c and d cord trouble

[Bill_Brown]

Hi @grizzdog55gmail-com and welcome to TAC. The answer is quite simple – you need to get more “arch” in your fretting hand fingers. However, the methods to do that are not so simple to explain. Might I suggest that you experiment – move your palm around the neck (in and out) – maybe the palm doesn’t even touch the neck – use your thumb to help grip the neck. Make sure your fingernails are trimmed so that only your finger tips are touching the strings. I’m sure other TAC members will chime in with their suggestions.

Good luck and don’t give up!

[jorgemac]

I’ve picked guitar for a long time and it took me forever to learn to “shape my fingers as Bill suggested in his reply. That simple, yet hard, at times to accomplish fingering will help you play much cleaner. As Bill suggested you may need to adjust your wrist angle and move the palm of your hand, up or down or closer to the neck. The thumb may need to be firmly repositioned also.

My finger tips are almost at a 90 degree angle to the fretboard when I am playing really clean chords tones. I do not use the fatty part of my finger but the actual tip close to my finger nail when I am chording correctly.

When playing electric guitar you can learn sloppy habits that do not transfer well to the thicker necks of acoustic guitars. The angle of the guitar neck from horizontal to more of an upward angle can also change your finger positions. Classical guitarist learned long ago that a steep neck angle helps hand and finger positions. There are some chords that I need to almost use the “classical” angle on to achieve a cleaner tone. Hope this helps you.

[Bill_Brown]

Thank you @jorgemac for giving more explicit instructions (in my mind) – much better than I could have given.

[Dave G]

Hello and thank you , it will come or i will have to get the hide cut off the finger tips, i can find the sweet spot on b first fret then work the middle finger on d second fret but it all goes south reaching for a string 3rd fret, i find A on third fret hard to find sweet spot by its self then going to second fret d i am touching open strings.

i can get G ok C and D are giving me grief , i have moved to tips on the strings by the nails and this helps, is there a stretching exercise to gain more mobility.

Thanks

Dave

[petelanger]

@grizzdog55gmail-com

I struggled with the C and D as well, in fact the D chord still can give me a bit of trouble especially when transitioning from a G to the D the fingers tend to get in the way of each other and it’s easy to not have good placement. All these kinds of things will gradually get better, it’s going to take time. In my case it was many months, I imagine a younger person who devotes many hours per day to it might cut that time down.

[jorgemac]

Bill is being modest as he can play a mean guitar and has great guitar chops. I’m sure he has paid his dues and has accumulated many, many practice hours to reach his picking level. But most of us OG’s do feel we should be better than we are and continue to enjoy the journey needed to improve out chops.

[jorgemac]

Pete I’ve only been using the 4 finger G chord fingering since I joined this site. Before I always use the folk fingering for the G chords. But it seems to be an easier chord change from G to D and back to g with the 4 finger G. The ring finger is on the B/3 position and the pinky on the E/3, so when I transfer to the D chord fingering I leave the middle finger on B/3( 0r D note) and just reposition the index and the middle finger to G/2 and E/2. This leaves the pinky available to hits the bass note F# on the D string 4th fret. for a fuller sounding D chord. So if I got back to the G chord that ring finger is still on B/3 and makes it easy to reposition the other fingers to complete the G chord position.

For C to D the ring finger is always on the root note and can move up or down from A/3(C chord root) to the D chord root on B/3 down 3 strings. that again makes the C to D an easy transistion. Those are guide finger positions for me.

[petelanger]

Yes that is true @jorgemac , if you use the 4 finger g then the ring finger can anchor both the G and D chords. But if the progression is C => G => D, I’ll often use the 3 finger G where my pinky is on the high E and the ring on the low E. Now it’s clumsy going to the D chord for me.

The point is: at first you are just learning to form chords but in short order you really need to be looking at transitioning from chord to chord and depending on where you come from, there are new challenges to overcome.

[jorgemac]

Hey Pete, first just address me as Mac, that is what family and friends call me. Whatever floats your boat is the way for you to finger strings. If it works for you it is perfect.

When finger picking or using Hybrid picking I Do finger differently than when using a pick. When making the G chord I us my thumb on the bass E 3rd fret and it hangs over the Bass E enough to lightly touch the A string so it doesn’t ring out. I picked this up from some finger picking books and From Tony as he doesn’t always use the A string in his G chords.

My ring finger is on B/3 and the pinky is on E/3. For texture on the G chord i do release the ring finger and play the B string open and sometimes the the ring finger is up on D/3 for dominant 7th or D/4 for major 7th. When Transitioning to the D chord my ring finger is my anchor finger and does not move during the chord move to D. The middle finger is moved to E/2 and the index finger goes to G/2. Most of the time The thumb has moved down 1 fret, closer to the nut, to F# and becomes the bass note for the D chord.

It’s very easy to slide the ring finger down 1 fret to B/2 and for me, to move the middle finger to D/2 and the index to G/2 or leave the G string open for a A7. I practice so much that the 1st position chords are pretty natural to my hands and fingers now. If I stop picking every day it is weird how fast the muscle memory goes away, but it does return fairly quickly.