C chord on acoustic challenges...

Hey all,

I am having great difficulty getting my finger positions to a place where I can achieve the C major chord. More specifically, I am struggling to place my index finger on the second string-first fret , without muting the high E string...especially when I am stretching to place my other fingers to achieve the chord.

I am only a week into my learning and have not yet built up the hardened callouses on my finger tips. Could this be one of the causes? I seem to have to press hard which flattenes my finger tip into adjacent strings?

Any advice will be welcomed!

Mark

Hi Mark and welcome. Fellow beginner myself last Jan. I find it easier to show through video rather than try and type it all out.

Hope you get some help from these and best of luck.

Mark C1

Mark C2

Hello William,

Was not expecting a personalized response....so very thankful. Your tips on elbow/shoulder movement and string guage are insightful and valuable to me at this stage of learning.

I will begin to incorporate them into my daily practice. Unfortunately, all our music vendors are closed during the Coronavirus pandemic and I will be unable to purchase new strings until they reopen.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to help me through this.

Mark

Hey William, I just wanted to say that it is amazing that you have been making videos for quite a few posts. You are a legend.

Good luck Mark.

Bain: haha, hopefully they help

Great advice from Bill, as usual.

@Bill - the link for C2 actually goes to C1.

@Mark - I strongly second Bill's advice about taking your guitar to a tech and getting a setup done. If you are like most of us beginners you probably are working with a fairly inexpensive guitar with the setup untouched since it left the factory. That means the action will be very high. What that means is that you have to press a LOT harder to get a good sound. I'm told that even more expensive acoustics usually benefit from a setup, although if you are buying a more expensive guitar there is a better chance the shop will have already done a basic setup.

I waited until I had been practicing every day for about 6 weeks before I took mine to a local shop and got it adjusted. They put lighter gauge strings on it (although not electric 9s - didn't even occur to me but it's not a bad idea), lowered the action, and I'm not sure what else, really. It cost $60 USD and it made a huge difference.

I waited because I did not want to just blame the guitar for it being difficult, and with no experience at all, who the heck was I to say it needed adjustment. Plus, like Bill says in his video response, why spend money if you aren't committed, so I waited until I was sure I was not going to just give up.

Knowing what I know now I don't think there is a reason to wait. If your guitar has not been set up by someone that knows what they are doing, it is just not going to be as good as it can be and it will be harder to play than it should be. Of course, with everything in virus lockdown you have no choice but to wait.

Keep us posted on how it's going. Remember this really will be a slow process. Even if you practice regularly, your accomplishments will be small at first and that's ok. Celebrate tiny incremental improvements because those will accumulate and gradually you will start to notice that those noises emanating from the sound hole of your instrument are beginning to sound a little bit like music! That's where I am right now about five months into it - sometimes sounding a little like music, although not really playing "real" songs.

Thanks Dave,

Fixed now

@davesguitarjourney.

Thanks for the follow up to Bills advice. I have already ordered some .009 guage strings(acoustic) and plan to apply when they arive (Amazon). As for the set up...yes, I do plan on doing that once the music store reopens. I currently have a Yamaha FG830. I am very pleased with the sound and plan to continue with this guitar.

I am already making some progress on the C chord after applying the advice from Bill. It is helping too that callouses are starting to build on my fingertips...noticed a difinitive change in my playability just over the past few days as a result.

Appreciate all the comments and direction y'all provide here.

Thanks again, Mark

Originally Posted by: richard.m.heath

Bill, great videos, very professional, in lock down in London and elbow trick is insightful. I thought you were also going to say sometimes beginners press too hard and that doesn't help as well - just got a Yamaha FS850 so perhaps the strings are quite tough. My simple C also touches the E on occassion. I am slightly concerned there is a real juxta between bending fingers vs wrist bend ie I can really bend my wrist and not bend fingers as much and how do you get the balance right at the start to ensure you don't create bad form. Also assume aim is for strings to be surpressed by the very tip of the fingers (as vertical as possible).

Hope that makes sense, Happy Easter

Thanks Richard and happy Easter to you.

The question of angles is something I am constanly struggling with. You can see a vid I just posted on Barre Chords to illustrate this nightmare. And although I don't know the FS850, the guitar I am using to practice barre chords on is one miserable piece of wood. But I love her anyways.

So I think the question of angles is really an experiment of all the jointed parts in the chain: fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulder and trying to find what works. On Friday night Mike held a free lesson on barre chords and he stressed several times the need for "deliberate practice". Slow it down and try a position, does it work? No? Shake it off, try another. Did that work? If so, shake it off, try to repeat the same etc. It was a great lesson in experimentation to find a "position".

On the finger tips, I know we are taught this, and I do my best to keep on the tips, but sometimes when I am playing fast, I frankly can't do it and keep up to tempo. So I do my best and maybe in time it will come. But what is most important for me is I am able to keep tempo and play along to a song and when I am playing it sounds like the song.

Now, I will add one more thing that Mike brought up and not to get Mike in trouble, but he said guitar players cheat :) So if is ok for Mike to say this, I think it is ok for me to cheat a bit as well.

Thanks Bill,

Solid advice as usual and like the idea of just slowing it down and trying to find what works, those angles between shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, finger tips provide a few variables to be sure. I found a Chris S. Guitar Fundamental 1 v1 (Discontinued) video which talked about finger tip pressure which was really good as well (think I was pressing too hard).

Would have loved to see the Mike O. lesson, but sounds like I missed that. Couldn't find your Barre Chord video but perhaps next time.

Thanks again for your help.

Richard

Hi Richard,

I actually took it down because I thought it was too long, but if you want to have a look at it you can find it here. And I will add that Mike's advice is paying dividends

Barre Chords

Thanks Bill, good to watch the Barre Chords piece - a little advanced for me but one day I'll get there and I think the quality of 'patience' with some of these chords will certainly be tested. I had thought about thumb pressure but not right elbow, subtle - will give it a go.

All the best

Richard

Hi, I'm having similar issues with my first finger. Would love to watch your video on the c chord but it's "private" so can't watch it. [br][br]

Any chance of reposting? [br][br]

thanks