So I sat down with my real electric guitar last night...

[Lindeus]

And I realized I can't seem to finger basic chords without my fingers touching multiple strings on that tiny guitar neck...

I don't have huge fingers, but I can't do a basic C without my finger hitting both the A and D strings.

I'm used to playing on a classical with a much wider neck.

What am I missing here? (Besides skill, talent, passion, and experience?)

[Flawless]

Skill, Talent, Passion and Experience.

[SequenceF]

Skill, talent, passi---oh wait.

[Lindeus]

[yaniv297]

Training, basically.

[TheKT]

You need to rotate your hand around and down some more. Your thumb needs to be in the upper middle portion of the back of the neck. That way your fingers can come more straight down on the strings instead of laying across them.

[Lindeus]

You need to rotate your hand around and down some more. Your thumb needs to be in the upper middle portion of the back of the neck. That way your fingers can come more straight down on the strings instead of laying across them.

Maybe my squishy fingers are just too soft.. it's been a long time. To apply enough pressure to get the string to ring my marshmallowy fingertip spreads out too much, no matter the rotation :P

[TheKT]

Maybe my squishy fingers are just too soft.. it's been a long time. To apply enough pressure to get the string to ring my marshmallowy fingertip spreads out too much, no matter the rotation :P

Could be. But as an addendum to my first post; try to press the strings down with the point of your finger, as close to the finger nail as you can. Don't press with the flat part of your finger. I have never played on a classical guitar but I started out on bass and how you press the strings was one of the hardest transitions IMO.

[ZigZag2005]

Maybe my squishy fingers are just too soft.. it's been a long time. To apply enough pressure to get the string to ring my marshmallowy fingertip spreads out too much, no matter the rotation :P

One word. Callouses.

Keep playing. By the time RB3 drops, you'll be ready.

[instantdeath999]

You just have to get used to it and adjust. I personally play acoustic, electric and classical guitar and have different fingering techniques for all three. Unfortunately, I can't really describe them, since I do it naturally. While they're all, more or less, the same instrument, they all are distinct in many ways, so don't try to play an electric the way you would a classical.

Full chords tend to not sound that great on an electric, anyway, at least with much distortion. I tend to go for really dreamy effects on the electric though, and for the most part prefer playing acoustic.