Just working on Dm. It’s difficult for me too. I think tomorrow I will try to keep 3 and 4 fingers together to try and reach the 3 frett. If I miss 4 finger will do the job. Might help me stretch that 3 finger too
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Just wanted to say that my D minor is coming along. Been trying OMC with it and Am, and finally got into the low 40s. So, yeah, just seems to take practice! 
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Should I still be practising chord changes with Dm if I’m having consistent issues with accidentally muting the E string?
I don’t want to train my index finger to position itself poorly when swapping to Dm.
My biggest issue is that the string rings out when the index & middle fingers are placed, but as soon as the little finger goes down E gets muted. It doesn’t appear the string is being muted by the ring finger, as lifting it up it’s still muted. I must slightly shift the index finger, that’s my only theory.
I have been stumped on Dm for a while, pretty annoying to keep muting that thin string. It does appear to be the first tricky chord, so I’m trying to not get too discouraged!
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Lewis, based on your self-analysis I understand that the little finger isn’t fretting the second string properly.
There are multiple things you can try:
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Press harder with the little finger. This will be difficult, because if you’re like most people then your pinky will be pretty weak when you haven’t been using it often.
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Move the little finger closer to the fret. Again, this will be difficult because you’ll need to train your fingers to stretch.
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Alternatively, you can use you third finger (ring finger) to fret the second string. When learning new chords, this was the most comfortable option for me. The downside is that you don’t have your third finger available to fret other notes, but you shouldn’t worry about that at this stage.
See if any of this is helpful?
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Dm has 1st finger string 1 fret 1, 3rd finger string 3 fret 2, pinky string 2 fret 3. @lewislarsen is having trouble with muting the 1st string when he puts down the pinky on string 2. So, it’s likely that the pinky is inadvertently touching the 1st string.
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Just to be clear, you’re putting down the little finger (4) on the second string, like this?
As soon as you do that, the thinnest string gets muted? If that’s the case, than your little finger is probably too flat. Can you try curling it a bit more by bringing forward your wrist and forearm? Justin demonstrates this around the 3:18 mark in the video.
Please ignore my previous comment which provided a solution when you’re having issues with the second string being muted - which is not the case here (I think).
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Yes, but do remember the chord perfect practice you learned all the way back with your first chord.
Form the chord.
Strum.
Pick the notes.
Adjust if any note is not clear.
Strum.
Repeat.
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Thankful for all the information in here lol.
I’ve just reached this module on my journey and def struggling with 124 so I am using 123 for the moment until I get more use out of my pinky.
Aside from strumming this is probably the hardest part of my journey so far but I think I’ll get there eventually.
I’m going to use Richard’s instructions above practicing with 3 & 4 until I feel like I can get it consistently/smoothly with 4.
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Hey there,
Can anyone help me on grade 1, module 4, which chords should I change for The one minute change on dm chord with?
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Welcome to the forum Petar. At this stage of your guitar journey you’ll have only learnt the A D E Am and Em chords so any of those will do. The next chords to learn are C and G so that will give you a wider variety of chord changes to mix and match for the one minute changes.
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I just completed that module and I practiced all of the combinations with Dm for the first week. After that I was able to identify the ones that I was struggling with (Am-Dm and Em-Dm) so kept working on them till I got them above 30 changes/min.
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C to Dm and Am to Dm are common in my experience
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Thank you guys!
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Great question. I have been playing Dm for many years yet I struggled to change to it cleanly on a new song I’m learning. I just ignored the struggle till I read your question. For the song I’m playing it changes to a Dm from an Am and also from a C. So I just spent some time doing the one minute changes exercise for those 3 chords. Follow the course by all means but if you have a song outside of the course, and that’s cool, adapt to suit what you are working on.
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I have already learnt to play Dm using my 3rd finger on the second string & got pretty comfortable with it. Should I force myself to use the pinky instead of it?
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No. There do arise situations where the pinky version is necessary, because it frees up the ring finger to fret other strings. If such a situation comes up for you, then learn the pinky version of Dm.
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Welcome to the forum Abhishek if you are comfortable using your ring finger then keep doing it that way. Justin coarse is designed for beginners that have never played guutar so the fingers don’t have the flexibility to use the ring finger yet.
That being said it is also the best course on the Internet for both beginners and people coming back to playing.
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Anyone else find the Dm chord hard to get? I have been able to get all the other chords taught so far without too much difficulty. For some reason the Dm chord just feels awkward
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think about what is awkward - probably which finger is weird. Work on the control you have on that finger using some individual finger exercises or just moving from Dm to maybe something like Am. don’t go for speed. Go for feeling very certain of your movement. Pick a movement that exercises the finger you don’t feel comfortable with.
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Hi @scuba561 , I think most people find it a bit tricky. Personally, I have trouble getting enough separation between my middle and ring fingers. (In fact, after years of playing, I still put my ring finger down a fraction of a second before the others, to help with the stretch.)
The alternative grip, using the pinky, avoids that stretch, but using the pinky is generally tricky in itself (because we don’t use it as often, I guess).
You should try to figure out which grip works best for you and try to perfect that one.
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