The E chord is easy to play and a very common open chord!
View the full lesson at How To Play The E Chord | JustinGuitar
I’ve found this chord to be the easiest so far
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Hello @Aun and welcome to the Community.
E is for EASY
When you get to it in the next grade, F is for ________ (fill the blank) haha 
.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
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Regarding the thumb placement, I feel I need to move my thumb a lot when changing chords to place my fingers in the correct position. However, my thumb does not slide very easily along the neck, and the chords are all buzzy/dead when doing the one-minute changes exercise. The chords sound fine in the first try when doing the chord perfect practice.
Any suggestions on how to improve in my situation? Thanks.
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@Furabot
Welcome to the community.
I am only Grade 1 Beginner myself and having similar issue with some chord changes. Further down the line there is something called perfect fast changes, PFC, in module 7 consolidation tip but I think your one minute changes should be up to the required standard before doing PFC. I am going to give PFC a go.
Others with more experience may have different advice.
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I progressed to module 2 some days ago. The E chord is working okay so far (I find the A chord easier, to be honest).
I have a bit of a problem with the 3rd string, though. It hardly ever rings out really clean. It always sounds a bit “damped”. It’s not completely muted, but there is a clear difference compared to playing it open. I’ve checked different things and I really don’t know what’s causing this. It doesn’t seem to be the 3rd finger that is muting/dampening it. And the 1st finger is quite close to the fret. Sometimes it gets a bit better when I press down the 1st finger really, really hard. But this is really uncomfortable and painful then.
Any ideas what might cause this? For the E chord, there is a finger on the 1st fret for the first time. Is it just normal that this sounds a bit different?
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You do not want to overcome issues by pressing very, very hard.
That is bad technique.
The muted 3rd string is likely to be a very small touch from your other (third) finger.
It is important to gett his correct on an E major chord as, without the note on fret 1 of that string, your chord will sound like an E minor, not an E major.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
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Have you already had your guitar set up? You could try playing all the other strings at the 1st fret to see if those are also affected by this problem. In that case, probably the nut slots need to be filed down.
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That was my first thought as well - maybe the nut needs to be filed down.
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Thanks, Richard. I’ll have a look at the 3rd finger. I hope it will improve with more practice.
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Hi Jozsef,
no, I haven’t. I assumed that when I buy a new guitar for 650 Euros then it has been set up properly by the manufacturer!? Is it not safe to assume that this is the case?
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Set up for who? The way a guitar is set up is a personal thing.
People who strum and pick with a heavy hand will have a different set up than a fingerpicker. Also beginners usually need lighter strings and lower action than seasoned players, which need a different set up. The music store I deal with offers a free set up for the first year. They recommend taking the guitar home for a month of playing then bring it back and have it set up the way you like.
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@Jozsef @stitch If you have not read the topics, @Klimperer42 bought a good quality flamenco guitar so he is playing with nylon strings on a wide-ish neck. It should be pretty well setup although, of course, any guitar, even a $2000 Gibson, can come out of the factory and need a small adjustment or two after a month of playing.
In this instance however I would look at technique and hand position, finger position, finger pressure first.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
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I’m hoping someone can give me some feedback if I should be moving on from Module 2 and going to 3 now or keep practicing.
When playing songs in module 2, any song with a single chord per bar I can get through at 80% bpm and hit about 70-80% of the chords correctly (not always cleanly). I’m not fast enough yet to play two chords in a single bar. Should I move onto the next module or keep practicing this one? Trying to figure out when I’m, “good enough” to take the next step.
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No matter what I do my strings sound buzzy. Even if I’m only using one finger and focusing on that one string for practice’s sake. No matter how close I am to the fret or how hard I press, there’s always a metallic buzzing sound. Is this just a problem with my guitar?
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Are those old strings? (try a new set if the are)
otherwise it is possible your guitar needs a setup becase the neck relief is wrong and than everything could buzz on you
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I’m not sure how old the strings are. I just bought the guitar from a store last week, but it was one that was in the back in a box so the strings hadn’t been touched or anything. Should I change them anyway because I don’t know how long it was sitting in the box?
The third string seems to be the worst and it’s super hard to press on the first fret.
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Hi Ava, if it’s a new, unplayed, guitar then I wouldn’t expect the strings to be the issue. If you’re finding buzzing when focussing on a single string then I agree with Lieven that it’s a setup issue. If I were you I’d go back to the store and ask them to check it over for you and adjust as needed.
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Is it an electric guitar? Check the saddle of that string, is there a noticeable difference in height with the other saddles?
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Yes, it’s an electric guitar. I don’t trust myself enough to try and fix it myself so I think I will be taking it somewhere to get it set up soon. Thank you for the advice!
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