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  Misc Wisdom
Questions and Answers

Question #14

What's that buzzing sound I get when I strum the strings sometimes? How can I stop it?

Answer

There are a couple of different reasons that you could be getting a buzzing sound when you are strumming chords. One is that you could just be strumming to hard, I find a lot of my students are just to aggressive when it comes to playing. Remember to keep your fingers as close to the fret bar as possible (to the left) and press down on the string with enough pressure to get the note to sound, but don't press to hard. Sometimes it feels like you are pressing down really hard, but you are still getting a buzzing sound. You could be pressing to hard on one finger, and not hard enough on another. Your guitar could also need some adjustment. The neck could be too straight, and therefore you strings are buzzing, There could just be a high fret bar that is causing some buzzing. Inexpensive guitars will always have small inconsistencies in the fret height that will sometimes give a buzz on different frets. Your action could be to low. Low action will make it easier to press down the strings, but sometimes you sacrifice will a little buzzing because of it. Take your guitar to a music store that does repairs, and see if they could look at it and give you an estimate on any repairs or adjustments that might need done.

Last but not least, when you are first starting out, you are going to get small buzzing sounds. I find that sometimes I have students that are perfectionists, and obsess over the small details in sound a little to much. Don't get me wrong, you want to get the best sound possible, but don't let that stop you from working on switching your chords more quickly. Don't wait until your chords sound perfect before you start playing tunes. Those detail come with time. You are training very small muscle groups, and you will fine tune your playing as you go along. Small buzzing sounds are natural, even for professional guitar players. You will have to decide whether you think that your guitar needs adjustment, there is some kind of problem with the way that you are playing, or whether the buzzing that you are hearing is just the nature of playing a stringed instrument.

 

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