hey it's Bob Harris here and welcome to how to play a D Chord on the guitar. This is
lesson number one in a series of three videos that show all about the C chord
and this is for beginners only. So if you've been trying to play a C Chord
and if you've been having some problems you've landed in the perfect place. So lesson
number one we're going to start building the C chord with one finger.
Lesson number two, we're gonna go two fingers, Lesson number three were gonna do the
full standard C Chord. Have you been having trouble with this Chord?
Don't feel bad because this is the hardest chord for beginners. My students have
had a lot of difficulty with this and what about to show you has really helped them!
So after you've taken lesson 3 hopefully you'll be playing the perfect
C Chord So if your ready for lesson number one- here we go!
So Ihope you have your guitar with you 'cause we're going to learn this together.
We're gonna learn the C Chord and in this first lesson what we're going to do is
we're going to just learn one of the note in the C chord- we're going to
actually play one of the root notes and called the C . That's why it's called
the root note it's kind of the home base of the chord- the main note that makes it
sound like a C - If you haven't been following along with some of my
other tutorials, I just want to point out that this is the first string
string number one
number two
this is string number three the G note
this is number 4 ..... this is the fifth string
this is the sixth string... so an easy way to remember this is the biggest string
on the bottom is the sixth string and the lightest string the
thinnest string is the first string. You would think it would be the other way
around but now it's this is 654321. and..these (metal) things right here
these bars that are inside the guitar (fretboard) are the frets . so here's fret 1,. fret 2, fret 3
and this is the nut right here and this is the open strings. So if you
So if you have a pick. or just even your finger and you play the first
string - that's open
So now what we're gonna do for the C Chord is, were gonna go to the second
string ...we're only gonna play one note we're gonna play one note, 1 fret
right here
up one fret... with our (index) finger and what we're gonna do is just
slide it close to the fret as possible. Now let me tell
you about fretting.. if you fret down here and you press pretty hard
it's gonna buzz.. but if you press right on the fret, it's gonna thud.
So what you want to do is you want to press just below the fret, or as close to it as possible
So I want you to go ahead right now put your finger there
just press.. you don't have to press real hard.. there just has to be enough
pressure to make it sound clear. Whether you want to (pluck) with your finger on your
right hand and play with your thumb
Or you just want to play it with a pick...
Just pick the second string one fret up as close to the fret as possible
One of the things about the guitar that's really important is your
hand position.. and I'm going to be talking a lot about that because that's
the key to being able to play the guitar well. Now most of the time you see guitar
players play, they're gonna rest their guitar, probably on top of the right leg.
This is not wrong per se, but if you ever watch the classical guitarist
what they do is they rest (the guitar) on their left leg. And they'll even
put their leg up and raise it and even get a foot stool
The reason they do that is.. if this fretboard (is in the tilted upwards
position
If it's in the right titled position
it makes it automatically... so that you have the arch on your hands to be
able to play chords properly.
Here's the actual C Chord., the whole thing that we're (going to be doing) but I don't want you to try to
do that now what I want to do is just play this first chord (note). Now if you look
when my finger is arched look at how bent my finger is... I don't know if you
can see (how curved my finger is) because I have to stretch my fingers to make the full C Chord
I'm not playing parallel to the fret, it would be impossible to reach over there.
This finger is bent, you see how it's kind of bent, were eventually gonna have
to be able to do this.. and the way that I'm able to do this is
by having this fretboard my guitar neck up in the air (tilted) it's not down here
down here- That would be very very difficult to play this chord. That's one of the
shortcut secrets to playing this C Chord properly...to have your guitar
neck
let me move back a little bit hold on the secret is having this neck up in
this direction (upwards) and not straight down... Now eventually you'll have no problem
playing the C chord with the neck down further... but for right now I want you to
go ahead and even rest of the guitar on your left leg rather
than your right leg . The reason for this is...that just automatically
helps you arch your fingers.... I'm gonna come back- let me move back in here..
let me explain about the arching...Let me tell you another
secret... Now we're only playing this one note okay, you don't want to play this on
the flat part of your finger, you know, right here I would describe it, you don't
want to play down here.. you can see that you want to play the note on the tip of
your finger. Now it's liable to hurt a little bit... when you're first starting
out on the guitar, your fingers get sore> But what's going to happen i..s as you
keep playing and you keep practicing, you're going to develop calluses. I don't
know if you can see this very clearly but you could see on my hands, all my
fingers have pretty big calluses here
This is from years of playing but I don't necessarily think you need
to get them this big because I'm playing probably five or six
hours a day every day.. and this is what happens.. you get very callous but what
will happen is the calluses will develop...and you start to not be
so sore on the guitar. So don't worry about the pain, you gotta kind of play
through it a little bit.. But what I want to stress now is just being able to
arch your finger...this is what we're gonna do... we're gonna rest your finger
down here
if you can put your finger right in that position
go ahead and just push it up like this... we're actually going
on two strings pressing on 2 strings together
like flat... and then what we're doing is we're gonna go right in the middle and what
you want to do and I'm gonna try to show you this right here... this is from the
other angle right here ...you can see that my finger is flat and then I'm just
pulling it up like this
ok now while you're doing that.. here's your thumb- and this is really important
We want to pull the thumb, back here... so that it arches (your fingers) You don't want your
fingers flat.. you want them arched up. Here's a better angle of where your
thumb should be...
Your thumb should be back here like this on the guitar ...shouldn't be up here..
way up here... I have a tendency to put my thumb up here- but it really needs to be back here!
and what that's going to do is if your thumbs down here
if your thumbs over here or it's here.. it makes it so your finger gets flat
You don't want your fingers flat! you want them arched..
One of the easiest (ways to keep your fingers arched) besides having the right position when holding the guitar
is to go ahead to put your thumb back here.
That's going to automatically arch your finger
With one note..... We're gonna strum or... we're gonna
play through three notes. This is the first part of the C Chord. We're gonna go up one fret.
move your thumb in the right position. We're gonna get this arched up here... we're gonna get your
finger arched and we're gonna till the guitar neck up this way... and if you
want to rest (the guitar) on your left leg that's the best way... we're gonna get as close to
the fret is possible and then what we're going to do with our right-hand is we're gonna
play (I don't know if you can see this) we're just gonna strum 3 notes.. starting
on the 3rd string and just go
strum right through... nice and light
you don't have to do it hard
or you can strum with your thumb
because my finger is arched, this (first) string
right here that I'm playing is not buzzing. and this string (third string) is not buzzing.
I'm only playing and I'm right below it.... it looks like I'm on top of it (the fret, because of the camera angle) but really if you
really look close.. let's see if I could show you... it's right below
My thumb is in the right position and holding the guitar up (neck tilted)
as much as I can because of the camera
I'm only playing these three strings.. So what we're going to do is... just real quick.
if you have your hand in that position
Let's just strum this part okay... we're going to strum it 4 times
and we're gonna count it like this... 1234 and then we're going to
play on the next 1 beat... So follow along rewind (scroll back) this video if you have to.
So let's count if off.... 1234
all we're doing with the right hand is starting on the third string and strumming right through
third string, second string and first string (without lifting up the pick).
in just one movement - just down with
those three strings
And then we're just holding this (left hand position) properly.
I'm playing the top string to show and test that you can still hear a clear not while pressing the C note, 1 fret up second string.
The C is the important note but the open notes should also be clear.
it's clear because my finger is
arched property
so let's play it together again...here we go
1234
so now as a review, we're not on the fret
see what that would sound like... we're not on the fret ,and we're not too far away
from it - cause that buzzes...
and we're also not keeping our finger flatcause if we keep our finger flat.. it's
sounds like this...
that's not the C Chord! We need to have that top note here ring out... so that's
why we need to arch our finger... we need to keep our thumb in the right place and
we also need to have this the neck or the fretboard tilted at an angle instead
of down here okay
Now.. I could still do (play) it down here like this.. were eventually gonna be
playing the guitar mostly like this
but the classical guitar players ... if you have ever watched a classical
guitar player play... they have their neck way up in the air like this.... and the
reason is because you have better mobility of your left hand so
that your hand could be able reach and play all your strings with all your fingers
and keep them arched the same time... having it up in the air (neck tilted) naturally keeps your thumb
down... you don't want your thumb up here. You may see some guitar players like I'm
playing the whole C Chord now... that they have their thumb up here
that's only from years of experience of being able to do that.
I don't even need to have my thumb (show you right here)
My strength is good right now, I can keep my thumb completely off the guitar and
still play a C Chord.
but for right now (and always) you want to use your thumb.. this is good leverage for playing
and pressing with this finger and keeping it arched... So this is lesson number one... below we're gonna
have lesson to you going to the description area or even click on this
video there's right in the Description box
gonna put it right here.. If you like this video... you like
learning in this kind of details slow... I have a great course I'm working on right
now that's going to have this video and a lot more video showing other chords
were gonna learn a D chord, F Chord G Chord, A Chord and other chords too (D minor)
but for right now you gonna want to take lesson number 2 of How to Play a
C Chord.. So if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this channel
and Google let you know when a new lesson is is completed and,,,, that's it.
go to lesson 2
have to make sure to keep my finger down in the right place
you want to make sure that all your notes are clear
especially the ones that you're not playing (the open notes)
So I hope this helps!! I'll see you in Lesson 2