Thank you for checking in, yes the d chord is definitely much easier now haha! It was practically impossible to press on the strings and get them to ring before.
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Thank you so much for the message Richard,
I will do this for sure as I want to learn things properly. At least I have good calluses going from practicing the A and D chords a lot lol. I can switch between them pretty fast now (maybe 1s for each) but I mostly leave the first finger down all the time.
Edit to add: I tried your exercises and they are very nice to do. It helps to make my fingers more relaxed somehow. I am also trying suggestions I have seen to open your hand completely between tries of placing all fingers at once. That is nice too.
I also found that it is much better to wear my guitar strap when practicing. The guitar just seems a lot more steady and I donāt have to worry about where it might be sliding. At first I only wore it sometimes, but I think itās a lot better to play with it on all the time.
I donāt know much about music theory. I played trumpet when I was young but you only play one note at a time with that. When I was playing the D major practice chord, for fun I tried putting my 4th finger on the 3rd fret of the high E string and it sounded really cool. I looked it up and it is a D sus4 chord so I was glad it was a real chord lol!
Have a great day,
Mark
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Hi,
Iāve been practicing the A and D chords and making changes a lot. I find that I can place my thumb in a lot of ways, and Iām not sure which is best (or if any is poor technique).
Normally I place the whole last phalanx on the back of the neck directly opposite the fingers and this works fine. But sometimes I put just the base of it on the neck, or just the tip and this works OK too. But then I was watching Justin doing the chord change lesson, and he kind of wraps the back of the neck with the thumb so the top of the thumb sticks out a bit on the fretboard side. So I tried this way and is seems way more comfortable and steady to do it like this. I was getting thumb pain from an old ski injury to my hand with the former methods, but with the way Justin was doing it, itās a lot better.
So is it OK to do it like this. I remember in one of his intro lessons he warned about not wrapping the thumb around too much as it might mute the low E string so I was concerned about this and about playing other chords with the thumb wrapped this way.
TIA for your help!
Mark
Mark, it is not bad technique to wrap your thumb over the top of the neck and actually helps with muting the low E while playing the D chord. The reason Justin recommends against this technique for beginners is that beginners need to develop strength in the fretting hand. You will need this hand strength later in grade 2 when you play the F chord.
Hello everyone, Iāve picked up my first guitar and am about 3 days into playing, Iāve got a good grasp on A but D is causing difficulty at the moment haha. i am muting the bottom string and when i do get my hand into the position that can ring the chord out right after about 20 seconds my wrist or thumb start to cramp. my fingers also seem to slip toward the fret when i try to match Justinās finger position from the video.
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Hello everyone im a beginner guitar player and i really struggle with the d chord{im fine with a chord} the problem is i just cant make my ring finger or in this case finger no.3 off the thinest string and if i want to make it right i have to bend my wrist so much that it hurts so i`d appreciate it if someone can help me akso sorry for my bad english this is not my first language
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Hi @mhk796, and welcome here! Your English is more than fine - loads of non native speakers here (including me).
The D chord is probably every beginner guitaristās nemesis. But weāve all gotten there, so thereās no reason why you wonāt. A couple of tips that might help you:
- Donāt keep your guitar parallel to your body, but angle the neck a bit away from you. Also donāt keep your guitar horizontal, but angle the neck a bit upwards. This will help you keeping your wrist more or less straight while fingering the D chord.
- Push your hand forward below the neck (without touching it). This will create more space for your fingers and will make it easier to put your fingers down as perpendicular to the fretboard as possible, avoiding touching other strings. This was a game changer for me when my third finger stubbornly kept muting dat first string.
- Donāt hold your hand so that your fingers are in a vertical position, pointing more or less straight upwards. For the D chord, you want your fingers to slant, pointing forward/upward (forward being toward the body of your guitar). This will give you a lot more reach, and by this will give your fingers more space to avoid those strings you donāt want them to touch.
- Make sure your second finger stays right behind the fret. When reaching with your third finger and concentrating on not touching the first string with that third finger, your second finger might tend to slide just a bit forward and sit on top of the fret, which will also mute that first string.
Try moving your hand and fingers around, just a little bit at a time, to find that sweet spot that will allow you to play that D chord cleanly. Donāt worry, you will get there!
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hello @LadyOfTheCastle {killer nickname btw} thank you for your advice i will try to do them and hopefully get it ti sound right thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu very much again.
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Iām a complete novice. After 2 days have cut my nails right down but Iām really struggling with D. So thanks for this. Does seem better to slant fingers towards body and keeps 2nd finger away from fret so will use your advice to crack on in my future practice. Thanks again.
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Youāre welcome! Just keep going, youāll get the hang of it. I struggled with D too at the beginning, as did lots of others.
Hello from Dallas Texas
Justin suggests 1 minute of chord perfect practice for each of the chords he introduces.
He demonstrates how to do it, getting proper finger position and each string/note correct and clear and then strums the chord. But he doesnāt show the full minute.
My question is how many times in a minute do you hope to play the perfect chord and I assume that equates to a strummed chord and an arpeggio.
For example, you start the timer and get it right once. Each stringās note is clear and the chord is clean. Do you then take your fingers all the way off the fretboard, mute the still ringing chord and start over? Or do you keep your fingers correctly positioned and active and pick each string in the chord and strum the chord repeatedly?
Iāve been making the chord, strumming it and then picking each string, arpeggio style, up the chord and back down to the root note, over and over for a full minute. Iāve also applied a tempo to it so that there is a half-beat after and before the strum.
Am I making this too complicated and missing the point?
Please advise. Thanks!
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Yes. Take your fingers off and start from scratch.
Hello Larry.
Welcome to the community mate!
Youāve done well with the chord formation, checking the strumming, and ensuring all the notes are clear.
The next step, as suggested, is to see if you can form it on the fretboard from scratch by moving your hand away, giving it a shake, then seeing if you can find the chord again.
Before long, this will become automatic.
All the best.
Cheers, Shane
Hi Alan,
If you have to strain to form the D chord you may not have your hand positioned correctly. Your fretting hand palm shouldnāt be flat against the neck of the guitar, perhaps just the palm next to the thumb. Then rotate the wrist until your first finger is in position next to the fret wire and put the other two fingers down. If you are still having problems, then you could post a picture and get more advice.You can also look at @LadyOfTheCastle suggestions that are just below your question.