How To Play The D Chord

[zubidoo]

ik my 4th finger is WAYY off but i humanely cannot reach even till that if i align it with the other fingers. Weirdly enough, even that string plays somehow, but the G-string simply wont. Save me T v T

[MarkinOttawa]

Hi zubidoo,

I’m just a beginner and it’s hard to see exactly from your pictures, but it looks like your strings are very far away from the frets. Have you had someone check the setup of the guitar? There are good online instructions too and I used those to check everything and set my truss rod correctly.

[sequences]

Location relative to the frets is pretty close to my own.

I use more finger tip. Try bringing your thumb toward the top a little. This should position your palm closer to the bottom and make your fingers come down a bit more vertical. I’m looking at fingers 1 and 3 for that. Finger 2 looks ok.

Finger tips will harden with time. If your finger tips are soft, you will find that you flatten it out and usually have trouble touching an adjacent string.

For your 4th finger, you want to concentrate on relaxing it until it becomes normal to do without the concentration. Ideally, you will only use muscles needed to put your hand into position and nothing more. This goes for shoulder, and arm as well. You’ll learn what is tight when you play a long time and fatigue.

[zubidoo]

Hello, are these pictures any better? I’ll attach more in the replies.

I haven’t had the chance to get anyone check the setup. For a bit of history about the guitar, I bought it back in 2019, played it for a couple of months, I think one of the E strings snapped, I went back to that shop to get it fixed. Then I got covid and kind of never picked it up again. And it’s been pretty much untouched up until a few days ago when i decided to learn it again.

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[sequences]

It is customary to measure at fret 12. it is the half-way point on the string and a place where the relief (the bend in the neck) is seen when adjusting the truss rod.

Height is measured from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string. I think I am seeing about 4mm, which I consider fairly high, even for an acoustic. I find my wife’s classical difficult to play and it is about 3mm, but I am used to electrics which are lower. I think you are measuring at fret 5 and looks higher at fret 12.

You have a “zero fret” on that. I have one guitar and like it. It helps set the nut end of the string height fairly low and gives a very stable anchor for the string to vibrate at that end.

I also see the string heights vary. It generally feels better to have the string heights feel pretty similar from one string to the next, with the smaller strings a little closer than the larger strings.

Having a proper setup done will help it feel better to play.

[MarkinOttawa]

I’m glad you started again – we all need to put COVID behind us ugh!

If you want you can try to check your setup without changing anything (just measuring). I like a guy on YouTube FruduaTV as he is very detailed and explains everything.

[judi]

Hi Tazmeen, You’ve received lots of good comments above. I agree with @sequences Michael that you should try to use your finger tips more. Have a look at the video for the lesson again, and you’ll see that Justin’s fingers are nearly perpendicular to the fretboard. It takes some time for us beginners to make it look that pretty, but that’s what we’re aiming for!

One thing that helps me is to keep my fingernails quite short. It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photos, but it looks like yours might be a bit long and might hit the fretboard when you use your fingertips. Try filing them down (they’ll grow back in short order if you don’t like them short!) Keep us posted, ask more questions if you have them! The struggle is part of the journey.

[LadyOfTheCastle]

Hi, using your fingertips more is definitely one thing that will help you, another one is slanting your fingers more: they should be pointing more upwards and forwards (towards the body of your guitar) instead of just upwards. This will help you reach the fret with your 3rd finger.

[Hobbitonya]

So, what if your fingers aren’t flexible enough to touch all three at once? I especially can’t get them touching the three strings near the frets at once.

[LadyOfTheCastle]

Can you post a picture of your hand while fretting the D chord? The D chord is less about flexibility than about position and angle of your hand. A picture could help us give you some advice.

[Hobbitonya]

Thanks for your help!

Here is one more,

[LadyOfTheCastle]

Ok, you need to slant your hand more, make your fingers point towards the body of your guitar. When you look at Justin’s hand in this screen shot, you’ll see that his fingers aren’t pointing straight, but more upwards-forwards (forwards being towards the body):

Now compare this with your hand. You see that your fingers are pointing straight upwards, which heavily limits your reach:

Play around with hand positions between vertical (what you do in those pictures) and horizontal (fingers pointing towards you). Try to find that sweet spot in between those those two extremes which allows you to reach those frets.

Focus first on getting that part of the position of your hand correct. After that, work on making those strings sound clean. Some tips for that:

• keep the palm of your hand close to the neck
• make sure your 2nd finger doesn’t slide forward, on to the fret
• put your 3rd finger down as perpendicular to the fretboard as possible, so as not to touch the first string

Good luck! We’ve all been there, and we’ve all managed to get it. You will too!

[sequences]

Lady of the Castle has hit most of what I see. One other thing I’d mention is the thumb position. Your hand is high on the back side of the neck. this great for muting the E and A strings, but your palm is too far back on the bottom to give you good reach on finger 3. You will find this also creates problems reaching strings 5 and 6 later on.

Try to drop your thumb down a bit and get your first finger knuckle at your palm about the edge of the fretboard on the bottom. with the rotation Lady mentioned, you should be able to reach this a bit easier. Also, your muscle and stretching ability will increase as you play, so give it time.

[zubidoo]

Helloo, so an update. I was told here previously that my strings were too far away from the fretboard. Almost 23 days later since, today I was finally able to go to a guitar shop and they told me the neck was really bent haha. They also changed the strings. Thank you so much for your help sequences MarkinOttawa I hope things will be smoother from now on T v T I really would’ve rage quit if this technical issue wasnt pointed out haha

[judi]

Yay! Thanks for the update Tazmeen!

[Richard_close2u]

@Ontime Jason … if I may … you have developed a bad habit of tucking your little finger down and behind the guitar neck. It should be hovering up and near to 3rd finger. Say you want to quickly add in a sus4 … little finger is right there, poised and ready.

[Richard_close2u]

@MarkinOttawa

I find it really difficult to put my fingers down in the order given

Hello Mark and welcome to the JustinGuitar and the Community.

Try this to see if it helps.
This exercise is designed to improve the ability to place all fingers on a chord simultaneously by actually doing the opposite – placing them one at a time, but in varying sequences. This will build finger independence which is essential for finger cooperation.

• Place each finger sequentially on to the strings to form the chosen chord in the orders 1, 2, 3 then 2, 3, 1 then 3, 1, 2.
• Do four repeats for each combination.
• Repeat but with the sequential placing reversed, now following the orders: 3, 2, 1 then 2, 1, 3 then 1, 3, 2.
• Finish by making four attempts to place all fingers simultaneously.

Perform this exercise with just one of the chords you have learned so far (say D major) to begin. It will take a couple of minutes of your practice routine. After several days you should be seeing and feeling some improvement. When you do, incorporate another chord and build up steadily one chord at a time.

I hope that helps.
Please let us know if you try it and if it works for you.
Cheers

[Richard_close2u]

@zubidoo Since your guitar has been made better, is the D chord improving?

The photo here shows you need to re-learn the hand position and grip from scratch. I hope it is going better now.

[Ontime]

Thank you for this feedback. I may have overcompensated for the queen drinks tea maneuver I was guilty of for a long time. I love that Dsus2 and dont want to restrict any timing.

[Cyril_fr]

Hello @Richard_close2u

@Richard_close2u

Place each finger sequentially on to the strings to form the chosen chord in the orders 1, 2, 3 then 2, 3, 1 then 3, 2, 1.

If I understand correctly, the last one should be 3,1,2.

Thank you for this, I also have difficulties with this chord!