Questions on playing the C Chord pre-February 2023

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. I’m on module 5 and know the fretting but can’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 don’t necessarily think you have to perfect it to move on, but it’ll steadily get better and better with practice. There’s a lot of Module 6 songs that employ the C chord while you’re picking up the G (the last big chord in Grade 1…and a fairly easy one at that), so there’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 what’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 weren’t spot on.

I agree with @Lefteris. Practice songs with the C chord. I’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 “Three Blind Mice” and “Aunt Rhody.”

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 Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ so much that if I ever hear that song again, I’ll tear my ears off!

Joking aside, it’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 “Get Lucky” on Justin’s module songs?

I found it! Thanks… I will practice it.

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And people wonder why so many people give up learning an instrument…

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

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It’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 suggestions… much appreciated

Same as what’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

C is one of the tricky ones.
I was sweating for months to play it without muted strings and buzzing!

Glad I’m not alone in my journey

@Hhbt I’m at exactly the same point as you - module 5. I can nail the C chord nearly every time in chord perfect practice, but when I come to play songs I often miss it and it sounds a bit dull.
I’ll be moving on when I have other parts of the module up to speed and the C chord sounds a bit better during song play.
Everything else has gotten better as I’ve moved along so I’m assuming C will too. :crossed_fingers:

That’s great for you! How long have you been on module 5? It’s been 5 days for me