Questions on playing the C Chord pre-February 2023

hi, Jasemacā€™s post caught my eye, iā€™ve not gotten to the C chord in the modules yet, but could you enlighten me please to what you mean by 1 4 5 in the key of C and so on, whats the 1 4 5 relating to? iā€™m about to start learning a bit of theory, my Boss has just given me one of Justins books to have a look at, and iā€™m going to start learning the pentatonic scale, but your comment Stitch has left me quite puzzled. :slight_smile:

@chubbyfingers Every key has 7 note and they are called intervals.
In the Key of C they are C D E F G A B and back to C. These intervals are numbered
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 every interval has a chord that goes with it. Without getting into to much
Theory these Chord in the Key of C are C Dm Em F G Am Bdim.

If you match each chord to itā€™s interval number you will see the C is 1 F is 4 and G is 5.
Making a 1 4 5 progression.

In the key of G the 1 4 5 intervals are G is 1 C is 4 and D is 5. making the G C and D chords
the 1 4 5
Every Key has 7 different notes. The note and chord change with the Key but the intervals
stay the same

Scales are the same they are made from the intervals of each key.
The Major pentatonic scale uses the intervals of 1 2 3 5 6 of the 7 intervals of the major scale.
The minor pentatonic scale uses the 1 b3 4 5 b7 of the major scale.
Donā€™t worry if you donā€™t understand any of this. You will learn all of this in the theory course
and as you work through Justinā€™s courses.

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ahhh, thanks Stitch, and no, i donā€™t understand it just yet but now i remember watching a youtube vid about this, mayā€™ve been Guitar Academy or something, left me completely baffled, and as you say, i put it down to that itā€™d make sense as i progress through.
thanks for your reply.

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HI. Been working through these courses since February. About two weeks per module. I am finding the song practice for this module particularly hard. I am sure the best advice is just keep pressing through. Took from Sunday until today to get the C Chord reliably sounding good. The changes in the songs are just very fast. Might be sticking around this module for some time.

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Welcome from another Thompson :notes:

Me too be worth it in the end though :+1:

How long did it take you to play the c chord perfect. Iā€™m on module 5 and know the fretting but canā€™t get it perfect every time. Do I need to play it perfect to move on to module 6?

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Personally I found helpful practising it in some songs.

I donā€™t necessarily think you have to perfect it to move on, but itā€™ll steadily get better and better with practice. Thereā€™s a lot of Module 6 songs that employ the C chord while youā€™re picking up the G (the last big chord in Grade 1ā€¦and a fairly easy one at that), so thereā€™s no shortage of practice ahead to hone it. :wink:

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No, and Justin says as much. If you want to get an idea whatā€™s needed to move on, watch the Nitsuj practice videos (Justin learning left handed). Even when he passed on to Grade 2, his chords and changes werenā€™t spot on.

I agree with @Lefteris. Practice songs with the C chord. Iā€™m still not great on the C chord but playing it in songs has helped.

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Thank you all for your help

It was a long time ago that I started out with the open C chord. My teacher was a folkie, so she had us banging out I-V two chord progression/songs. That means C & G chords, C is the I chord and G is the V chord. Most notably we worked through ā€œThree Blind Miceā€ and ā€œAunt Rhody.ā€

Here are more recent I-V two chorders:
Jambalaya
Achy Breaky Heart
Paperback Writer
Born In The USA

Since we are talking I-V, you can transpose using the A-E or D-A chords that you already learned with Three Little Birds. You can look for others songs as well.

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Thank you

Hiya. I had the same issue as you and found I could get C perfect but not when changing to C during a song without fumbling.

What I did was practice Daft Punkā€™s ā€˜Get Luckyā€™ so much that if I ever hear that song again, Iā€™ll tear my ears off!

Joking aside, itā€™s a song I know well, has a quick-ish tempo and I treated it like a video game boss battle. Every time I failed, I cursed under my breath and then tried again, and again, and again.

This helped me nail going from Am to C which then helped me with changes from other chords to C.

Your mileage may vary of course, but this is the method that worked for me. :slight_smile:

Thank you for your advice.
Can I find ā€œGet Luckyā€ on Justinā€™s module songs?

I found it! Thanksā€¦ I will practice it.

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And people wonder why so many people give up learning an instrumentā€¦

Even on the ear training exercises I refuse to do those simple, childrenā€™s melodies. I work out surf tunes, movies themes and rock tunes with simple riff lines.

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Itā€™s taken me 9 months to get anywhere close with the C chord and can just about get this now. Playing songs with the chord in it is the key as it forces you to do the changes.

Thanks for the support and suggestionsā€¦ much appreciated

Same as whatā€™s been suggested previously, I found I got the greatest benefit from playing songs with the c chord in them. Before you know it your fingers will unconsciously be making clean c chords