Originally Posted by: anna.reeves

Dear Jeff,

Thank you so very much for such a comprehensive and encouraging response, I really appreciate that!

Of course, I messed up the fingers' number: I meant 2, 3, and 4. But you recommend 1, 2 and 4, and I will try that.

One more question about strumming: do I try to make a "shaking" move with the wrist? Also-do I try to strum all the strings in the chord. It's just the high E doesn't sound good when strumming the G chord. Unless my tuning is off, I will check this out.

Again, thank you so very much, you are very kind.

Glad to help. I mean, the GT forum is not the busiest place on earth but very much the most helpful.

As for the chord fingering, I grabbed GT's G Chord chart. Is it one of these? The chord I was referring to was the Gmaj Variation 1. It's somwhat the 'standard' open G. not the only one but if someone say 'Play me an open G', 90% of the time, that's what someone will play.

If you're doing the barre chord (Gmaj Variation 2), that's a different bag of tricks altogether.

With that said, if you're doing a standard open G (Gmaj Variation 1), you'd generally strum all the strings and the high E string should ring out and sound good.

Shaking...I might have to guess a little bit of what you mean with shaking. If you mean that as you hold the strummed chord, that you shake your wrist/hands, the answer is 'it depends'. I mean, in most cases, you don't shake a chord when you're strumming through a progression (example - Eagles-Lyin' Eyes). You're just strumming the pattern through the chord changes. However, that's not to say that you wouldn't 'shake' a chord or that you'd learn a song that does a 'shake'...that is a stylistic thing to add spice. So, you don't use that tool often, per se, but it is a tool in a guitar players tool box.