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C chord is kicking my butt
I can handle the G chord. Ran into a wall trying to nail the C chord. Finger stretch is holding me up. 🤷🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
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4 Replies
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Hi @rdools116gmail-com and welcome to TAC. Some common problems for people new to guitar are 1) they tend to keep their fretting hand wrist locked and 2) their thumb and palm stuck at the same location along the back of the neck – almost like a death grip (if you will) on the neck. The key is to RELAX your fretting hand wrist – allow it to move naturally (up and down and from side to side) so that the thumb and palm can move fluidly on the back of the neck. This fluidity is what creates the ability to arch your fingers over the strings and fret them without muting other strings along with changing chords quickly (once you have built the “muscle memory” of the chord shapes). Best of luck to you on your guitar journey!
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My challenge at first when learning the C chord was, I couldn’t get the curl in my fingers like I wanted because I was taught to mute the low E string with my thumb so it wouldn’t ring out if accidentally struck. Other chords I can have my thumb on the back of the neck instead of curled over the top of the neck trying to mute. You can get a much better angle with your wrist and fingers with the thumb placed on the back of the neck. I typically mute the A, C, D chords with my thumb. D is by far the hardest when trying to mute both the E and A strings with your thumb. Out of all the major chords, I bet I miss the C chord the most. Keep working at it, as it is a very important chord that has many cool variations.
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If you just need a C to be able to play a certain song, you can often sub in the Cadd9. It’s another voicing that will often work. And if your fretting the G easily then the Cadd9 is super easy for you, you just lower the index and ring fingers by one string.
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The C chord is hard for every beginner. I just looked at my practice log and I could kind of do a C chord around 3 months but couldn’t always transition to it fast enough, that was around 7 months and I didn’t get really comfortable with it until around 15-16 months.
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