Yeah, that’s a tough stretch…and I have fairly long fingers.
Been learning the intro riff to “Ahead By A Century”, by the Tragically Hip, and after a lot of experimenting, found it worked best by doing a mini-barre with my 1st finger on the 3 thinnest strings, 2nd fret. 2nd finger on B string, 2nd fret.
This freed up my 3rd and 4th fingers for the 4th and 5th frets of the e string.
This is a great exercise for stretching out those fingers, but don’t overdo it at first…there’s risk of hand and arm pain if you practice too long, or press too hard.
It was this lesson which made me realize that I am not ready to progress into grade 3. I am good with strumming/singing/fingerstyle/chord changes, the F chord and some other barre chords. However, I have not spent enough time learning the notes on the neck and it shows. I had amp troubles and without the electric, avoided power chords. Justin’s slight frustration when he mentioned this was so obviously directed at me, I immediately went back to consolidating grade 2. I hope that he will forgive me.
I got a book about how to learn the whole neck in like 20 minutes or something. So knowing me, I will probably be at it for a year or two.
I also decided to do the beginner’s practical theory courses in hopes that opens more up to me. More info and taking it slow is always better.
I too have shirked power chords (not completely) as I am only playing acoustic and to my ear they sound terrible on an acoustic guitar.
I was aware that I am deficient in my knowledge of the notes on the fretboard, I have the ‘anchor’ ones now on the top two strings but have to think about it for others rather than ‘knowing’ it. I made up and printed off a colour coded fretboard note guide for myself which lives on my music stand and is slowly helping me learn.
I also think I am not really at grade 3 standard but trying some of the new techniques out is helping alleviate the boredom, so intent to dip in and out whilst consolidating what I have learnt so far.
It was a nice experience trying new things but my pinky finger isn’t THAT flexible so I kindda ended up having a hard time playing some of the variations of the D chord.
Definetly an interesting experience.
Looking at the PDF Jeff referenced for the D Shape Explorer, I’m confused about the 2 variations of D6. One uses Root, 3rd, 5th & 6th, while the other just Root, 3rd & 6th. Are they both a D6, or is the former a Dadd6, or is the latter not really a D6, or what?
Usually, the 5th is the first note we (can) omit when constructing extended chords. It’s because we don’t really need it here. A 5th adds less colour than eg a 6th or 7th. The third is essential to make the chord major or minor.
I just had a flash of a learning idea, relating back somewhere around the grade 1 stuff, and thought it may be helpful or something.
When I tried the regular D into open strings back into the regular D shift, I had to realize that I struggle to put back my fingers where they were despite I just lifted them off. Tried to do it without looking of course, because that’s also something I am working on.
The Grade 1 stuff I thought to connect this with is the air changes, something that I found difficult to get into, I still struggle with air changing into F, my fingers just don’t seem to know where they are supposed to go, despite me being quite familiar with the chord.
My Idea (not gonna be that huge of a breakthrough) is that as a step 0 for getting into air changes, one could start off by ‘air changing’ a specific chord into itself, preferably without looking. I think this tiny step helps to connect - at least for me - all the technical stuff I mentioned above.
The second Justin played one of the D chord modifications it instantly reminded me of ABBA, so when he mentioned it I felt some pride in myself that I noticed it and looked up Mamma Mia and it has some variations around the D shape !! Found myself the song that I will learn this module !!
I liked the sound of the strumming with chord variations in the video intro and at around 2:35, 3:11, 3:40, 4:14. It would be nice to combine the chord exploration practice with the strumming into a riff, but haven’t quite got it yet. Any advice on how to replicate what Justin does in the video as a starting point?
Listen to what he’s doing over and over. Just like you were learning a song. Slow the video down and try to play along with Justin. You’ll get it and it’s good ear training
Came across this week at the guitar club one of these rare chords that Justin mentions at about 9.00 in the video, Daug, although Justin calls is D sharp five which is of course what it is. He also goes onto to say you might come across it in ABBA or LZ songs and sure enough it was in Mama Mia. There is a lot of fast changes between D and Daug so the most efficient way to do it was keep fingers 1, 2 and 3 in place and use your little finger to play the #5 as Justin mentions.
Michael
