10+ year guitar player here. If your strings mute when you try to play chords, it can be one of these reasons: Finger shape - that is pure luck, but by stretching your fingers and developing muscle strength, you can push them hard enough to have a clean sound. Wide fretboard - try electric guitars with narrower fretboards and see if that makes a difference. Ultimately, you can get yourself a guitar that is more comfortable to play and fits your hand better. String height - if you have an acoustic with no way to adjust string height and they are quite high, then unlucky. Height makes a huge difference for various play styles, but generally, it is a good idea to have them as low as possible and still have clean sound when strings vibrate and barely miss touching the frets