Update and question: For the first time, I was successful in getting the D chord to sing, and one proof also for that is that my fingers are now starting to hurt in the required places. But I know I need to work on getting the shape of my hand right, so I did some reading here and based on that - the width of my classical guitar is 2 inches at the nut/neck. I am 6 feet tall with what seem to be proportionate looking hands, but in any case I don’t think that the extra neck width is my problem which is this: when I place my thumb running almost vertically behind the neck for support as recommended and extend my fingers out, the neck does not come close to touching my hand when I get my fingers claw shaped to reach back and drop down to the higher strings that are part of the D chord. The problem is that I cannot get any finger to drop down vertically on to these strings with a straight wrist, and that problem to my mind has nothing to do with the neck being on the wider side. What I do just now to get them there is to bend the wrist and push it out to allow the fingers to come down vertically. Although not needed for the chord, I also see no way presently for the fingers to get back all the way to drop down on the low strings, without bending the wrist.
The question therefore is this: I know I need to work on getting this sorted and if so, how? Somehow I don’t think getting the results that I am getting, but with the wrist pushed out and bent to compensate for what the fingers are not able to do, is the right way to declare success in getting the D chord working.
I also suspect that fixing this is going to matter for all chord shapes, so this is a fundamental issue I have to address, I think.
How does the hand/fingers develop that ability to curl back such that the finger tips come down vertically? The extra width of the neck may be an issue to do this for the low E/A strings, but isn’t relevant for the higher strings to be fretted for the D chord.
Seems to me that I can’t say I can play chords just by how they sound; having thumb placed the way it needs to be also seems to be an essential part of the journey. Does that need conscious work or will the correct shape just happen in time?!
It certainly does answer it! And is a relief because seeing how much there is to grasp and absorb and much of that not on just an intellectual level, the 6-8 weeks was not looking possible for me. These time lines are more like what I think I will need, so thanks for this, because it gives me the motivation to keep plugging away as the hare did in it’s fabled race with the tortoise.
Hello Kumar,
welcome to community. Its great you have time for guitar and you picked nylon string guitar - your fingers will thanks to you with beginning struggle and long session interest. 
I also checked your guitar and it looks like decent guitar for price to start with.
Good luck on your journey.
HA! I had this thought many, many times.
I can tell you that it DOES improve, often with a surprising day of nothing is really hard and you just realize the problem is gone.
Go through the stretching videos I posted above. Those will get you on the road to reaching things with more ease. I still struggle with some of the more unnatural bends, like the finger tip bending backward, but the thumb pushing my hand too far back was solved by experimentation and time to allow my hand and fingers to adapt to the new demands.
You want to develop the ability to bend your finger a little better at the last joint. This has been a struggle for me and I have had to concentrate on improving that. Part of it is getting your mind in control of that last joint bending and some of it is building the muscle strength in that last joint. It will also prove when you don’t need to stretch your fingers as much when you figure out the right position for less wrist bend.
Additionally, you don’t want your thumb statically in one place. It will move around the back of the neck based on where you need to reach with fingers. Experiment a bit and watch how you need to move going from E to D. You may need to nudge your initial position a bit for the thumb to feel comfortable. Mine sits a bit higher (around nearer string 6) than Justin shows in the early videos. I am 6’3" with what I think are typical hand and finger sizes. Placing my thumb in the mid part of the neck forces too much bend in my wrist to feel right.
I understand that the thumb may slide around a little at the back, I was referring to its general placement. Thanks for your advice; since I do not have arthritis or any other condition in the fingers, I shall just assume that with consistent practice they will behave in the manner needed.
Yes, but you want to practice the correct position so you don’t need to correct a bad learning. Take time to figure that out. Study Justin’s hand position on his videos (stop them to look). Show pictures of your hand position here if you want folks to check your hand positions.
Yes, I know that the chord shape should also look right, even if that means going slow. The picture attached shows my present issues of not being able to push the ring finger out - I am not too concerned about this, it is matter of time. But to my eyes the thumb needs to be lower down and at this time I cannot do that and keep the wrist straight, I have to push it forward to get the finger tips to come down straight. Getting that right is going to be hard, I reckon.
You are not too far away - it may just be that this feels off because it is new! ‘You want a slight bend in the wrist’ is what I was told by a retired college music professor that had been teaching for decades.
I see three things that may help a tiny bit:
- the fingernail on finger 1 may reduce the space you have to press down. If you get some strings buzzing, don’t press harder, but look if the nail is restricting movement and trim it down if it is.
- How does it feel if you rotate your hand anti-clockwise a little? This will bring the fingers in at a bit more of an angle compared to the direction of the frets and give a bit easier reach on finger 3.
- For the thumb, I need to do the same. I know I am not in the ideal position, but I just cannot bend it far enough back, so I let it go toward the nut a bit more and let it hang over the top a bit like you have. I have come to think that we must adjust for our anatomy, but not deviate too far or we find trouble later when something doesn’t work properly.
looks like your hand is too perpendicular to the neck
look at sequence’s hand , its slighlty bent
I think I may be making it harder than it needs to be by holding the guitar at a slight angle towards my body. If I hold it at 90 degrees - perpendicular - to the floor the fingers have less to move to reach the fret. Bu then I can’t see where I am placing them, but again I am guessing that with practice I should not need to?
I think you are talking about rotation about your torso? I find I have the body closer to my picking hand side than fretting side. This makes the neck stick forward a bit.
For rotation that controls neck height from the floor, you might want to look at raising the neck closer to your fretting side shoulder - this is the position you will see classical players use. The wrist position is very neutral and fingering is quite a bit more comfortable. I think the reason this not used is because it is not as easy to maintain this position with a strap and it “looks cool” to sling the guitar low.
See images of Robert Trujillo (Metallica). He uses a bit of both. He plays bass, so the neck is long and up near his shoulder, and has the body slung below his waist. Looks cool for his audience and maintains a nice position for his fretting hand.
It sounds like you are experimenting. This is good. You will learn the good and bad of different options!
No Michael, I was referring to the angle the neck makes with respect to the floor. When the neck/guitar is tilted back towards me such that the board is visible, the fingers have to reach out more to get to the strings, especially the lower ones near the top of the fret board. When the guitar is held horizontal as before but with the neck upright with respect to the floor, the strings come closer to the finger tips. The problem then of course is that I have to lean over the guitar to ensure finger tip placements. But I shall now also try with the neck closer to the classical position!
Hi Kumar, welcome to the community forum. If you have problems in the future with a specific chord, a good place to ask for help is in the discussion on the website for that specific chord lesson. There is a lot of discussion in the D chord website. It is good to have longer nails on your strumming hand, but your fretting hand nails should be short (1 mm) so it makes it easier to fret the chords.
I agree that you might have your hand too flat up against the neck when you play the D chord. You might try rotating the hand at least 45 degrees so that your palm and your fingers will be pointing more to the right and make fretting the D chord easier. I would recommend strumming with your fingers on the nylon string guitar. Later you will do fingerpicking which will be easy on the nylon string guitar. You will slowly get better if you practice a little each day. Be sure to play at least one song all the way through in each module. The fun is learning to play songs.
By that do you mean by pushing the wrist forward and up? Or do you mean moving just the hand to the right at the wrist?
Thanks.
It is very clear to me by now on the fourth day that I have miles to go to get my fingers to bend in, to work independently, and to stretch wide enough to get to the right places in adjacent frets. And the pinkie is a subject by itself!
I see that are a lot of daily exercises prescribed to address all of the above, online, in many places. For the one that starts with each finger going down on frets 5.6.7,8 I am unable to even start this one on the low E string as recommended everywhere because the ring finger and pinkie just won’t get to where they need to.
My question is this: In the Justin course, the first dedicated stretching exercise for beginners is this one, but it starts only in module 4, and overall is about the 32nd lesson leaving out the ones in Module 0.
I assume there is a reason for this beginner lesson being placed as late as this, and I am better off not attempting it sooner, continuing with all the lessons in the order prescribed?
I mean rotating the hand around the wrist. By rotation I mean this: hold your hand out with palm up like you are giving someone a coin held in your palm. Now turn to palm towards the ground to drop the coin. Go back and forth and you have rotation. Rotate halfway and you have the hand shake greeting position. Try starting with the hand shake orientation and rest the neck on your index finger at the second fret and rotate the palm up until you fingers can form the D chord.
I cannot answer for Justin. However, he has mentioned in several places that he has thought quite a lot about how to structure his classes.
If I had to guess, he has seen more students that place more importance on playng something early than the technical details like you have. I am quite similar to you. I prefer to see the stuff I need to do and then work on it and let the music come a bit later. If the lesson seems like it is too early for you, then let it go for a bit. If it seems like somthing you want to deal with now, do it.
My personal feeling as a STUDENT, is that I want to see where I am going, tell me about all the stuff I need to be mindful of, then tell me again as I am likely to run into it. This is MY way to learn, and folks are all different. I suspect Justin has set things up for the general population, not my way.
I often skip ahead a little. I don’t think it is a big deal to watch forward a bit as long as you go through the whole lesson plan throughout at least grade 3 (I am in G4, so no comments past 3!)
Yes, I do skip ahead to take just a look at the method in what seems to be madness, as I do for any thing I set out to get to know. My question was to start practicing the finger exercises that are impossible for me to do even poorly just now. The middle finger and ring finger insist on coming together and touching when bent down, as does the pinkie. I am therefore hoping/assuming that by the time I am done with the 30 odd lessons before getting to that lesson, the fingers will have gained some of what they need have to make a better stab at the exercise and that in turn will allow the subsequent steps easier to climb.
I think the finger independence and stretching could come earlier in the lessons. You will start to gain each of those as you play. Move slowly. Very slowly to get your mind in control of your fingers.
I was trying to learn a technique called ‘rolling’. It was going poorly and I needed to work my fingers by simply lifting and setting them on a desk independently very slowly until I could speed up and then do it with even timing. This took me maybe 4-6 days until I had the control I needed to start making headway with the guitar.
Another case for me was wanting to play a song that required me to stretch from finger 1 on string 6, fret 5 to finger 4 on string 5, fret 10. I worked this for around 6-8 weeks before I could get far enough to reach and make a clear note. I worked on it daily just a little bit, much like a gym workout. I was able to play that song, it just took time for my hand to adapt to the demand to stretch that far.
to gain experience and finger independency , play songs play songs play songs !