Hey, how you doing?
Justin here, and in this lesson, we're gonna be
checking out the 8 essential chords, that every beginner needs to know.
This is revision. We've covered all of these chord shapes
in the course thus far, but I figured it was a good idea to
go through and revise them all, make sure that we're on the same page,
that you know exactly what you should be doing, how you
should be playing it, the common mistakes, make sure you're not making them. And basically go through and make sure
the foundation of these 8 essential chords
is really, really strong. So let's start off the very first chord
we looked at on the guitar journey, was the D chord. A lot of you discovered
that it wasn't the easiest chord. Why did we start with that one?
Because it's not quite the easiest chord. So, we wanna spend a bit
longer on this chord, because it is a really important
and common chord shape.
Now the little tricks here, making sure
we use the fingertips, okay? Cos if the fingers lay down
a little flat here, the 3rd finger will be muting the
thinner string. 1st and 2nd finger can lay down a bit. It's mostly the 3rd finger that
doesn't wanna lay down. But getting used to using
right on the fingertips, and getting the fingers
placed right up next to the frets.
Again, with the D chord, the most
common problem, is having that 3rd finger way,
way back toward the 1st and 2nd. You really wanna be working to
push that right up. And with the D chord, remember we
don't wanna play the thickest 2 strings. Now, I've said lots of times, it doesn't
really matter if you accidentally hit them in these early stages, but you wanna
aspire to not play the thickest 2 strings. If you accidentally hit the 5th string,
it's not too bad. The thicker string… doesn't really sound great. So, you wanna aspire to not playing
those strings when you're strumming.
With an up strum, because of the motion,
you shouldn't be accidentally hitting them cos you shouldn't be trying to hit all
of the strings with an up strum. So it's basically that down strum,
making sure the pick makes contact, on the 4th string as it's going down. That'll come with practice but be aware,
that's what you're trying to do, when you're playing your D chord. So moving onto the 2nd chord,
the A chord.
Now, some of you may have learned it this
way, but if you're learning playing it that way, you will have to press
real hard with that 1st finger, I don't recommend it.
You wanna be sticking with this finger. I think it's really far better,
making sure the 2nd and 3rd fingers are right up close to the fret.
And the 1st finger's sneaking up the middle there, trying to get
between those fingers as best it can.
With the A chord, we don't wanna
be playing the thickest string. Doesn't matter if you hit
the thickest string by accident, it doesn't sound horrible.
It's actually a note in the chord, but best to try and avoid it.
With an upstroke, it shouldn't make a difference,
so you should train your downstroke, when you're playing your down strum,
that is, when you're playing an A chord,
to start at the 5th string. That will come with practice, just be
aware of it. When you're practicing, and when you're
playing the songs, just sometimes go, "Am I playing that string? Is that right?" Just be aware of it. Tune your ears
to kinda hear, "Oh, there's a string there that
I don't wanna hear". Just starting to develop a
bigger awareness, for all of the chords and all of
the things that you're doing. I'm trying to get things a little
more perfect. So… always in the beginner stages
of learning guitar, you need to be forgiving and
realize that it's a difficult thing. But you wanna start at this point
to try and aspire to pick your game up, to get the right notes in the
right chords all the time, to be working on getting the grooves
feeling nice, that kind of stuff.
That's the general lay of the land
at Grade 1. You can do the stuff, that's cool, now
we're trying to lift everything up a bit, Okay? So, same goes with the A chord. The A chord, the most common mistake
or most common problem, is the thinnest string not ringing out. So the 3rd finger laying down a bit
too flat and touching the thinner string. That's one of the things that you wanna
be always checking, if you're playing, ♪ You wanna… making sure that the thinner
string is ringing out there. The 3rd chord that we looked at
was the E chord. For a lot of people, the E chord
is the easiest. Well, not quite as easy as the
E minor, say, but easier than A and D. It just feels a little easier, the grip
the shape of the fingers is kind of easy. Again, trying to make sure to use
the tips of the fingers, is a good idea. There's nothing too difficult
with that one, as long as you use the fingertips.
If you let the fingers
lay down too much, or you're gripping like that with your hand, you'll find your fingers in a bad
position. So remember to keep that thumb
behind for now. Later on, of course, I've said to you a
few times, very likely the thumb will creep around the top,
but at these early stages, you wanna keep that thumb behind the
fretboard, if you can. So, E chord, I'm assuming not too many of
you are gonna have problems with that one. Okay, now we're gonna have a look
at the minors of those 3 chords.
So we had A minor, first of all,
relatively simple. Essentially the same as the E chord,
but down a string. We wanna avoid playing the thicker string,
if we can, with the A minor. We don't have to be fussy about it,
but that's the goal. The E minor, very, very easy chord. the same as E, but lifting
off the first finger. Not many of you are gonna
struggle with the E minor chord I think. And lastly, the D minor, this is a little
bit of a sticky chord.
I've found that a pretty awkward one
to jump to. You know, getting used to
using the little finger, which is not something we've used
a lot in the course so far. Some of you will be finding D minor
a little bit sticky, but things that deserve the most practice,
are the things that you find the hardest. Last 2 chords. C chord. Now with C chord, the big deal is not
getting the fingers square on. If you've got your fingers square on like
that, it will be really difficult. So make sure the fingers are
at an angle there. It will feel a load more comfortable. The trick is to keep the fingers on the
fingertips when you do that, not to just let them all lay down flat. The fingers laying down flat with the
C chord, means that most of the notes
won't ring out. It ain't gonna work. So you wanna be thinking
fingertips, of all of your fingers. Maybe the 3rd finger's slightly flatter
than the others so that you can mute the thicker string. So the tip of the 3rd finger muting the
thicker string, is a really good idea with the
C chord, if you can.
And the last chord, G chord. Now, many of you will have learnt it with
the 1st finger. There's nothing wrong with that. That's the way I learnt to play G,
and it's the way I play G for a long time, but I really think it sounds better
without the 1st finger on. It's how I play it nearly all the time. So I figured, why am I teaching it that
same way that I was taught? Actually this is what I think sounds
better, and it's a better way to do it. So, it's up to you. Definitely no harm in
putting the 1st finger on, if that's what you prefer to do.
But just… If you're gonna do the 2 finger one, making sure the 2nd finger is laying down
just a little bit to mute the 5th string. That shouldn't be hard for many
of you to get that right, to get that muted there. ♪ And then playing through and making
sure all of the notes sound good. The rest of the G chord is
relatively simple. So when it comes time for your
Chord Perfect Practice, you wanna work on the chords
that you find the hardest. If you're good with all of them,
take it out of the practice routine. If you can play all the chords, and you're getting all the notes in
all the chords fine all the time, you don't need to work on it anymore.
Okay? So, be powerful when it comes to the
practice routine. Really think about what you need to do. But if some of the chords are a bit
ropey still, spend extra time on them.
If you're really struggling with D minor,
dedicate all of the practice time to that 1 chord. If you're
kind of good with all of them, but they all need a bit of work,
spend little bit of time on each one, each practice session, and go through
and give it a quick check, and make sure that it's all working well. There's no real hard and fast rule here. Everyone's gonna have a
different battle here, so you need to figure out what chords
you need to work on, and then use the Chord Perfect Practice to
try and get them all up to the same level. If you're really struggling
with any of the chords, there'll be links in the lesson below,
to each one of the chord lessons, so maybe go and revise those lessons, just to make sure you're getting them
as right as you possibly can. See you for more very soon,
bye-bye..