Your First Guitar Chord
This is Beginner 101 For Grownups and in this lesson, Lesson 7 I�m gonna teach you your
First Guitar Chord. Now songs are built of chords so chords are very important. This
first one is a good building block to learn but were gonna use it as a way to learn other
chords. In other words, the same techniques and tips that I give you will apply to the
next few chords that I teach you so let�s get started.
Take a look at my left hand. Now remember were gonna need to know the numbers of the
frets and the numbers of the strings. I refer to the strings by numbers in this case. To
start off, you�re gonna place your first finger on the third string second fret. Did
you catch that? Okay, third string so were starting from the first, second, third string
and then you put your finger over here on the second fret that�s 1 2, right there.
Now let�s say put your finger, that�s on the second fret. I mean just behind the
fret so the fret is right here and I�m just behind it. Too far back and then it�ll just
take too much pressure to make the string sound any more (1:13) probably buzz. And of
course if you go on top of the fret, it�s gonna mute out. It�s gonna deaden the sound
so you�re going just behind the fret.
By the way, I�m putting my finger not quite on the very tip but closed to the tip probably
just above there. The other thing to watch for is that I angled my finger up and then
back down. Stay away from trying to put your finger too straight. Its too hard to get leverage
that way. You can�t really press down hard without a lot of strenght. This way its sort
of like my fulcram between my thumb and my finger. It�s easy to put a lot of pressure
there without having to strain myself. So again, second fret third string now were going
for this second finger first string second fret, second finger first string second fret.
So this is the first string and that�s the second fret 1 2 and now we have one more finger
to put down. The third finger, they�re sore � take it about for a second leaving your
finger especially with metal string gets a little sore, there�s no way out. Try it
again. First finger second fret third string, second finger first string second fret, and
now were gonna put my third finger down, third finger on the third fret that�s this one
� 1 2 3 on the second string so its 1 2 � second string, there. Again, my fingers
are angled up and down. They�re making a nice curve.
I�m putting my thumb behind the guitar neck and I turn it over (2:58). Did you see it
there? It�s not buckled like that but more like that. Kinda hard to do backwards. Some
people put their thumb around there like that. It�s not wrong and I would never especially
try to change experienced musician and since some famous artists play this way.
But I think if you�re learning from the beginning, it�s a habit that will help you
in the future to have your thumb behind the neck. Once you played like this, it�s hard
to break the habit but if you�re just starting out, put your thumb behind the neck. It�s
easier to get pressure between the fingers and the thumb this way. And also when you
go to make more elaborate chords like bar chords, you�re gonna need your thumb back
here. It�s really hard to make a bar chord with your hand like that.
Also if you do end up playing more like jazzy chords, you really gonna need to stretch.
You can�t do it with your thumb up here. So take your fingers off and try it again.
First finger on the second fret, second finger on the second fret first string, third finger
on the second string third fret. Now here�s the (4:07) , strike those three strings and
see how they sound. I did that on purpose cause that�s often the way it sounds when
your starting out. Okay, make some adjustments and what your aiming for is this.
For the D chord, we are gonna aim for this first four strings and don�t worry too much
if you hit the fifth or sixth. It�s really not that important right now, just aim for
the four strings , top four strings. Remember the top is the highest string. Take your fingers
off, shake it down. Let�s try it again.
First finger second fret. This is how you work on fingering second fret first string,
that�s my second finger and then the third finger goes on the third fret second string,
get it? Yeah! I�d know when I played it and then it sound right. The best you can.
Don�t worry this takes time. Take your fingers off. Shake it. This is a good way to learn
a new chord. Put your fingers on one at a time. Okay. Trusting your memory where the
fingers go. If not first finger third string, second finger first string, third finger second
string, and left off the fret. I hope you remember that part of course, you can always
look at the chord diagram and take your fingers off and shake it.
So you want to get to where you put them all once at the same time but that takes practice.
And first you put one finger one at a time, play it. See how it sounds. Take your fingers
off and then do it again. Do that a little each day and look for just small improvement.
Dont expect to be straight up either. I found my improvement to be kinda like this so be
patient with yourself. Okay so your assignment for today is to just spend a little time making
the D chord. See how it sounds, take your fingers off, five minutes a day. And then
when you�re ready, come on back for Lesson Number 8. I�m gonna teach you a few more
chords and everything were doing here will make the next chords much easier. See you
soon!