Deadening Strings

[Moose408]

I think everyone struggles with the C chord.

A couple things to try.

– lower your thumb just a little on the neck. That will allow you to get more arch in your fingers.

– the other thing to practice is to make the C chord and then pick each string individually. If one is muted do micro adjustments with your fingers so that none are muted and the chord rings clearly. Then remove your hand and repeat. I typically do this for 5 mins each day. It took me 4 months to get a clean C chord. So be patient.

[Francis R]

Thank you.

[Loraine]

I agree the C chord was extremely hard to nail down without deadening a string when I first started. Mine was more I was deadening the D string. I had to move my finger on the A string up and deadened the low E, which luckily was not part of the C chord.

There are several different reasons why you might be muting the high E.

The first thing is to make sure you’re first placing your fingers correctly. Put your fingers in place and strum each string individually to see if they ring out clearly. If they are then the issue is when you go to strum, because you’re moving your fretting fingers from their original position. This is a common issue with many chords, so your goal would be to make sure you have the Individual strings ringing out clearly . Then keeping the hand in that same position, strum. But you have to be conscious about it at a micro level when you first start guitar. Visualize placing your fingers and strumming a clear chord. Take your hands off the neck, replace them and strum a clear chord. Do this 10x without error, and you’ll be set. you’re placing your fingers and strumming and then strum.

If your fingers are not in the right position when you do each string individually, there are a few things to try.

Make sure your fingers are as close to the fret and as curved as possible you will always get a more clear note when your fingers are by the fret. Strum each individual string again and see if they come out clearly. If not,

Then you need to focus on making sure your fingers are curved enough and that you’re placing the fingertip directly onto the string. To make your fingers curve more you pull your palm down and push the palm out a little bit towards the neck of the guitar, and this will automatically make your fingers curl more. Again from each string individually.

You may have to play around with some of these to eventually find your sweet spot so that the strings do ring out clearly. Once you are able Play the C chord clearly, make note of your hand position, finger placement, etc. Play the chord, then take your hand off the neck, then again place your fingers on the neck and strum. When you can do this 10 times in a row and strum a clear chord each time, you will be good.

Yeah the C chord is a difficult one to get all the strings to play correctly , but you’ll eventually get it.

Ss a reminder to everyone the low E can be muted because that’s not part of the C but the high E is part of the chord, so you do want that one to bring out clearly.

Keep on plunking!

[Francis R]

Thank you.

It doesn’t make me feel I am

the only one he can’t get.

[petelanger]

It will come with time. I had mutes in just about every chord, some of them I didn’t even notice until 6 months after learning them (E and A chord). Now things are fairly good with the open chords, barre chords are another animal altogether and it will probably take me close to a year to conquer them.

At first when I attempted to play a G chord I muted 3 or 4 strings most of the time. Now I can form it cleanly, still not fast but I’m working on speed. I practice the C and the A minor at the same time since so little movement is required in the transition. Practicing transitions is more useful than just the chords individually. Same with the G and the B7!

Set a timer for a minute and count how many transitions you can make between chords, don’t worry if they’re muted sometimes, fix the mute on the next transition. I have a spreadsheet with dozens of transitions and reps per minute recorded. I try to improve my speed. Lately I’ve gotten away from doing this so I thank you for your reminder through your post!

Cheers!

Peter

[Francis R]

Thanks for the encouragement.