Hi I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success.
Today is day 11 of my 30 days of guitar coaching.
If you want to take your guitar playing up a notch after you've learned the
basic chords, the next one in line is the 7th
chords. And of all the 7th chords probably
the D7 is the one I used the most. I'm going to show you a couple of very
useful ways to play the D7 chord. I am going to show you
what I consider the most common version and I'm going to show you a way
to actually make it practical rather than just learn the fingering and
goes in one or not the other. But also I'm going to show you
a second version that I used a lot. You know it's a beautiful day today here in
the San Francisco bay area. I'm going to take this outside.
Let's start out with your basic D7 chord. This is probably the most used 7th
chord that at least in my repertoire. We're
going to finger it with 3 fingers and it looks like
this. The bass note is the fourth string that's a D note. So
what you're going to do is put your first finger
on the first fret of the second string, second finger on the third string second
fret and your third finger on the second fret
of the first string. It should sound like this.
So go ahead and try that again . First finger
first fret, second finger on the third string second fret and then second
fret also first string third finger.
Now you'll want to do this a few times. You see if you understand the fingering
for this chord intellectually it really does you no good. It doesn't become
useful until you actually get it kind of under
your skin and can remember it with no problem. So what
we're going to do is practice just a little bit
making the cord and this is more like a model of what you can practice on your
own. So go ahead and finger the chord
and then release. Finger in. It's okay for doing one string at a time
right now and release. Eventually you want to get to where they
all go down together but don't worry it takes time.
Release.
Now go ahead and finger it and strum
and release. Finger it and strum and release. So as you do that you'll get
better and better at your fingers getting there
right away and it'll become second nature. Of course the next step
is to actually use it with another chord and change from one to the other.
We will come back at that later. I want to show you a second version of the D7
chord. This is one I use all the time also not as much as this open form what
we'll call it but it's very practical. You don't have
to learn this right away if you're new to this one
but consider adding this to your repertoire shortly after you feel pretty
comfortable with this. It looks like this...
So one way to think about it it's like a C7
it moves up 2 frets. Let me go and tell you the fingering one note at a time.
First finger on the second string third fret. The second finger goes over to the
fourth string fourth fret and the third finger on the fifth fret of the fifth
string. Now the pinky comes down on the third
string fifth fret also. Here's the trick. The sixth string and
the first string are not actually part of the chord
so you want to deaden them out. And the way you do that is you slightly touch
the sixth string with your third finger. And with the first string, you angle down
just slightly your first finger so it deadens out the first string. It takes
practice but it really works. Give it a try. Now in the spirit of
making sure you've got this, we're going to do just a little short
exercise. I want you to play the D7 with me. Hold it for 2 beats so play
along. Here we go - 1 2 ready, hit it D7
2 and again 2 again 2.
Okay now take fingers off and do it again
1 2 ready, hit it. Play it, again
2 and then time. Take them off and put them on 1
2 3 4 here we go. Good job. Now a question I get asked
often is What if I hit that fifth string? No
problem. Really it's actually a part of the chord
it's just not your best bass note. So I usually tell people to start trying
to hit from the fourth string but don't worry if you hit the fifth
string. The sixth string is not really a part of the chord so you
want to pay a little more attention to that
but don't worry too much about it right. Now it's just not the best use of your
energy. You'll get it over time. Hey, thanks for
joining me today. I'd love to hear from you. Which form of
the D7 do you find that you want to learn first?
Is that open one you're first on your list and certainly
if you're a brand new beginner probably should be but if not are you
ready for that new version? Or do you have another version that
you'd like to use? Let me know in the comments below.
I look forward to seeing you hopefully tomorrow for my day 12
of my 30 day coaching challenge.Bye for now.