A short YouTube tutorial by Lauren Bateman teaching correct guitar fretting technique. She warns that many players fret toward the back of the fret—causing muted strings and requiring excessive pressure—and demonstrates that placing the finger toward the front of the fret requires less force and produces a clear note.
A big mistake I see students make when playing the guitar, especially on chords, is when they are fretting the strings, they're actually playing towards the back of the fret. This is why on an A chord, this top string tends to get muted, because the finger ends up in the back of the fret. And when you're in the back of the fret, you have to press so much harder than the front of the fret. So I'm going to show you very quickly how much pressure you need. So, first finger on the second fret of the high E string, I'm going to press until the note rings. Okay? Just a little bit of pressure. Now, if I take that same pressure and I move it to the back of the fret, you're going to hear the string sounds muted. So make sure when you're playing the guitar, you're always focusing on the front of the fret versus the back of the fret.
