Hey, Justin back with you.
Today, we're checking out how to play the C chord.
Now, it isn't the easiest chord for beginners.
It's one that I found particularly challenging,
but I'm gonna give you as many tips as I can
to help you get your C chord sorted out as quickly as possible.
So, this is what a C chord looks like.
We've got our 1st finger in the 1st fret of the 2nd string.
The 2nd finger goes down in the 2nd fret of the 4th string.
So, actually, if we put the 3rd finger down there,
we'd have an A minor chord. So, it starts kind of like that.
But now, 3rd finger is reaching around to the 3rd fret of the 5th string.
So that's already, for some of you, gonna be a pretty tricky situation
to find your fingers in.
The first couple of things to notice, 1) the angle of the fingers.
So it's not this.
If you try and play a C chord like that, it's really, really difficult,
getting the stretch between those two fingers and the 1st finger.
I can kind of do it, but definitely not left-handed.
This is a real difficult way of playing the C chord.
So, just note that by angling the hand there, you end up...
it's kind of like you're putting the fingers,
you know, it's a lot easier that way. It's not actually stretching it,
it's just changing how much curling up they're doing, okay?
Now, the challenge with the chord.
The first thing is that we don't wanna play the thickest string.
We want that note to be dead.
So, when we put the 3rd finger down,
the tip of the 3rd finger is touching the thickest string,
as well as pressing down this note.
So it's holding that note down and muting the thickest string.
Now, again, when you first try and mute that thickest string,
you're gonna find it pretty difficult. And don't worry about it
if you don't get it on the first few days that you're practicing the C chord.
As soon as you feel like you've got the rest of the notes ringing out true,
then start to worry about... just when you get the C chord down,
just move that 3rd finger over just that little bit,
to be able to mute that thickest string,
'cause it is kind of an important part of making the chord sound good.
Now, as well as that, the 3rd finger has to be on the tip enough
to let this note ring out.
'Cause if the 3rd finger lays down too much,
you'll find that it mutes the 4th string.
So, it's got a bit going on here.
I think moving it slightly higher, so that it's muting the 5th string,
that will automatically clear the way for the 4th string.
This note on the 4th string shouldn't be too much of a difficulty, really,
unless you got your finger too far back and you get it buzzy,
or you're not pressing hard enough,
you should have that one all right.
Open 3rd string.
If it's dead, it's almost certainly the underneath of the 2nd finger
laying down a bit too much like that, so just make sure you're lifting,
again, just moving the hand slightly further forward.
Only a few millimeters...
will bring it out enough.
I know it looks like I'm touching there,
but still, there's this little gap here between the 1st finger,
where the 1st finger meets the hand and the guitar neck. It's not touching.
Looks like it's kind of touching like that, I guess,
but there's ever so slight gap.
Later on you might wanna touch it, but at the beginner stage,
I would definitely recommend leaving a very small gap there.
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1st finger, again, you should be fine with that.
Make sure it doesn't creep too far forward and go a bit dead.
And it needs to be right on the tip of the 1st finger,
'cause you've got an open 3rd string, the fretted note on the 2nd string,
and an open thinner string.
You really got to be on your tippy... tippy toe, I was gonna say,
the tippy tip of your finger, otherwise you're gonna mute,
if it's too flat, you're gonna mute that thinner string.
So, as usual, we're gonna be doing the strum,
pick out the strings one at a time, including the thickest string,
which should be dead.
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Then when you've got them all happy,
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give it that strum.
Most people find the C chord pretty tricky when they first encounter it. That's okay.
You just got to persevere through that little difficult section.
One thing that I think can really help,
is putting the fingers into the right place,
and then really thinking about this relaxed arm and the relaxed shoulder.
Just trying to find a way where it feels comfortable.
The fingers will be at an angle. If they're really square,
that'll automatically put loads of tension into your wrist.
So, just having the fingers at an angle, a nice and relooxed...relaxed elbow.
'Relooxed', that's relaxed and loose together.
Just really trying to keep that, you know,
keep the feeling of it nice and comfortable,
because part of the challenge here
is to find the right way for your anatomy to fret the chord easily.
Okay? We're all slightly different,
so we're all gonna have slightly different challenges with the chord.
Some people might find the C chord real simple.
Great, awesome!
Other people will find this like the hardest thing ever.
You just got to find your way to get the fingers to sit right,
and I think the key thing is getting the fingers in the right place,
then just relaxing your arm and your hand and seeing if you can find a spot
where the C chord feels pretty comfortable.
Once you've got the C chord on its own,
the next kind of challenge becomes changing to it.
So, make sure that when you're doing your chord practice,
that you're doing the whole hand off and then finger 1, 2, 3...off.
Yeah? I mean you're checking in between, checking all of the strings,
but the actual removing of your hand
and then trying to help it find its way back again,
is gonna make it better when you start doing the chord changes,
like C to G or something like that where you, you know...
actually we don't start with C to G yet 'cause we haven't done G chord yet,
but C to D, for example,
where all of the fingers have got to move quite a lot.
It's not a super easy change,
unless you've got used to getting those fingers in position.
It's just a practice thing, right?
It is gonna feel tough at the beginning, but, you know, couple of weeks practice
this one will be feeling just as easy as all of the other ones.