Chords

Carmen

What chords do you struggle with?
Mine is:
G and F. The G chord I have sort of found my way around: Instead of putting my fingers on the strings in descending order, I put them in ascending order, since I struggle with my third finger when I put it in descending order, so, I put my third finger down on the string first, and then the second, and then the first.
With F, I struggle with trying to hold the strings down enough so that I don't come out with a dull sound.

Bob-Dubery

Carmen wrote What chords do you struggle with?
Mine is:
G and F. The G chord I have sort of found my way around: Instead of putting my fingers on the strings in descending order, I put them in ascending order, since I struggle with my third finger when I put it in descending order, so, I put my third finger down on the string first, and then the second, and then the first.

Try using pinky on the first string. That way you can free up the index finger and use that to add a 4th to the open G chord.

With F, I struggle with trying to hold the strings down enough so that I don't come out with a dull sound.

Sounds like a problem with barre chords in general.

There is a "cheat" for that F, thumb comes over the neck and holds down the 6th string. Leave the 5th open. Use the first three fingers to hold down strings 4 to 2. You can leave the first out, or you can include it to get a major 7th. But it's better to get your barre chords right ? You'll have to deal with them sooner or later.

Riaan-Combrink

Hey, you're at a perfectly natural juncture! I had those exact same two problems.

Till this day (more than 20 years later), I still don't play a 'proper' open F chord. Not being able to play the F made me work harder at learning to play it as a barre chord. Once I could, I never bothered to get the the clean sounding open F! Reality is, once you can play it as a barre, your general playing has just improved by 50% - instantly. You can do E-shaped barres, and suddenly its a whole new world. So Bob's advice is spot on!

I also second Bob's advice on the G. It sounds much fuller that way.

Good luck!

PS: I read your other post regarding chord changes. I don't know how much theory you've learnt, but when it comes to 'chord combinations', you have to think ito I-IV-V theory. Hve you come across that yet? It makes a huge difference to learning chords (especially which chords to learn when).

Keep it up!

Carmen

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely try it.

DonovanB

Tuck Andress has a theory that you should learn to play every chord in every way physically possible in every position on the neck.

For beginners learning the chords in position one is great, but I have a student who insists he play Em for his index and middle finger. If he did, then when the song calls for him to play Em, then Am he would need to lift his whole hand off the fretboard and position it as the next chord. Whereas if he had fingered the chord with his Middle and ring fingers, Am would come in an easier Movement.

What Bob said about G highlights the many variations you can get from different fingering patterns. If you keep your index finger free it is easier to move to G7 as well.

I hope I haven't given you too much info, I like this kind of question and you've actually just given me an idea for my blog ? shot... I'm going to make a video of this tonight to see if I can explain it better.

Neps

I taught myself wrong from day 1.. So I just found shortcuts around chords that I couldn't play.. To this day I can't play Bb and B as open chords.. I've got big hands so I needed to find ways around that. But in my adventures around the fret board, I've come to realize that there are SO many variations of certain chords, and that some just work better used with other shapes.

But I'm a drummer, so this chord thing is quite a stretch for me..lol

Bob-Dubery

DonovanB wrote
What Bob said about G highlights the many variations you can get from different fingering patterns. If you keep your index finger free it is easier to move to G7 as well.

It's also easier to get to C, Am, Em....

It's worth trying different fingerings for chords. Some of them will free up another finger that can be used to add colour EG having the index finger free when playing an open G chord, or having the pinky free when playing a D.

Some fingerings will also make changing to other chords easier. The free index finger on the G chord played with fingers 3,2 & 4 will make for quicker access to several other open chords.

The optimal fingering may depend on context, what you've got to move from and what you've to to move to, or what key you are playing in.

So experiment. If you are designing drills then design different fingerings into those drills.

And don't be afraid to use that thumb on the 6th string. Sometimes that can simplify things hugely - make it quicker to get a chord down or to shift to the next chord or to free up a finger.

Carmen

You know, whatever chord I am on, I find it so easy to move from the chord I'm on to the Em chord.

WantzChas

I also struggled to get a proper sounding barre chord. Main problem is also producing a "dull" chord. What I find to help a lot is to rotate/twist the index a bit away from the fingerboard so that the fleshy part doesn’t barre the strings, but rather the boney part on the side of your finger. You will likely get a more clear sounding chord.