just to put out there too, the stings don't buzz or sound dead when played open.

I feel kind of stupid now. I researched all your answers and took my guitar to my friend who plays and he told me the guitar was strung too tight. He stretched out the strings and retuned it and now the buzzing is gone. Thanks for all the input though.

Answer 1

The indents are normal, they'll go away after you practice more, because practicing more leads to caluses on fingers - which then you don't feel a thing. However, the guitar is cheap as you mentioned. The cheaper the guitar, the harder you have to press on the strings. Most likely it's your strings that are too high off the fretboard, causing your fingers to press harder to get a sound out of the chords that your fingers are in place to play.

Answer 2

OK, 2 things.
1. Yeah when you first start your fingers will be hurting. When I started, I started with a nylon string , (classical) guitar and I put those little bitty Band-Aids on the tips of my fingers. The neck is much fatter tho but that's kinda good because it'll strengthen your arm.

2. Maybe, because it is a used guitar, (which are really the best!) it's time to adjust the neck a bit. You could take it to the music store and have the action adjusted. They will usually do that for free. It takes only a minute.

Good Luck and just keep on playing!
Peace,
Laurie

Answer 3

Is the neck of the guitar bowed? Steel strings have a tendency to do that to acoustic guitars. I have had a nylon string guitar for 25 years and it never got that problem. But then, I also finger-pick when I play and nylon strings are best when you finger-pick.

Answer 4

Drop your wrist. an hassle-free fault with beginner gamers is they have their wrist on the incorrect perspective so attempt 'dropping' your wrist slightly. It feels slightly unnatural at first yet by ability of having this correct, your hands will come down onto the strings greater cleanly devoid of fouling the different strings. it is going to additionally make it much less difficult to realize between spaced out notes yet for extremely speedy chord differences there is not any replace for practice . Your hand length wont influence your playing, it is going to easily be one in each of a number of stuff that pass directly to define your 'type'. only undergo in concepts Django Reinhardt (seminal proficient jazz guitarist) performed maximum of his profession with 2 paralised hands on his left hand and he did ok.