Hi, I come from the drumsmylife forum, and it occurred to me there was one for guitar.

I've been trying to learn guitar chords for 2 years now, and I've been on and off on learning them and mastering them.
I've memorized a bunch of chords, like G, C, D, A, Am, Em, but I'm having a few problems.

1. Fingering- My fingers always seem to touch some other string, and no matter how hard I try, I can never get it so my fingers don't accidentally rub against another string.

2. Strumming- With chords like D, it's hard for me to just strum the bottom 4 strings. How can I overcome this?

3. Switching- I can never seem to switch between them fast enough.

Are there any suggestions on how to overcome this, other than to practice really hard every day?

Hey there.

Learning to play chords is like learning any other guitar technique. It's just going to take some practice for your finger to develop the coordination. Try to make exercises up so your practicing will stay fun and interesting. For example, take three chords that you are having the most trouble with and play them over and over in a progression. It might make a cool song, who knows...

Also, another thing that I heard once... Try and form your fingers into the chord form in the air as you are going to fret the chord. Does that make sense? Don't wait till you are touching the strings to get your fingers worked out. Try to make that chord form with your hand as you are on the way to grabbing that chord.

Hope that helps a bit.








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Well, I think I can give ya some tips too.

1. Take your time - in the beginning start puttin' your fingers one by one into the chord shape slowly, then all the fingers at the same time, while you increase the speed.
2. Try forming the chord without lookin' at the fingerboard - this will make your fingers much more independent in the future.
3. Try arching your fingers as much as possible over the chord shape, that way only the tips of the fingers will touch the strings and you'll get rid of muting other strings and gettin' unwanted noises.
4. You mentioned it's hard for you to strum the D chord. Well, some guitarists strum ALL 6 strings when playing the D. They do that by muting the top E and/or A strings with a finger, the easiest way is grabbin' the guitar neck like a baseball bat and touching the E string with the thumb. That way when you accidentally hit the string it won't be heard. Maybe that kinda technique is wrong, but it works fine for many people who ain't accurate enough to strum those 4 strings.
5. And for switchin' chords - this time there's no other way, all you need is hard work. First you need to find where your mistake is - whether you change chords too slowly, which chords make switching problems, and so on. When you find the problem you take the two troublesome chords and practice slowly switching them accurately, while with time you increase the tempo and change some strumming patterns so you really get down with it.

But keep on playin' - never give up cause it's the greatest thing ever!

been trying to learn how to play for the past couple years. i've been having the same problem so this advice would definitely help. thanks!

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