G chord

Hello mates! I'm somewhat of a beginner. Been dabbling on and (mostly) off on the acoustic guitar for the past few months. Decided to take it more seriously, so I just signed up to GT today. Just want to get your thoughts and take an informal poll on how you play the G chord. I've been playing it for months with fingers 2,1,3 which feels more natural to me. I know that fingers 3,2,4 is the proper form due to easier chord change transition. I'm fighting to do it with the latter but find it so difficult. Extra tough for me because my finger 4 is more pointy than rounded at the tip due to a childhood accident.
What is your finger placement for the G chord? I'm curious. Thanks!

Welcome aboard! I play the G Major chord 2-1-3-4, so I'm fretting the B and both E strings at the third fret... that's just the way I learned it. There's nothing wrong with leaving the high B string open. I'd stick with what feels more natural, 2-1-3 rather than trying to force using your pinky, and then let need dictate the fingering from then on. In other words, if you find yourself learning something that requires you to change the fingering so you're using your pinky, practice that and use that fingering in that context. I've done this with my acoustic... I came up with a little instrumental that due to the fingerpicking, required me to play a D Minor chord differently, (I needed to hold one note as I changed from G Major to D Minor, and to do so, required me to finger the D Minor differently). Initially, it felt really weird to play the chord differently, but with practice, it became easy and fluid. I only use that fingering in that song though; if I play the D Minor in something else, I use the normal fingering. So moral of the story, I wouldn't force something that feels really weird when there's no apparent need for it.

Hope that makes sense!

i play my G CHORD the same as slippin lizard,frettin both b &e strings.i do belief thats a g with an added 9.whats up slipin lizard,how u doin.....

Thank you Slippin Lizard for that thorough explanation. Yes, it does make sense and your last statement drives the point home. See, I thought it had to be one or the other..choose 1 and stick to it. I get it now. My options should be as fluid as the music. Again thanks.

Axe2, thanks for your input. Appreciate your comments on this.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by: axe2i play my G CHORD the same as slippin lizard,frettin both b &e strings.i do belief thats a g with an added 9.whats up slipin lizard,how u doin.....

Gadd9 adds an A note, which with an open G chord, you would add the G string (4th string) second fret.

Last night for grins I was messing with the open G as I've always played it (3 finger/string version) and the 3 finger/4 string version where the B and E strings are fretted on the 3rd fret. The difference in sound isn't glaring, but there is a difference. I thought that was interesting. Also, if you look at this shape, it's a combination of the common 3 finger open version of the G chord and the barre chord version on the 3rd fret.

I was introduced to playing the open G shape with with fingers 3-2-4 when I had to play a Gadd9 and a Gsus4 in a song. With this fingering, finger 1 is free to add either the 9 or 4 for Sus 4. It's interesting to switch between the two for add some color to the chord.

Chord transitions is another advantage - Outx40 mentioned transitioning to a G7. Transitioning to a C (a very common chord change similar in shape to a G7) also becomes much easier.

It took me a while to get used to playing the open G chord with fingers 3-2-4, but now it feels natural.

I'm not sure that one version is more "proper" than the other. As you advance in your playing, you'll have to adjust some of your fingerings. Barre chords are a good example. You don't normally fret an open E chord with fingers 3-4-5, but when you use it as a barre chord, you have to.

Playing around with these fingerings helps your pinky dexterity. You'll always have your "goto" fingerings that you'll use 99% of the time, but it's good to have the flexability to deal with other situations as they come up.

thanks for the correction,on the g add9.

No problem axe2. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back to posts I made which had incorrect information in them. All part of learning I guess...

Thanks all for your comments. I think I'll give it a go with the 3-2-4 and be patient with the time I'll need to strengthen that pinky. Cheers!