Hey how are you doing. Justin back with you today for a look at the D minor chord.
Now I know that you all know the difference between a major chord and
a minor chord. It's very often one note. In fact it is definitely that case for
these beginner open minor chords that we are learning.
We already had a look at A minor and E minor. I hope they are going splendidly.
So today we are looking at D minor.
Now lets have a look at he chord first of all.
Now this is how I am going to teach you to play it. It's using your little finger
on the third fret of the second string.
Now the traditional fingering is using 1, 2 and 3.
Most people will find getting the third finger up near the fret very
difficult, so they end up playing it back like that and then you get up
against ...
this dead note.
In the middle of your minor chord which is just isn't a happy sound at all.
Using your little finger is good for quite a few different reasons.
One it's fairly easy to get to compared to using or having your third finger like
that far away from your second finger which most people as I said will
probably struggle with. It's also good to get a little bit of action
for the little finger so it can get used to the idea that it's going to have
to press down strings because we will need to use the little finger on the
guitar. Not loads, but we will have to use it at least a little bit.
That's the fingering that I'd recommend. If you look that's the
regular D chord, if you just look at the dots there.
We are just moving this note here on the thinnest string back one fret.
You can play D like that really with the first finger slid up. That's not how
I'd recommend that you play a D. This is however the way that legendary singer
song writer and incredible acoustic guitar player James Taylor plays his
D chord. It's not what I would recommend for you at all. There's a lot of reasons
why you wouldn't choose that. But you know it just goes to show that some
pretty amazing musicians don't always play things the right and common way.
Anyway, we are going to play D minor like this with the first finger on the first
fret of the thinnest string.
Second finger in the second fret of the third string. So make sure those two are
right nice close to the fret and the little finger is going to go down,
make sure using right on the tip of the little finger, on the third fret
of the second string.
Now like all D chords we are not playing the thickest two strings. So we start
with the open fourth string, then the third string, the second string and then
the first string.
The sound of our D minor chord.
So common problems. If the open fourth string is not ringing out clearly it's
almost certainly the tip of the second finger there that's just kind of
pressing up and muting it. So make sure that one is back away from it.
This note here with the second finger should be OK. If it's not it's potentially
the little finger pressing up too high. So make sure the little finger tip is not
touching the third string at all.
The note with the little finger should be OK unless you are struggling with the
strength element like you are finding it really difficult to press down with the
little finger which is kind of a fair comment. If it's way back
and your getting the buzzy sound that's your culprit right there.
In that case you can use the third finger if your getting the buzz sound.
You really want and try to get that little finger right up close to the fret.
Right on the finger tip if you can.
Most commonly I guess the note that people struggle with is here is the
thinnest string with little finger leaning down just a little bit too far.
It is just pushing the hand slightly forward so that the little finger comes
more on to the tip. That's the trick. Just thinking here the hand moving forward
away from the neck.
And there you go and you should have it.
For the chord a perfect exercice is really is take your hand off, first
finger, second finger, third finger or all together if you are feeling a bit more
confidently by the way and strum
make any corrections
and then give it a strum again.
Some of it with a chord like this is finding a place where it's confortable
for you to do it as well. Because you might find that like angling your fingers
a bit more or a bit less makes it more or less confortable. So the way I
imagined it for myself is I put my fingers on the spots and I try and relax
my whole arm. From my shoulders I'm trying to think pushing my shoulders
down and wibbly wobbly my elbow around while I'm still keeping the fingers in
the right spot. And if I can do that and then I gradually relax it, I think my
fingers, my hand and my arm generally find the most confortable position for me
to play that chord and I think that can be quite helpful little hint for
this chord and most other chords that you learn is to trying getting this process of
getting your fingers in the right spot.
Particularly after you've done some chord perfectly and you know all of the notes
are ringing out nice and clear. At that point, that's when you could just do this
wobbly and see if you can keep your fingers in the right place and really
make your whole arm and elbow and hand and everything as relax as you
possibly can. That's a really good step forward to playing your
D minor chord perfectly.