HI, I am new here. I find I can’t get my 2nd and 3rd fingers placed properly on the D chord. That 2nd finger is slightly fatter than the rest and I find sometimes my 3rd finger touches and mutes the 6th string. The A chord is no problem, but the D is. Will keep practicing but any tips would be welcome! thanks very much
1 Like
It’s the most common problem people have with a D but a few days of Chord Perfect practice and you’ll have it nailed. In a week this will be your strongest chord.
2 Likes
The keyword is practice! @Jamolay said it best; these things slowly get better and better over time. I had a lot of trouble with that as well, but as my fingers toughened up and practice wore in, it’s now pretty natural (I started back at the beginning of last October).
2 Likes
This lesson is unavailable to those who aren’t logged in or registered. I don’t think that’s intentional. GOod info!
2 Likes
And then we find new things we can’t yet do! Sigh…
2 Likes
Thanks for the heads up.
I will raise this with the JustinGuitar team.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
1 Like
This helped me already. Immediately my fingers started to feel more… “right,” I guess.
I am well on my way to hardening these old fingertips. Working with my hands all my life, I never thought this would be the softest area left. 
5 Likes
This is really useful, most guitar instructor said the same thing about finger placement but don’t bother to explain why. Thank you, Justin for your explanation!
2 Likes
Great video! As a new guitar player, I felt immediate improvement in finger comfort and sound quality after applying the tips stated here. Question, though: what do I do with my pinky finger? As of now, my pinky finger instinctively curls up in such a way that my pinky finger’s tip rests near the base of my ring ringer, with the curled finger is pulled all the way up. I see that when Justin plays the guitar, his pinky finger tucks inwards towards the palm instead. Should I be doing that?
1 Like
Hi! Any guidance on position of the thumb on the back of the neck?
1 Like
I would suggest you “crook” your pinky finger in the same way that Justin does…if you can.
I missed this the first time around, and locked in a bunch of tension in some of my other fingers that I was completely oblivious to. Took weeks of practice to break that bad habit.
Post a pic of your hand fretting the chord if you struggle with this…will make it infinitely easier for us to troubleshoot!
2 Likes
Justin recommends putting the thumb more or less in the centre of the neck…maybe you haven’t got to that video yet.
But if you make a good faith effort to do it that way - over several days - and it’s still uncomfortable, it’s probably ok to let your thumb come up over the top edge of the neck if it makes things easier.
This is a good position for thumb muting the thickest string, which you will probably want to do fairly early on.
2 Likes
Hello @peterjwacks and @efbau02 - welcome to the Community plus Justin’s guitar course.
Check this to help.
Just relax it and, if you can, have it uncurled and hovering over the strings a little - as though poised ready to move to a string should the next chord you change to require the little finger.
See the above pic also.
I hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
1 Like
Hi, just started the beginner course. What I find the most difficult is fingers muting other strings. I would say that it’s a matter of practice, or there is any exercise tip for that. Especially the D cord where
1 Like
Welcome to the forum Jose. Your finger tips are still soft so will spread out as you fret the strings. Most beginners press way to hard which makes it worse. Use just enough pressure to make the strings ring out. It will get better as your calluses build up.
2 Likes
Thanks for your kind answer. Practice makes perfection indeed but its really annoying blocking other strings 
1 Like
It’s also a matter of experimentation. You need to finger a D chord, say, and pluck one string at a time. If one or more strings are muted, you have to slightly adjust the position of your fingers, your hand, your wrist, perhaps your guitar neck, basically anything and everything, to see if you can get all strings sounding clean. Often only a very small adjustment is necessary.
A couple of other things: the fingertips (the distal phalanx, the last segment of your finger) should be perpendicular to the fretboard, very perpendicular. You have to cut your fingernails on the fretting hand short in order to achieve this.
Once you find the position that works, then you should start working on changes to and from that chord (not before).
Good luck!
2 Likes
Great tip. I will certainly follow your advice. Cheers
1 Like
Completely new guitar student here, and finding these chords remarkably difficult to play cleanly. As I experiment with finger and hand placement I came up with a few questions.
- Wrt wrist bend, presumably this should be minimized for comfort/health reasons. How would you describe the acceptable range of wrist bend?
- Wrt thumb/finger alignment, as your fingers move up and down the frets for various chords (say string 1-3 vs 4-6, or even minimally between the D and A chords) does the thumb remain “anchored” on the neck or does it “float” to stay in relative alignment with the fingers? Or is there some other dynamic at play?
- Is there a preferred forearm angle (wrt the floor, or maybe the neck)?
1 Like
Hello @gavagai Welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community.
Look at the photos I posted above to see if that helps.
Richard