Switching From G to D

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Now let's look the D major chord that's often used in conjunction with the G chord, and then we'll practice switching between the two.

Instructor Anders Mouridsen

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Questions & Answers

6 months ago should I use my thumb as an anchor finger? does it help for chord changes like these? I mean that my thumb is move too much during these changes? does it make sense?: Mike Olekshy 6 months ago

Hello - thanks for your question! It is normal for the thumb to move as you reposition your fingers onto different chords. Using the thumb as an achor would likely cause chord changes to be more difficult.
8 months ago I've seen this throughout the course so far, but isn't the D chord played with just the top four strings? Playing the A string with it would turn it into a D/A chord, no? I saw the same thing with the Am chord earlier. Here (in this pathway) we are playing Am with the low E string, but isn't the "standard" way of playing it not use the low E string?: Josh Workman 7 months ago

Hi, Yes it's technically D/A. If you just want the root "D" in the bass, you would just play the top four strings and with Am, you would leave the low E off. It's obvious that you already have some theoretical knowledge that a lot of beginning guitar students generally don't have. I believe Anders was using this voicing in order to give a beefier sounding chord voicing.