My guitar sounds buzzy when I play certain chords. Why?

Buzzing can be caused by a handful of different factors.

The easiest thing to check on is your left-hand technique.

Two questions: first, are you pressing the string down hard enough, and holding it steady throughout the longevity of the note? Even the slightest release of pressure can cause the note to buzz, so make sure you clamp down on it and hold on tight until it’s time to release it and move on to the next note.

Second, is your finger pressing down as high in the fret-space (“high” meaning towards the body of the guitar, not towards the headstock) as you can manage, without being on top of the fret-wire itself?

Inadequate pressure or poor positioning of the fingers in the fret space are the two most common causes of buzzing. The good news is, they’re also the easiest to fix. Observe, determine the problem, make the necessary changes, and practice the new improved way of doing it.

If you are certain that your left hand technique is not the problem, it may be that your guitar’s action is too low. This means the neck is slightly angled so that the strings are a little bit too close to the fret-board, causing them to rattle and vibrate against the metal fret wires as you play. This can usually be fixed with a simple neck adjustment by a pro.

In rare cases, if a simple neck adjustment doesn’t do the trick, it could be that the guitar neck has a more serious problem, like fret-wear or warping.

Don’t panic though – the vast majority of buzzing problems are not serious, and are relatively easy to resolve.

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